Explore textile pattern design using DIY acrylic inks and textile paints that will leave your fabric with a soft hand and give you exactly the colors you want. Explore a multitude of ways to create richly textured “base” fabrics by applying acrylics inks with different types of brush-strokes, sponges, altering ink and water ratios, adding salt, mono-printing, and scrunching, as well as pleating, stitching, clamping and pole wrapping fabric with a variety of shibori techniques. Learn how to successfully print with foam, rubber and wood stamps. Master screen printing with thermofax screens, then apply pattern design principles using various types of repeats to print on your textured “base” fabrics. It’ll be a blast of inspiration, innovation, information and fun.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Judy Coates Perez
Cost: $1144 + Materials fee
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

Learn the basics of good design and explore exercises to unleash your creative process. Tap into your inner artist and apply principles to the creation of art quilts. This class promises to be very exciting and fulfilling. Each day begins with a different exercise in color and composition using a 12-inch square format. These exercises can serve as inspiration for larger pieces. We will explore composition with line and shape, addressing negative space, soft and hard edges, and the abstraction of realistic inspirations. For each daily class, we will explore a different design concept. Evening critiques of your work will also be held.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Katie Pasquini Masopust
Cost: $1144 + Materials fee
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374

A fun workshop for students who have experience with raw appliqué, free-motion sewing, thread painting and can work independently. Lorraine is a professional animal communicator and students will begin each day with a brief meditation to allow their heart energy to connect with the animal—this breathes life into the art, as a relationship develops and the animals begin to “speak.” No two projects will look the same as the illustration is created through this unique connection. Students will learn how to illustrate a charming fox, using fabric, thread and optional embellishments.
 
Location: Glastonbury, Connecticut
Instructor: Lorraine Turner
Cost: $1144 + Materials fee
Sponsor: Artists Rising Creativity Retreats
Website, email, 860-633-7374