you wanna MAKE something?

in spring 2002 i co-founded MAKE workshop with my friend diana rupp. MAKE is a craft school offering classes in how to 'make' almost anything! it will be 5 years old this year. in the beginning, the two of us taught everything ourselves, but now there are all kinds of guest teachers (including craft idols like jenny hart, denyse schmidt, prudence mapstone and teva durham) allowing for an amazingly diverse roster. diana runs the school all on her own but i still teach many of the classes. i think teaching will always be my most rewarding work because it feels so good to share a new skill with someone who wants to learn...

at first we mostly focused on sewing, knitting and crochet because those were diana's and my specialties.

at left is shibori dyeing, which is the original form of tie-dyeing from japan. and because we love all things japanese, here's a pic from my kimono sewing class.

shoemaking has been one of MAKE's all-time most popular subjects. even i took the class! right now i don't think there are any shoe classes being offered, but sign up for the mailing list and you'll always be informed of what's happening.

i teach so many different classes it's hard to keep track of them all, and the list is constantly changing, but here's a sampler (i'll link the ones currently offered to the complete description): crochet, patternmaking, sewing II: dress, sock animals, embroidery, block printing, spinning, altered states, lingerie, kool-aid yarn dyeing, applique, t-shirt workshop... most of these are on the schedule for february or march but if you want something that's not listed right now just shoot an e-mail to info@makeworkshop.com.

phylleri made the trip to nyc and taught a weekend spinning workshop which was really fun. we also took a group of MAKE-ers to her farm once for a 3-days-on-the-farm camping , spinning and fiber-dyeing adventure!

one of my favorite-ever classes that i took myself was wet felting taught by kelly mulloy. we took up all of the floor space and laid out the colored wool roving, then soaked it with soapy water and SCRUBBED til our backs ached! the floor got very clean that day. i still wear my scarf and it's extremely warm and cozy.