The Museum of Contemporary Craft has some great images from the past weekend’s workshop with Mackenzie on their flickr site.  Mackenzie and the class were kind enough to leave a fantastic bag of samples of their dyed fabric. It is amazing what colors they created using eco-friendly, sustainable and safe materials. Patrick spent the week prior collecting pots, minerals and burners; so a big thanks goes his way.

Update!  Also check out the wonderful pictures from student “well crafted’s” flickr page.

Check out the Portland Modern Quilt Guild and PNCA Continuing Education Quilt show in gallery 214 at PNCA. We had a great time at the opening and hope that you have a chance to check it out! The show comes down Thursday the 21st (right before the next PMQG meeting).

CE Instructor, Craft Writer and PMQG member Susan Beal has two new books out!  Modern Log Cabin Quilting is an excellent look at the timeless technique that Susan will also be teaching at PNCA this Summer. World of Geekcraft is a collection of 25 kooky projects just published by Chronicle Books.

Seriously, this class will be great. Patrick is are already hunting for local plants for this fabric dying workshop (among other materials).

We had a tremendous weekend with Lizzy House!  It was great to see our friend Amy Hodge and there was a great crowd, doing fantastic work.  We started out with a quick breakfast of Voodoo Donuts followed by studying how pattern design works and brainstorming. Days two and three were spent in the print lab hand printing, using lino blocks and screens. You can check out pics from the class.

Mackenzie moderates ArtClothText, a blog for craftspeople, artists, designers and curators that has contributors from Canada, USA and the UK.

Last night I stopped into the monthly meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild and  was totally surprised to be presented with the above amazing quilt! I am truly touched by the thoughtful gift (and honestly there has been a lot of showing it off today as well). For about the last year the PNQG has been having their meetings at PNCA and it has been fantastic. They have such great energy and seeing people collaborating and sharing their skills, techniques and art is always something that we in Continuing Education are always excited about. If haven’t been down to the meetings before I encourage you to come; they always are having the best time. Thanks again to the Christina, Jen, Rachel and all of the quilters for such a cool piece of art that will hang proudly in the CE office.

~Josh

After some time away from the blog to undertake the planning for Summer of Making, we are back! As in the previous two summers we have some incredible workshops from a wide variety of artists and designers. This year we are cheating and starting early with Lizzy House’s Textile Design + Printing class and will finish in July with the return of Denyse Schmidt for a new class, Walking the Line: Working with Improvisation + Structure in Patchwork.  In between we have workshops from:

• Susan Beal, who to coincide with the release of her new book, Modern Log Cabin Quilting, will be teaching a two-day class July 16-17
• New to sewing? Kim Lakin leads a three Saturday class, Sewing Fundamentals for Artists from April 16-30
• Kim teams up with Brenda Mallory for Contemporary Fiber Art, where you will learn to use fiber in sculptural forms on July 9-10
• Mackenzie Frere, teaches Plant Dyes for Fiber Arts on April 30-May 1
• our first ages 14+ class is Weaving, Yesterday, Today + Tomorrow
• not quite Summer of Making, but very cool nonetheless, Nikki McClure will be joining us in late September for a storytelling through papercut workshop.

We will be updating the blog through out the Spring and Summer with profiles, class updates and inspiration that we find.

We hope to see you at the Summer of Making!

We are hard at work on the next Summer of Making and will have some announcements soon on the schedule and participating instructors, which again will not disappoint.

Couple of quick scheduling notes about the winter term:  Knitwear Product Design + Development will be Monday’s starting January 24 and The Art Quilt will run on Saturdays starting the 22nd of January.

~Josh

Sorry for the Run-DMC reference, couldn’t be helped…

Portfolio from the spring class.

Barbara Robertson, our Knitwear Product Development + Design Instructor, is an experienced and well-rounded apparel professional. She has senior level experience in product development, technical design and merchandising in all aspects of the apparel industry from manufacturing, wholesale, retail, catalog and internet sales. Her expertise and focus is knitwear development + design and she brings passion and enthusiasm to the classroom. I caught up with Barbara recently to talk about her knitwear, trends and her class.

Tell us about yourself—you’re an expert in knitwear, how did you get there?

I’ve worked in the fashion industry throughout my entire career. In College I majored in Clothing/Textiles and Minored in Art – it’s always been my passion and love!  From there I worked with several large firms in fashion merchandising and product development – developing both wovens and knitwear.  When most companies made the move to developing and designing product from the ground up – it was my job to know everything about knitwear from yarn development through design and final product development –  and communicate that to overseas knitting factories.  The most exciting thing is to start with a design concept, select a yarn and produce a garment – and then see it sell in the marketplace.

How do you bring your professional life, your work as Senior Product developer, into the classroom?

I do my best to communicate and teach students about the real world of knitwear and fashion.  We start with the basics and go straight through the complete cycle of taking your initial designs and developing them.  Some students want to be independent designers – some want to work in the industry at large.  Most new designers know they want to design – they just don’t know how to get there or the steps involved.

Knitwear can on the surface seem narrow, but in your last class there were a wide assortment of product designs, from traditional sweaters to athletic wear. Can you talk about what constitutes knitwear and the directions in which students can take it?

Portfolio from the spring class.

Knitwear is anything that is made of  knit construction. Each designer or product developer has his or her own unique love of style and design.  Some want to design, cut and sew athletic garments, some want to design beautiful iconic sweaters or handbags.  The key is to find where your passions and ability lie and find that niche market you can excel and be passionate in. I help students identify their niche and goals and then how to move forward.

What aspects of Product Development + Design do you cover in your class?

The complete knitwear cycle from initial concept to production, completing concept and inspiration boards – and everything I do on a daily basis – from selecting yarns through the final finished garment.  I also touch on the history and art of knitwear.

Do you knit yourself?

Yes – I have been knitting and sewing since I was 10.  It’s very important that designers understand both hand and machine knitting in order to really design, develop and produce it in the fashion world.

What do you think people can be expecting to see in the world of knitwear fashion in the coming years?

More and more of it! Knitwear has grown tremendously as a category, especially in our more casual work place.  Knits have replaced the suit, are comfortable, fashionable and express our individually.  More professional designers are realizing they must design both wovens and knits to do well in the fashion industry.  It can only get bigger!

What do you enjoy about working with adult learners at PNCA?

They are passionate about their art and want to be there and learn. Learning is exciting and a huge opportunity for self-growth, expression and career enhancement.  Everyone should be a life long learner!

Thanks Barbara! You can find information on Knitwear Product Design + Development, Fiber Arts Classes and  our entire class schedule on the CE registration website.

~Josh

September is just around the corner and our fall classes are online and registration is open. We also have a .pdf our print catalog available for download.  The catalog will be arriving early next week. We have two great fiber arts classes this term.

Kim Lakin is teaching The Art Quilt, which will will introduce students to the world of the quilt as fine art. In addition to providing sewing instruction such as strip piecing, sewing curves, etc, this course will instruct students in how to think about design in fabric. Using commercial fabrics, students will construct a variety of new fabrics and incorporate them into two or more finished pieces. Emphasis will be on composition as it translates into fabric. Color, value, contrast, gradations, shape and line will be explored. Students will be using solid colors and commercial graphic prints. This class is ideal for the artist wishing to learn more about the art quilt and for the traditional quilter wishing to shift into making art quilts. All students must bring their own sewing machine to class. Beginning sewers are welcome.

Barbara Robertson is again teaching her very successful Knitwear Product Design + Development class. From design concepts and techniques to finished product, learn to create knitwear products. For those looking to enter the world of fashion or to take their independent knitting to the next level, this class covers the techniques and processes to successfully produce knitwear in a professional environment. Students will complete the class with a portfolio of their work from the techniques and practices covered.

As always we have a large assortment of classes . If you are down this way please stop into 132 and say hello to the CE staff.

~Josh

CE instructor and Summer of Making Poster impresario, Tyler Matta is presenting a show of Kitty Cat Press books in the Higgins Gallery at PNCA. Included is the premier of their Springtime Studio Book collaboration.  Springtime Studio duo Morgan Elliot and Jordan Awan of Brooklyn, NY illustrated this fantastic limited edition of 250 book (you can see Tyler printing one of the pages above).  Ce is incredibly excited to be working with Tyler again on this show and with his upcoming CE teaching schedule. In the Fall he will be leading the Art of The Book class which is a great look at different binding techniques and bookmaking ideas. It is cool that even without content you can take home 7 or 8 fantastic sketchbooks or produce your own book editions. For me, working with Kitty Cat Press the last couple of years has really opened up the possibilities of what books can be. ~Josh