Slow Stitching, August 8-14, 2022, with Carolyn Friedlander, Youngmin Lee, & Nichole Vogelsinger
Monday afternoon, August 8th through Sunday late morning, August 14th
Medomak Retreat Center, Washington, Maine
This retreat is sold out… A huge thanks to all who signed up, and heartfelt apologies to those who missed it. There is a waiting list, email me if you would like to be added.
A small group of just thirty six Makers will spend five full days in exploration of line, color, and stitch at a contemplative pace. Surrounded by the woods, on the edge of a lake, with the rustic beauty and charm of Maine as the backdrop. Small groups, individual pacing, natural inspiration-this will be a week for unwinding and exploring....
Expanded from the original pre-pandemic length of five days total, this updated retreat offers a full week to dive deeply into the subject. We have even more time to unwind, connect, and stitch…
All possible precautions regarding Covid will be taken. Proof of vaccine and whatever boosters are readily available will be required for participation. There will be no exceptions to this requirement.
Are you seeking the time and space to slow down and connect with your skills, your agency, your creative practice? In these challenging chaotic, isolated pandemic days, we crave connection and community with other Makers. Maine is a good place to retreat, step back from the daily pace, and spend some time in community with needle, thread, and cloth. This August, I invite you to join Carolyn Friedlander, Youngmin Lee, and Nichole Vogelsinger to make that time and space for yourself.
Join Carolyn, Youngmin, Nichole, Katherine, and I at the Medomak Retreat Center in Washington, ME where you can relax, unwind, and dive into your stitching practice. You will sleep in a modern yet rustic cabin, eat three meals a day with the community, and spend as much time as you like with color, needle, and thread. Each day will be spent with Carolyn, Youngmin, or Nichole, learning their techniques and tips, and practicing new skills or sharpening old ones. In addition there are two days of time for musings, wanderings, exploration, and epiphany, both of the textile and human variety. The emphasis here is on settling into your Making practice and letting the rest of it float away....
~Carolyn is returning. Many don’t remember, but she taught at the first session of Slow Stitching in 2015. Sewing through drafts is a great way to get creative ideas flowing and to discover new things. In this workshop, you'll be exploring how sewing the same shapes, multiple times in different fabrics and colors, can lead to surprising results and new ideas, using Carolyn's Long Leaf quilt pattern. There are two technical approaches to this project--Foundation Paper Piecing or Template piecing. You'll discuss and explore both of them.
~Youngmin will share with us beautiful traditions from her heritage, the Korean textile universe: Bojagi and Jogakbo. Bojagi, Korean wrapping cloths were used to wrap, cover, carry and store objects. Bojagi were used not only for daily life but also for special occasions and religious rituals. Many Bojagi in the traditional society were made for practical reasons as well, with specific utilitarian purposes. The act of making Bojagi also carries with it wishes for the well-being and happiness of its recipients. Labor of love and prayers as memory are infused into each Bojagi. During the rigid Confucian society of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), women were taught to be patient, frugal, while allowing few intellectual activities. Making Bojagi must have been one of the few creative outlets permitted to women, resulting in beautifully composed works. Jogakbo, or patchwork Bojagi, embodies the philosophy of recycling, as they are made from remnants of leftover fabric. Thoughtfully arranged shapes and colors in Bojagi often show very modern and abstract compositions as well as Korean women’s creative sensibilities. Youngmin will share techniques such as Gamchimjil, Ssamsol, Settam Sangchim for Jogakbo construction. Mosi (ramie) and Oksa (slub- textured Korean silk) will be introduced in her workshop.
~Nichole will share her personal approach to modern embroidery with us. In her workshop, you will create a layered fabric collage, sized to fit within an embroidery hoop, with pieces of your favorite fabrics. You will bring a selection of fabrics and create a project that is custom to you. No two projects will look alike! You will then learn decorative embroidery stitches which will further enhance your project. Learn how to add embellishments like beads, sequins and even Stumpwork elements to your project to further create dimension and texture. This workshop is perfect for all levels of embroiderers, beginning though advanced.
You will spend a day with each teacher, with plenty of time for inspirational wanderings. Two back-to-back, then a break. On the third day we hope to have a small field trip to the coast (depending on virus safety protocols), and a fabulous local fabric store. Or if you prefer, you can go for a swim, take a hike, do some stitching, some reading, or whatever your heart desires. The last day of instruction on Friday. Then Saturday is entirely for you to do with as you please. Check in with one of the instructors on a technique you need clarification on, take a nap, sew with new friends, the day is yours!
We will have a fabric swap, so bring any fabrics that aren’t singing to you any more. I like the idea of moving fabric through the universe free of the capitalist system. The swap nights are always tons of fun!
The primary focus for the week will be on slowing down, taking time, connecting to your practice, the community, and your inner voice. Evenings will be open for more stitching, conversing, knitting, star gazing, cricket concerts, Loon appreciation, and anything else you might like to do in Maine in July....
