FIBER COLLEGE
TOUCHSTONES WORKSHOPS
HOOKED! Telling your story loop by loop
Discover the creative sweet spot where rug hooking meets storytelling. Use scraps of fabric, durable paper, and small items of personal significance to create a hooked art piece that has very special meaning.
Instructor: Elizabeth Miller
Our lives are made up of millions of moments, pieced together to create a whole. Many times we save a scrap or souvenir of a particular time as a remembrance. It may be a memento from a big life event like a wedding or graduation, or a ticket stub, a leaf, or a once-loved piece of clothing. These scraps can represent joyous moments or more difficult times, but processing them in a creative way can help us see the bigger stories in our lives
In this workshop we are going to create a primarily hooked art piece incorporating the personally significant materials that you will bring along to fold into your art. Your scraps do not have to all be in the form of fabric, although fabric will prove easiest to work with. They can be embellishments like buttons, beads, pieces of jewelry, durable paper, plastic, shells, leaves, stones, whatever the objects are that have meaning in the context of your intended design and story.
Elizabeth will provide the linen rug foundation and plenty of extra materials (wool, silk, taffeta, velvet, yarn, embellishments, etc) that you may also need for your piece,
Elizabeth will guide you through a journaling and sketching session with a series of questions that will help you focus the story behind your art piece. Through careful listening and group story sharing, your unique work will take shape,
You will create your own design, sketch it actual size on art paper and transfer it to the linen rug foundation. If you have never done this before, it’s ok. That’s part of the instruction.
From there, you will color plan and material plan your piece and learn a variety of alternative techniques beyond the basic loop. This will enable you to create the textures and impression you need to tell your visual story, and suggest different ways to use your precious scraps and materials in your art.
You may well not finish your piece during the workshop, because rug hooking is a slow, loop by loop; however, this class is designed to empower you to develop rug hooking as a form of self expression and you will continue to do that as you work on your art piece at home. Elizabeth will provide follow up support for as long as you need after the workshop is over and a list of resources for you to take into your future art making.
Class and Retreat Fee: $980.00
Materials fee: $45.00
This will cover all of the rug materials but please bring your own favorite hook, frame or hoop, small scissors, pencils, eraser, colored pencils, and sketchbook. A square quilting ruler can be helpful as well. You may also want to arrive with some ideas regarding the kind of design you’d like to do and, if desired, reference photos, poems, or other inspirational materials along with your meaningful scraps and items.
If you are bringing your own rug hooking frame and hook, please be sure they are in good working order and you are comfortable using them. Hooks and frames may be available for purchase with advance notice by contacting the instructor.
INTRODUCTION TO RUG HOOKING: BEGINNERS CLASS
This optional four-hour class on Thursday morning is for new hookers who will be taking the full rug hooking workshop, or for anyone who wishes to discover the pleasure and possibilities that rug hooking offers.
Kit (required) $25
The kit includes a 12” x 1” hoop, 3 mm Lacis hook, 6” x 6” Maine Mountains pattern on rug warp, and all wool necessary to complete the pattern.
Pricing
The price for this optional beginners workshop is US$65.00 per person, plus the materials fee, to be paid directly to the instructor.
Elizabeth Miller
https://parrishousewoolworks.com
Elizabeth Miller is a fiber artist, writer, and instructor in the Western Lakes & Mountains region of Maine. Her primary sources of inspiration are the natural environment and matters of being human, including love, motherhood, trauma, and grief. Her western Maine village homestead keeps her occupied with gardening, beekeeping, chicken keeping, and many things fiber.
Elizabeth is the founder and artisan at Parris House Wool Works (www.parrishousewoolworks.com), a rug hooking studio based in her historic home and online. The studio provides rug hooking, punch, and needle felting supplies, original rug hooking patterns and kits, and more. It is also the site of a monthly hook-in/pot luck, the 2nd Saturday of each month, and numerous ongoing workshops.
North Atlantic Fiber Arts was started in 2022 as Elizabeth’s art and creative writing hub, separate from her studio supply sales and work. It is a container for her love for Maine and Nova Scotia and the artistic themes she revisits in her work as a result of her ties to both places.
She is the author of Heritage Skills for Contemporary Life: Seasons at the Parris House, published by Down East Books in 2021. The title references her 1818 historic home in the National Historic District of Paris Hill and includes both homesteading and fiber art how-tos and projects.
Her work has appeared regularly in Making magazine and Rug Hooking Magazine. She has also appeared on the Magnolia Network show Maine Cabin Masters, episode 704, teaching Ashley to hook. Her art has been exhibited at Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village, the premier rug show in North America, in Archbold, Ohio. She is a contributing artist to the collaborative book, Mothering: Our Lives in Colour and Shadow, by Karen D. Miller, published by Rug Hooking Magazine.
Teaching is a favorite aspect of Elizabeth’s creative life. She especially enjoys introducing beginners to herr craft. She teaches in her own studio and has also taught for the Squam Art Workshops, Fiber College, Schoodic Arts for All, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, Beekman 1802, Darn Good Yarn, Portfiber, Pleasant Mountain Fiber Arts, Rufus Porter Museum, and a variety of other venues around New England.
Parris House Wool Works kits can also be found in shop and online at Kennebec Cabin Company (Maine Cabin Masters), Darn Good Yarn, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, and Fiber & Vine (Norway, Maine).
Follow Parris House Wool Works on Facebook and Instagram, follow North Atlantic Fiber Arts on Instagram.
Touchstone Retreats Schedule
THURSDAY
Settle into this magical world
8-12 Introduction to Rug Hooking, Squire Boot Class begin (We'll be in the garden with warm beverages at 7 to guide you to your class)
12-2 A la carte lunch in the campground
12-1:30 Registration and Juice Bar
2-5 Class
6-7:30 Cocktails, snacks, introductions and instructor show & tell (included for everyone)
FRIDAY and SATURDAY
Dive deep into your passion
8-9 Breakfast (included for everyone, veg & GF friendly)
9-12 Class
12-2 Garden Lunch and Open Botanical Printing Station (included for everyone, veg & GF friendly)
2-5 Class
Friday: Dinner on your own, studios will remain accessible and we'll have a campfire in the garden for your pleasure
Saturday: Dinner and live music around the campfire (included for everyone, veg & GF friendly)
SUNDAY
Re-emerge Gently
8-9 Breakfast (included for everyone, veg & GF friendly)
9-12 Class
12:30 - 3 Lunch, book signing, special shopping, pictures and goodbyes (included for everyone, veg & GF friendly)