After having many returning students for 2021’s Live Online Classes, there were a bunch of new faces for this January’s class—such as Martha Beauchamp’s “Olivia,” pictured above. Many of the names, however, were familiar, as there were several long-time Patreon supporters as new students. It was nice to assign faces to the names that I had seen pop up in the comments section of our monthly Patreon Zoom Show and Shares.
As usual, for this class we divided students into three breakout rooms. When grouping, I consider their subject matter, fabric collage experience, and/or their relationships to each other. For instance, friends will sign up together, and this time the class included my first mother and son pair. Tom and I ask each group to come up with a name for their room, usually based on their subject matter. This week the Winging It group will begin our posts for this class; next week we’ll visit the Crazy Fur Sure’s; then finish up in two weeks with the Colorful Canines. (I always enjoy hearing what names they give themselves!)
If online classes are an option for you, I am collecting expressions of interest for future classes. Let me know by dropping an email to Tom ([email protected]) with the subject heading: “Expression of Interest: Live Online Class.” Currently we don’t anticipate any other full-week live online classes until October, but we’ve learned to not plan too far in advance these days. When we’ve firmed up any dates and are getting ready to open general registration via this blog, you’ll get notified a few days ahead of time in a separate email.
Winging It
This group of five had all chosen to collage creatures that fly. Alice Magorian and Martha Beauchamp chose owls. Nancy Hayes was creating a bee and flower. And mother-son team Judy and Ray Schryver were working together on the same butterfly design, though at opposite ends of the country.
At our Meet and Greet Zoom gathering the evening before class began, I asked everyone in turn if they had a personal goal for the week. I’ll include their answers and other comments in the write-ups below.
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Martha Beauchamp—Vermont
Martha was one of the new faces and names for me, but she’s not new to the world of fabric collage. She’s had years of experience with different techniques and approaches to collaging with fabrics—and I do believe that knowledge shows in her portrait of “Olivia.”
Even before I asked the “goals” question, Martha volunteered that “stretch” was her word for the week. She took Olivia step-by-step through the stages and was ready with new questions and direction every time I circled back around to Winging It. When asked to fill out a class survey, here’s one of her comments I particularly liked in answer to how the breakout rooms worked:
OMG – mine was just perfect. My roommates provided that additional support when Susan wasn’t there and a chunk of information. I would have felt lost without the breakout room. My favorite personal moment was when, with the suggestions of my group, I was able to rearrange the area between Olivia’s ears [photos below] and go “Darn, this looks good.”
From Martha:
I just wanted to thank both of you for one of the most enjoyable weeks for me. It was challenging and uplifting, light hearted and serious, artsy and techy. It pushed some creative boundaries that I haven’t touched in years. Having come into this with a bit of trepidation (had to have a good sit down talk with my mindset gremlins beforehand), I was thrilled to unearth transferable skills and just play.
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Alice Magorian—Maryland
Alice took an in-person class with me in Portland, Maine, in October 2018, where she did another bird, a tall and stately Gray Heron, which appears here in its finished version. She also shared her experience with choosing a subject in this post. When asked about her goal for this class she answered:
I think I did achieve my goal, which was to get started on another collage and to refresh and enlarge my understanding of the process. I think I definitely learned more on the second time around!
In our pre-class coaching session, Alice said how she loves birds and had attended a local event from a raptor rescue group where she snapped the photo of a barn owl. In the screen shot below, is her photo and resulting line drawing for her pattern. She did a very good job with including the most important information of features and definitions in the wing feather areas, without going overboard with confusing details.
The only suggestions I had for any improvements before class was to clarify the edge of the wing against the back (my red line was not correct), and to be clear on which talons went with which feet. She did a little more research and was on her way.
Working with such light values in white and cream can be a challenge to create visual texture and interest, but this bird already has both. After Alice gets the first draft in place, she plans to add more details with sheer fabrics—she already has started to play with sheers, especially with glittered spots on a black tulle for the light colored wing spots, which you can see in the first overall photo above.
From Alice:
The biggest benefit [of the online format] was being able to do it at all during the pandemic, and, even if we get past the pandemic in some ways it’s way easier to fit an online workshop into a busy life: no packing and no travel time. If anything, I got more feedback from Susan with this format than I did in the in person workshop I attended. The only down side was losing the experience of total immersion.
Now that I’m aware of what my options are in terms of keeping ongoing contact with Susan and some of my fellow collagers, I think I’ll avail myself of those – for continuing motivation and support for my art!
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Nancy Hayes—Illinois
Nancy was one of the first users of the Fabric Collage Master Class. Her “Rainbow Sea Turtle” appears here. She took two of the 2020 Live Online Classes, in April 2021 and in December 2021. Nancy “got” the collage process from the start, but her skills improve even more each time I see her.
Nancy’s eventual goal is to combine two of her photos to create the scene of a bee on a flower. The immediate goal of the week was, “to learn more about sheers and creating shimmer/sparkle or iridescence in fabric”—to bring the wings to life. As we worked together during her pre-class coaching session (don’t mind the “2021” typo on the screen-shot), one of Nancy’s questions in preparing for class was, “how big?” Since the wings were her most important consideration, she had to go big (a two-foot bee was no problem for her) in order to have the space to fill those wings with lots of details. And what bee-utiful (I couldn’t resist) wings they are—perched above the wonderfully fluffy and textural bee body.
Even before adding any sheer fabrics, Nancy created the illusion of iridescence in the bee wings with her cotton prints. It’ll be interesting to see where Nancy ends up on this insect portrait, but I’m sure it’ll bee fabulous. 🙂
From Nancy:
I have really loved each of my online experiences with Susan. She is a great listener and teacher. The pre-class videos are excellent and the additional demos during class are fabulous. Annotations on my project that I can screenshot have been super helpful as has the sharing of others’ critiques. You get a chance to meet people in a casual setting and still have access to all your own supplies. I cannot wait for another opportunity to take another class. I feel I grow each time and get a great deal of value from my experiences. Thank you!
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Judy and Ray Schryver—New York and California
Judy and Ray are my first ever mother-son team. They wanted to work on the same butterfly design, created by Ray and based on his own experience getting up close and personal to an Ecuadorian Agrias. Judy lives on the East Coast and Ray lives on the West, but through the magic of the internet they were able to spend the week together, each creating their own one-of-a-kind butterflies.
When we first heard from Ray, he told us, “My mom and I have been using Susan’s books and videos for 20 years and doing collage.” Wow!—even his kids had joined in. They had worked through projects from my books, Free Style Quilts and Serendipity Quilts (see their practice spirals below). They had tried for awhile to get into one of my Empty Spools classes at Asilomar in California, and then this online opportunity came around. What a pleasure it was to work with both of them.
Ray took the photo of an Agrias butterfly during an excursion to the Ecuadorian rainforest. He was fascinated by the patterning and colors—different on either top or underside of wings, with individual variations from butterfly to butterfly. Ray had a novel way to trace the photo into a line drawing—off his flat-screen TV (see photo below). Gotta smile at the innovation, though he was glad the Sharpie marker didn’t bleed through the paper. Ray sent a copy of the enlarged design, plus a 50/50 split of fabrics they planned to work with, to Judy the week before class.
Judy Schryver
Judy’s goal was “blending,” softening the transition from one fabric to another within any given area She already had the idea, but I could see a big improvement over the course of the week. I especially liked seeing the panels on the lowest part of the lower wing (see photo above)—bits of softer colored fabrics rearranged to create very rich and lovely and seamless shapes.
Neither Judy nor Ray had the goal of re-creating the butterfly exactly. In fact, both versions are fairly loose interpretations, which in my opinion, leads to a lot more fun. Their fabrics seemed to inspire them as much as the real butterfly—double the inspiration.
From Judy:
I was so impressed with the technology of my sending a picture and Susan gets it and can critique it so fast! Your online class is so much better than any other in person classes I have taken, considering the videos and all the samples showed. I thought the meet and greet and getting a head start was fantastic. The breakout rooms were great, added sharing and learning. Thank you so much for such a wonderful experience and it was such a joy to see Ray enjoying and totally immersed in this project. Hopefully I can take one of your future classes.
Ray Schryver
At one point on Ray’s board appeared a note, “I Dream of Agrias.” Another time he had the title, “A Tale of Two Butterflies.” Now I wonder if he meant the two butterflies he and his mom were collaging, or if it’s the contrast between the actual Aegris butterfly and his interpretation. In response to our survey question, Ray replied:
My goals were met and then some. Getting to the point of understanding how to realistically represent a butterfly and yet modify it to get creative was more than I would have expected in 5 days.
Ray developed a way of working that he called “micro-collage.” The green band in the photo below left, is an example—you can click on the photo to see it larger. One morning at the start of class he admitted that he had had only 3 hours of sleep, seeing as he was up until 3:30am, fussy-cutting masses of small green shapes, then collaging them together on a separately drawn pattern, to later transfer onto the evolving butterfly collage. Looks like a worthwhile sacrifice of sleep to me—that’s one beautiful band of green.
From Ray:
Susan had such a soft way of helping you to realize what you need to change or learn, was so relaxing and refreshing. I almost wish she was a little more critical but after ruminating on a chat, I started to get the deeper meaning of what she said.
A Visit From Groot
And to finish off the post are a few photos that only those who are familiar with the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies will appreciate—Ray and I are two of them. It all started with a dog’s photo from the Colorful Canines group—a dog named Bautista who you’ll meet in a couple weeks, who has a remarkable resemblance to the wrestler/actor who played Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians movies.
Well, it led to a conversation about another Guardians character, Groot. The next morning Ray sent along these photos of Groot as he explores Ray’s workspace and fabrics. I assume there were a few in class that thought we were mental, but it was a touch of levity as we began our day. As Ray wrote, “The whole Groot experience cannot possibly be explained here but it will be treasured forever.”
So many talented people making amazing collage quilts I am inspired.
Oh my goodness! This week’s post is just fabulous! I especially enjoyed the comments of each participant as they described Susan’s teaching style in such detail. Each collage artist’s work is just beautiful–they are all doing such a fabulous job of using their fabrics to blend colors and to show texture. So much progress in one class!
I was part of this class. See me next week. Seeing these up close photos with the comments was delightful. I felt I got better acquainted with those in another room. Being able to enlarge the photos gave me a much better look at each project that I had seen in our “end of the day sharing.” Loved it!