Fiber College of Maine Touchstone Workshop: September 3-7, 2025
Make natural papers and sculptural forms inspired by the shapes and textures of mid-coast Maine.
With Karen Olson
Reconnect with your wild side! Together, we can build a beautiful partnership with nature, discovering fresh ways to weave our personal stories together with the natural world. When we open our hearts to this journey, something truly wonderful happens — we create a beautiful dance between ourselves and nature. A harmonic relationship begins to emerge.
Sensory experiences facilitate a heart-centered connection where we realize that we are intrinsically a part of the life all around us. We have chemistry together! We are family. And when we allow ourselves space and time for this relationship to grow, we quickly realize the natural world around us has its own beautiful way of feeling and experiencing life.
While harvesting and working with plants, participants often find themselves in a state characterized by a soft somatic awareness, a sense of timelessness, an active imagination, and a curious open-heartedness. This form of wild tending is restorative and supportive in a reciprocal relationship with our surroundings.
During our retreat, we will harvest sustainable plants from the edges of the landscape and from the garden for art-making. We will learn to make paper from these materials and discover how to determine whether a plant is suitable for making strong paper. Using our wet sheets and pulp, we will learn to sculpt, emboss, cast, and incorporate natural fibers to create three-dimensional works of art. Many techniques for sculpting dry papers will be explored. We will have dyes and pigments on hand to color your paper. A selection of commercially available fibers and Japanese papers will also be available to add to your creations or to digitally print if you desire.
The act of sculpting fibers, paper, and photographs into forms and textures we encounter on our walks in the forest grounds us physically and emotionally. Let's fully explore our wild hearts together on the coast of Maine this September!
Papermaking
Hand papermaking is a process that can support many other mediums or be a work of art on its own. The process is an enjoyable and restorative way to connect with nature. Papermaking can be as simple or complex as you would like to make it. Truly a medium with endless possibilities! Students can expect to learn the fundamentals of papermaking in a home setting. You will gain an understanding of the tools required and the materials necessary to make a variety of papers. Readily available materials such as locally sourced plant fibers as well as more specialized fibers will be explored. The methods you will learn are accessible and adaptable.
Paper Sculpture
When we work sculpturally, we gain a profound understanding of how perspective can transform and shift in response to the interplay of light and the angle from which we observe our creations. This powerful fact serves as a metaphor for the intricacies and ever-changing nature of life itself. By skillfully manipulating various elements and incorporating them into a multidimensional layered sculpture, we effectively convey the intricate and multifaceted layers that constitute our unique life experiences. Students will learn a variety of methods to strengthen and sculpt paper. Ancient oriental practices will be discussed and demonstrated as well as innovative techniques with natural materials. A variety of alternatives for armature will be shown. You will use your own handmade papers made at the workshop as well as other mixed papers and fibers available for your use to create your own artwork. Please feel free to bring your own prints, elements, or artworks you would like to incorporate in your sculpture.
Class and Retreat fee: $990
Materials fee: $125
All materials and tools for papermaking will be supplied. If there are specific foraged, purchased, or found materials that you have on hand and would like to try please feel free to bring them along. If you happen to have a mould and deckle, please bring it with you if you can.
For printing on fine art paper, please feel free to bring any type of paper and any images you would like to try. If you would like to print your own photography or artwork, please bring your computer and digital files. Materials to create your own artworks to incorporate into your sculptures will be available but, of course, you can bring whatever you would like to use. Awagami paper formulated for digital printing is recommended. We will have some available at class for you to try.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1212689-REG/awagami_factory_9250914_murakumo_kozo_select_inkjet.html
Please email Karen with any questions: karen@karenolsonphotography.com
Other materials to bring if you can: Small and medium brushes for glue, ink, acrylic, or watercolor and brushes to paint with.
https://www.karenolsonphotography.com/
When trees converse, the air is charged with chemical substances, fragrances, hormones, and electrical connections. Placing myself in the middle of the conversation I am illuminated by it. Keenly interested in this human-nature connection and how it supports and fosters mental health and interpersonal communication has become the subject of my latest projects.
My work is conceptual and lens-based, exploring subjects such as grief, trauma, forest bathing, and the psychology of creative process. The act of constructing, deconstructing, and constructing further with both physical materials and digital files imitates the natural cycles of growth and decay. Elements are digitally captured, blended, and intertwined. Fibers, papers, and photographs are formed and sculpted, adding weight and texture. Creatively, I seek an open dialog with the materials and the subject, encouraging collaboration and interchange.
I create intimate landscapes that are ethereal and immersive. They offer the viewer respite and recovery a safe place to explore feelings and emotions.
Touchstone Retreat Schedule
WEDNESDAY
Settle into this magical world
3:00-4:30 Free Bonus class: Japanese Wrapped Rocks...come early and stroll the beach for your perfect stone.
4-5 Register, pick up our tote bag presents to you, share a cider, catch up with friends old and new. Settle in for your relaxing retreat. Wander our 40 acre campus of trails, gardens and cobblestone beach. A food truck will be available for those looking for an on-site meal.
5:30-7:30 Join us for cocktails/mocktails and snacks. We'll visit each studio for show & tell by our teachers followed by a campfire in the garden. Retreat Attendees and friends are welcome.
THURSDAY, FRIDAY and SATURDAY
Dive deep into your passion
8-9 Breakfast (veg & GF friendly)
9-12 Class
12-2 Garden Lunch (veg & GF friendly)
12-2 Chair Massages available. Sign-up for your time slot and pay masseuse directly.
2-5 Class
5-7 Chair Massages available. Sign-up for your time slot and pay masseuse directly
Thursday: 5:30 Drinks and Dinner (veg & GF friendly) Followed by a free bonus workshop: make your own massage oil and self-massaging techniques for hands, wrists and neck
Friday: Dinner on your own, studios will remain accessible and we'll have a campfire in the garden for your pleasure
Saturday: 5:30 Drinks and Dinner (veg & GF friendly)
6:30ish-8:00ish Open Studios...see what everyone's been creating. This will be an opportunity to buy teachers' work and supplies. If the weather is cooperative, we'll light a bonfire on the beach
SUNDAY
Re-emerge Gently
8-9 Breakfast (veg & GF friendly)
9-12 Class
12-2 Chair Massages available. Sign-up for your time slot and pay masseuse directly.
12:30 - 3 Lunch, last chance to shop, pictures and goodbyes (veg & GF friendly)
For those who would like to extend their retreat, we'd be happy to provide a personalized itinerary of our beautiful mid-coast region