Leaping Lemurs! It’s another Live Online Class under my belt! A big thank you to my twelve students for a fabulous week of fabric collage creativity. As per usual, the class was divided into three Zoom breakout rooms during working hours. The students get to name their rooms, usually based on the subjects they have chosen. For this class we had the Leaping Lemurs; Furbies; and Dogs, Dogs, Goose. This week, I’ll be showing off the work of the Leaping Lemurs (Rain Klepper’s lemur above). I’ll feature the other groups over the next couple of weeks.
This was my fourth 5-Day Live Online Class of 2021 and there were a lot of familiar faces. In fact, six of the twelve students had taken at least one previous Live Online Class! I suppose that means Tom and I are doing something right in this brave new World of Zoom. But Tom and I can teach, guide, and cheer as much as we want, and it still comes down to each and every one of these students that work their little collage fingers to the bone with the time and effort they put into these tightly-packed days. They may be exhausted by the end of the week, but their work speaks wonders.
Based on the feedback we received, one of everyone’s favorite parts of each day was the end-of-day show and share, where the students get to see a slide-show progress of their fellow attendees. The oohs and aahs are so fun to hear and are much appreciated. As you peruse the quilts included in this week’s first installment I encourage you to “ooh” or “aah” over them as well—be sure to leave any comments in the section below.
Keep in mind that you can click on any of the photos to see them larger.
If it isn’t clear how a Live Online Class works, please visit the link to my March 2021 Fabric Collage Live Online Class. That post explains the process in detail. You may also like to check out April’s class post and May’s (three part) Online Class posts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Leaping Lemurs
When creating this breakout room based on subject, I included three of the six dog collage subjects and one lemur. I’ve found it helpful to group similar subjects together in the breakout rooms, so that as I give feedback for one student’s animal, the others can listen in and perhaps glean some helpful tips. Rain Klepper’s lemur was the odd-one-out, but we’re still talking furry faces and bodies. And naming the group after Rain’s lemur? I never thought to ask when I had the chance, but they all sure “leapt” into their projects. 😉
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Kelly Stafford—Kelly is a returning Live Online Class student (see her work in this March 2021 Live Online Class post) and this post on Zoom Annotation featuring Kelly’s Roscoe pup. I first met Kelly last year through individual coaching on her horse portrait which appeared in this finish line.
Dog noses often seem to be an issue and I have a live demo that I give on Day Two of class. Kelly already has a couple experiences with animal noses so she arrived on Day One with Tilly’s nose all done—and a very lovely nose it is. It turned out that my biggest help to Kelly this week was to keep her on track with the brighter yellow colored fabrics she wanted to use, despite her general dislike of the color. As it happens it’s one of my favorite colors, so I urged her keep the yellows in place for her “golden” girl.
Kelly’s past experience meant that often during consultations, my annotations (above) amounted to pointing out the finer points of the collage (i.e. nitpicking), but she was also able to pinpoint areas that were troubling her, so we could make good use of our class time.
From Kelly:
I did enjoy [the breakout rooms]. It’s great to listen in on others being coached. Another opportunity to learn more and see a variety of projects. My fellow breakout members had also done previous projects which allowed us to receive a similar level of coaching.
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Mary McKay—Mary is a multiple-repeat Live Online Class student, as well as a past in-person student from 2019. Mary’s work can be seen in these posts: Live Online Classes #1 in March and #2 in April, in this Finish Line post, and in this post as a coaching example.
Mary made tremendous progress over the five days of this class, going from a drawn line foundation to a finished first draft of her grandson’s dog, Strider. It was totally rewarding to see his furry face come together by mid-week from all the disparate cuts of fabric (what I call the messy-scary stage) to a cohesive likeness. Once she recovers and finishes gluing Strider in place, Mary will be adding her grandson Jason, into this double portrait.
From Mary:
This was my third online class with Susan and I found it just as motivating as the first. I appreciate she has added a video component to it. I can watch the video at my convenience and watch it multiple times. It frees up valuable on screen time so she can devote more time to individual instruction.
One of the features of the Live Online Class that helps make it successful is a pre-class one-on-one Zoom coaching session with each student. The screen shot below shows Mary’s subject photo marked up by me to help her in creating a pattern. I’ve identified the important shapes, such as the nose, and broken down the colors and values in this very tousle-haired face. The goal for the coaching sessions is to ensure that everyone is ready to start collaging —a.k.a. playing with fabric—on Day One of class.
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Nancy Greenaway—Also a returning Live Online Class participant, you can see Nancy’s fancy unicorn in the March 2021 Live Online Class. Also returning is her buddy, Cosmo the conure. Cosmo made his opinion known by pulling pins from Nancy’s collage, and even flying off with the dislodged fabric!
This time around Nancy lost a little class time at the beginning of the week, but caught up quickly once she was back. It demonstrated another benefit of working from home—allowing students to take care of small crises that arise, then catching up as they can (possibly with the help of their pets). By the end of Day Five, Nancy had hit her stride with a nearly finished first draft of her sleepy-eyed dog, Kingsley.
From Nancy:
Susan’s classes make me feel like an artist (and my daughter thinks I have amazing talent!), but really it’s Susan’s method and guidance that bring that out. I think anyone could be successful at this if they took Susan’s class and really listened to her ideas.
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Rain Klepper—The only non-returning student in her breakout room, Rain made terrific progress. She’s been following my work for years and apparently scoured my book “Serendipity Quilts,” from beginning to end during a time of convalescence (I was happy to hear that it helped!). She’s done some collage work on her own and is also is a Patreon supporter which gives her and other members access to monthly live Zoom meetings where I give feedback and guidance.
Rain was obviously ready and rearing for her lemur challenge with great fabric colors and prints to work with. She’s also a very quick worker, leaping creatively from task to task, and completing a first draft of this roughly 3 by 4 foot fanciful collage.
From Rain:
Susan is an excellent and generous instructor, making all aspects of the collage process accessible regardless of where the student is on their art journey. The critiques are insightful and precise, with Susan making use of drawing technology to interact directly with my images of my piece by annotation. It was terrific to have these drawings as I continued to work. Every step of the way I have felt supported and inspired, in an elegantly simple and straightforward way. I feel seen at a level that is rare in a class, and I am grateful for the brilliance and kindness given throughout the class.
Loved being in class with these ladies, Susan and Tom, and to watch their projects evolve in unimaginable ways!
How lovely to see the evolution of my own, and others’ work! This was such a joyous class, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity.