workshops Archives - Doris' Website

Encaustic Painting Workshop with Ann Shier

I spent a very happy weekend learning more encaustic painting techniques with artist Ann Shier. This was a two-day comprehensive encaustic painting workshop. I had taken an introductory encaustic painting workshop with Vashty Hawkins: Introduction to Encaustic Painting Image Transfer Workshop. This small taste, left me wanting to try more.

Ann has a great studio space in the Historic Distillery District in Toronto called the Second Door Studio. Ann shares this space which is also a gallery and retail shop with artist Joya Paul. The studio is filled with beautiful pieces of encaustic and mixed media art.

There were three students attending the workshop the first day and we each had our own space set up with all the necessary equipment and supplies.

We began the day with an overview of the different types of wax, how to mix colours, how to apply the wax medium and how to fuse the layers. We practiced on watercolour paper first. Ann is holding her paper where she demonstrated some of the techniques that can be used in encaustic painting.

Techniques: stencils, embellishments, incising and pastels

I’ve covered the wooden board with a few layers of encaustic medium I had mixed and am deciding what embellishments to use.

The stencil I chose is covered with a clear layer of wax medium.

This shows more stencils added to the right side of the painting before removal.

The finished piece!

Techniques: photo encaustic, wax medium, and pastels

Above, is my photograph of flowers with the colour enhanced and printed on heavier weight paper. This was glued on to a wooden board with archival rice paste and left to dry.

Wax medium is applied in layers to add texture. Pan pastels are added to create depth.

The flower painting is completed!

Ann demonstrating how to scrape wax off a stencil. This is Michelle’s beautiful daisy painting. She incorporated photo image transfer, encaustic medium, stencils and pan pastels. This was her first ever attempt at encaustic painting! Michelle’s second painting began with her photograph of the tree.

Ann is offering workshops in her studio, visit her website for dates and times. While you are there have a look at more of her gorgeous artwork.

To see more encaustic artwork, visit Wax and Wane : Exploring Encaustic and Cold Wax Paintings at the Twist Gallery, 1100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Eleven local artist are exhibiting their work from Jan. 3-27, 2018.

I hope you are able to spend some time this year exploring some new techniques. Have fun and play!

Silk Scarf Dyeing: an Artisanal Workshop

Fibre art / By dorisL

I am very happy to be teaching two afternoon workshops at Amy’s Place Handmade at 155 Main Street, Toronto, Ontario. Working in a sunny, bright studio, we will be dyeing a one-of-a-kind beautiful silk scarf. The dates are Sunday May 28, 2017 and Sunday June 11, 2017 from 12-3.

The Process

Step 1: Folding, twisting and preparing scarf.

Step 2: Applying dye

Step 3: Rinsing and washing scarf

Step 4: Admiring scarf!

Below are a few scarves I have dyed using very simple techniques that create beautiful textures and designs.

I hope that you will join me at Amy’s Place Handmade. Take a few hours for yourself to learn a new technique, make some new friends, have some fun and go home wearing your own original silk scarf.

See you there!

Quilts at the Creek 2015

Quilts at the Creek / By dorisL

I just received the labels I will be attaching to the quilts I am entering into the Quilts at the Creek outdoor show this summer. It’s a great venue to see a variety of quilts from traditional to modern and from all across southern Ontario.

Quilts@C 2015 labels — **Quilts at the Creek labels**

Hundreds of quilts will be on display in the beautiful pastoral setting of Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. It’s a great sight to see the quilts hanging in the sunshine and blowing in the breeze. Each day of the show, volunteers set up all the quilts, mostly outside with a few in some of the buildings. These dedicated volunteers also take down all the quilts at the end of the day and have been known to very quickly take them down when rain threatens!

**Quilts at the Creek at Black Creek Pioneer Village**

This year Quilts at the Creek will be held from Saturday July 18th to Sunday July 19th, 2015. Check the Black Creek Pioneer Village website for times, parking information and maps.

qc_bestheader — **Quilts at the Creek Blog**

Valerie Prideaux the lead organizer of this great event, along with the York Heritage Quilters Guild have a lot of information on the Quilts at the Creek blog. Find out how to enter your quilt, who will be presenting trunk shows, the vendors at the Merchant’s mall and so much more.

Amy Garro of 13 Spools is teaching 2 workshops: Graffitti Quilting on the Friday and Paper Piecing on the Saturday. I am looking forward to learning Amy’s style of free-motion quilting.

Hope to see you out at Black Creek Pioneer Village July 18th and 19th, enjoying the quilts in the beautiful outdoors.

Dyeing with Kim Eichler-Messmer at QuiltCon

Workshops / By dorisL

These are some of the delicious fabrics I brought home from Austin, Texas this February.

I took two fabric dyeing workshops at QuiltCon with Kim Eichler-Messmer. She is an excellent teacher: knowledgable, approachable and super talented.

**Kim Eichler-Messmer teaching workshop at QuiltCon**

Kim has written a book called Modern Color: An Illustrated Guide to Dyeing Fabric for Modern Quilts. I highly recommend this book for all of you who are interested in dyeing your own cloth. She outlines safety, setting up a dye studio at home, gives comprehensive instructions to create gorgeous fabric from just six basic colours and then shows you how to use the colourful fabric you’ve just created.

Modern Color by Kim Eichler-Messmer book cover — ***Modern Color: an Illustrated guide to dyeing fabric for modern quilts by Kim Eichler-Messmer***

The first day was an introduction to dyeing and it was comprehensive. Below are some of the fabrics the class produced.

The second workshop we learned to create Shibori style hand dyed fabrics. These required folding, clamping between two pieces of plastic and adding the dye in small amounts. The parts of the fabric that were tightly in between the plastic resisted the dye and left the fabric in its original colour. There are an infinite combination of designs that can made with this technique.