Carolyn Friedlander
Carolyn Friedlander is a designer working from her hometown of Lake Wales, Florida, an environment she enjoys for its warm weather, few distractions, and potent community of creative folk. In her work, she draws inspiration from features of the Florida landscape--its longleaf pines, palmettos, scrub land, sand, vibrant colors--as well as her background in architecture.
carolynfriedlander.com / @carolynfriedlander
Youngmin Lee
Youngmin Lee is a textile artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her interest in textile led her to major in Clothing and Textile in Korea. She worked as a fashion designer for 2 years in Seoul and received MFA in Fashion Design in Seoul Korea. After she moved to California with her family in 1996, she started creating textile art by hand stitching and sewing. She chose Bojagi (Korean wrapping cloth) as her creative medium and presented workshops on Korean Textile Arts including Bojagi workshops at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Oakland Museum, Richmond Art Center, Mendocino Art Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh PA, Textile Art Council of de Young Museum and numerous textile guilds and quilt shows including Festival of Quilts in Birmingham U.K. In addition to teaching in person, Youngmin created the DVD Bojagi: The Art of Wrapping Cloths in 2013 to reach people from afar. Teaching Korean traditional stitching art and sharing Korean culture take an important part in Youngmin’s life. She founded the Korean Textile Tour in 2017 to introduce Korean traditional textile art and culture. She leads the tour annually. Youngmin’s bojagi works have been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and abroad.
Nichole Vogelsinger
Nichole Vogelsinger lives in scenic Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband and two boys. She is a self-taught fiber artist and stitcher and comes from a family of creatives who she credits for her early interest in art and fabric and sewing. In 2012, she began creating her signature style embroidery hoop designs which involved cutting and layering pieces of fabric and then embellishing them with embroidery. She also began sharing her process on Instagram (@wildboho) and has inspired thousands since. She describes her work and style as a free-spirited blend of chaos and control and invites stitchers to be unafraid of bending (or breaking!) the rules. She enjoys teaching embroidery workshops throughout the United States. She is the author of Boho Embroidery: Modern Projects from Traditional Stitches and Boho Embroidery: The Pattern Collection. Her first class with Bluprint, Boho-Style: Mixed-Media Embroidery, launched in 2019. For more information, please visit her website at www.wildboho.com.
If your time in Maine opens up even more pathways to creativity, our good friend, Katherine Ferrier will offer up her workshop, Making, Being, and Being Made, Contemplative Writing for Makers, again this year. Folks who are interested can sign up for this two hour workshop on site.
Katherine Ferrier is familiar to those who have spent any time at an AGOS event, but for those new to this forum, she is a poet, dancer, maker, teacher, curator, and community organizer. Her research grows out of a deep practice of paying poetic attention to the world, and lives in the intersecting communities of movers, makers, writers and activists. A self-taught quilter, she has improvisationally designed and constructed nearly 100 quilts, drawing on her studies, both formal and independent, of movement, poetics, painting, and architecture, among other forms. She is the Director of the Medomak Fiberarts Retreat in Washington, Maine, and has recently expanded her fluency as a maker by embracing felting, weaving, and natural dyeing. She regularly teaches and performs throughout the US and abroad, and believes in patchwork as a radical practice of being patient, saying yes, and making space for everyone at the table.
Registration includes lodging in a cabin (shared, or otherwise), all meals, and all instruction for six days. The cabins are rustic and spare, but modern and comfortable. Please do note that many of the cabins are in the woods, and require an uphill walk. If mobility is an issue for you, please contact me when you register. We can accommodate most dietary restrictions within reason, just alert us to your needs in advance.
There are ten private cabins available. You can make this choice at registration. However if you do not get a private cabin, I can assure you there is plenty of room in each cabin for two or three adults.
A supply list will be sent out at least a month in advance of your arrival in Maine.
Otherwise, all you have to do is get yourself here, I'll take care of the rest. I will send out recommendations for what to wear and bring in advance. I send very detailed emails about how to get here, what to bring, how to prepare. Read them when they show up, most everything you could need will be in there…
The food at camp is fresh, simple, wholesome, and satisfying. Please notify me of food allergies, or if you are Vegetarian (specify if you do/do not eat dairy, eggs, fish, etc…) , but we suggest that unless you have a specific medical condition, you will find plenty to nourish you during your time at camp.
Medomak Retreat Center is in Washington, Maine, about 80 minutes from the Portland airport, 3 hours drive from Boston, 7 hours drive from NYC. Washington is only 30 minutes inland from Camden. The campus has 250 acres of blueberry fields and forest, with trails for hiking, tennis courts, and lakefront where canoes and kayaks are available. The cabins are clean and spare and perfectly comfortable. Medomak is going to great lengths to secure our safety as regards Covid. We will be conferring with them up till arrival about best practices to keep all safe. You will be required to be fully vaccinated and boostered as advised by the CDC before coming to camp. No exceptions. We will require written proof of your vaccination before arriving. These measures are taken to keep us all safe.
In order to give you some time to check, and double check, your schedule, and confer with partners, bosses, children, parents, and pets, to make sure this will work for you, I delay the opening of registration. This year registration will open Sunday March 6th, 3:00pm EST. I will send an email to my newsletter group when registration opens. If you want to be notified when registration is open, you should sign up for the newsletter, spots have gone quickly in the past….. You will need to pay a non-refundable deposit to register, and then arrangements can be made for how to pay your balance.
[If a pandemic lockdown forces me to cancel the retreat, all deposits will be returned, otherwise the deposit will be non-refundable.]