Slow Stitching, July 31st- August 6th, 2023, SOLD OUT
with Youngmin Lee, Sujata Shah & Kim Eichler-Messmer
Monday afternoon, July 31st through Sunday late morning, August 6th
Medomak Retreat Center, Washington, Maine
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....
Tiered pricing again this year:
Solo cabin for $2100
One roommate for $1900
Two roommates for $1700
We successfully gathered the last two years, with care and consideration. We intend to do the same this year.
I continue to take Covid seriously. All possible precautions will be observed. Proof of vaccine and whatever boosters are readily available will be required for participation. There will be no exceptions to this requirement. Testing will be required upon arrival.
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, cloth, and dyepot. This August, I invite you to join Youngmin Lee, Kim Eichler-Messmer, and Sujata Shah to make that time and space for yourself.
Join Youngmin, Kim, Sujata, 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, thread, and dyepot. Each day will be spent with Youngmin, Kim, or Sujata, 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....
~Kim is returning! She returns to share a new spin on the natural dye pot. Natural Dye 2.0 : Multiple Colors from One Dye Pot. This summer we will expand your natural dye repertoire with mordant painting to create multi-colored fabrics from one dye pot. Kim will cover the basics of mixing, thickening, and blending mordants. You will flex your creative muscles by painting the mordants directly onto your fabric and then watch as your designs are transformed into stunning, one of a kind textiles in the dye pot. We will take these designs one step further and add special natural dye + mordant paint to further expand our color palettes.
~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.
~Sujata will share one of her improvisational techniques with you. Explore the magical combination of color and line with freeform blocks. Bold color choices mixed with wide range of tonal value and contrast can make a quilt sing. Developing exciting color schemes doesn’t have to be limited to the color wheel. Discover how to develop an eye for color and textures. You will engage in simple exercises to observe and study the surroundings and find new color palettes to use for this or future projects. You are encouraged to take pictures of interesting textures and color combinations. Just look around your surroundings. These can be found on walks, old architectures, fruit and vegetable bowls on the kitchen counters, a visit to the city or a country side, old barn, etc.
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 will make a small field trip to the coast 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 is 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....
Kim Eichler-Messmer
Kim Eichler-Messmer is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator. Her work is grounded primarily in textiles through which she explores nature and built environments using pattern, color, structure, line, and rhythm. Currently an Associate Professor of Fiber at the Kansas City Art Institute, Eichler-Messmer earned an MFA in textiles from the University of Kansas and a BFA in studio art from Iowa State University. Her work has been exhibited across the US and abroad including shows at the Iowa Quilt Museum (Winterset, IA), QuiltCon, Penland Gallery (Penland, NC), India Quilt Festival (Chennai, India), and Tokushima Cultural Center (Tokushima, Japan). She was an artist in residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Prairieside Cottage + Outpost. She is the author of Modern Color: An Illustrated Guide to Dyeing Fabric for Modern Quilts and has taught numerous workshops on surface design, natural dye, and quilting across the US.
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.
Sujata Shah
Born and raised in India, Sujata Shah brings a unique vision to the world of quilting. An award-winning quilter and designer, Sujata is the author of Cultural Fusion Quilts from C&T publishing.
She has been featured on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson, and has led several tours to India. As an international instructor, her experience includes presenting and teaching at quilt shows and festivals, quilts museums, retreats, and cruises. In 2020 she started teaching online workshops and continues to teach in-person and online workshops. Her work has been exhibited at various museums including Iowa Quilt Museum and New England Museum of Quilts and Textiles.
Drawn to imperfections and irregularities of handmade crafts, Sujata believes each quilt has personality of the maker. Using imperfections as design element has led her to abstract interpretations of traditional quilt blocks. She finds hand stitching therapeutic and nourishing to the soul, ultimately helping her write personal stories in stitches.
If your time in Maine opens up even more pathways to creativity, our good friend, and my right hand at the retreats, 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.
If making is a practice of paying attention, what can we learn about ourselves, and the world, by tuning in to the layers of meaning and metaphor embedded in every thread of our lives as makers? How is making its own kind of making sense? How does what we make in turn make us? This workshop is one part making, one part meditation, and one part contemplative/ creative writing. We’ll begin with some quiet, meditative handwork, (sewing, stitching, spinning knitting, drawing, etc) each tending to our own work. From this place of deep listening and connection, we’ll work with a variety of writing prompts that will act as invitations into memory, metaphor, and meaning. Absolutely no formal writing experience is required. Please bring some handwork and a journal. It’s best to bring something you can work on without concentrating too much, so that your hands can be steadily working, leaving your thoughts to drift into the rich realms of memory and meaning.
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. We will also test upon arrival. These measures are taken to keep us all safe, and allow us to relax into our Making practice.
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 12th at 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.
[Deposits are non refundable, but registrations are transferable. All efforts will be taken to accommodate Covid changes, but the virus moves in mysterious ways, and is good at outmaneuvering me. I ask for your patience and forbearance in dealing with these changes.]