Road to
California Quilters Conference and Showcase
January 24-27,
2013
One-day workshop: Free-Form Fabric Collage
Three-day workshop:
Beasts in the Jungle
Ontario Convention Center, Ontario,
CA
www.road2ca.com
Folsom Quilt and Fiber
Guild, Folsom, CA
March 12, 2013, lecture
March 13, 2013, one-day workshop: 3D
Adventures in the Garden
www.folsomquilt.org
Valley of the Dolls doll
group, San Fernando, CA
April 6-7, 2013
Two-day workshop: Beasts
in the Jungle
Pine Tree Quilt Guild, Grass Valley, CA
May 7, 2013,
lecture
May 8, 2013, one-day workshop: 3D Adventures in the Garden
www.pinetreequiltguild.com
Santa Clara Valley Quilt
Association, Santa Clara, CA
May 20, 2013, lecture
May 21, 2013, one-day
workshop: 3D Adventures in the Garden
www.scvqa.org
Quilt Gallery, Kalispell,
MT
August 7-11, 2013
Five-day workshop: Beasts in the
Jungle
www.quiltgallery.net
Quilting in the Garden 2013, Livermore,
CA
September 26-29
Exhibit and teaching
Class TBA
www.aldenlane.com/quilt/stitch.html
Annie's Star Quilt Guild,
Chico, CA
October 3, 2013, lecture
October 4, 2013, one-day
workshop: 3D Adventures in the Garden
www.anniestarquilt.org
Quilt Guild of Greater
Houston, Houston, TX
March 18, 2014, lecture
March 19, 2014, one-day workshop: 3D
Adventures in the Garden
www.qggh.org
Tucson Quilters Guild,
Tucson, AZ
June 10 and June 11, 2014, lecture
June 12, 2014, one-day
workshop: 3D Adventures in the Garden
June 13, 2014, one-day
workshop: Free-form Fabric Collage
www.tucsonquiltersguild.com 
Multiple-day Workshops
Follow California artist
Susan Else into the wild world of three-dimensional quilted fiber art. Learn her
techniques and explore the process of making a three-dimensional scene.
These multiple-day workshops are geared to intermediate skill levels.
Most materials are provided; students bring sewing machine (must have zig-zag)
and basic notions.
3D Adventures: Beasts in the Jungle
This hands-on workshop explores techniques for making organic
3D forms in fabric, from vines and
flowers to
outrageous animals. To allow students to experience the process of making a
complete
three-dimensional landscape, we pin our
individual class samples together to make a collective
jungle scene, photograph the result, and then, at the
end of the workshop, un-pin the diorama and
take our samples home. We explore the use of color, value, and scale to enhance
the depth of a piece,
as well learning
to create gesture, form, and movement in fabric.
This
workshop can be offered in a two- to five-day format.
3D Adventures: Let's
Make a Village
This workshop begins with Susan's basic methods for making people
and architecture, including the use of quilted
fabric collage. For the rest
of the time students continue to create figures and buildings, eventually
assembling a
whole village from their individual samples. As in the
jungle class, we photograph the collective diorama we've
made, and then take
our individual samples home. Making a complex landscape takes weeks or months
for an
individual artist, but students engaged in this cooperative endeavor
get a sense of the entire process, as well as
learning to convey interaction
between figures.
This workshop can be offered in a four- or five-day
format.
One-day Workshops
Susan also offers two shorter workshops open to any student who has
basic machine-sewing skills.
3D Adventures in the Garden
Part demo, part hands-on
workshop, this one-day overview introduces Susan's basic 3D techniques. Students
learn to make plant forms, including trees, leaves, vines, and flowers,
which can be used to enhance flat quilts
as well as in three-dimensional
settings.
Free-Form Fabric Collage
Loosen up your creative sewing skills with the art of
sewn collage. Susan uses this two-dimensional technique
as the basis for all
of her sculpture, but it can also be used to make flat wall quilts. We will
experiment with
free-form, intuitive methods as well as more controlled
techniques.
Workshop Instructor Fees, 2013: $450 per 7-hour
day, plus kit fee.
Lecture - Off the Wall: Quilting in Three
Dimensions
California artist Susan Else uses collaged and quilted fabric to
create unusual sculpture. Ranging from wry comments
on everyday life to wild
imaginary scenes, her work adds a new dimension to the usual flat format of art
quilts. Her
engaging, vibrantly colored work includes free-standing figures
as well as three-dimensional dioramas. Built around
armatures of foam,
wire, and fiberfill, the work incorporates both hand-treated and commercial
cloth as well as paint
and embellishment. In this lecture, Susan discusses
the relationship of her work to the art-quilt movement and
contemporary folk
art, as well as to other three-dimensional textiles. She explores how sewn cloth
differs from
traditional sculptural materials such as clay and metal, and
she describes her own metamorphosis from quilt-maker
to sculptor. Although
she never expected to become an artist herself, Susan grew up in a family of
artists who shaped
her personal vision. After "fooling around" with fabric
and fiber for twenty years, she started making quilted sculpture
in 1999. In
addition to one-woman shows, she has participated in many travelling
exhibitions, including Quilt National.
Her work is in public and private
collections throughout the U.S.
Lecture Fee, 2013:
$450
To schedule a workshop or lecture please contact Susan at:
susan@susanelse.com
Workshops & Lectures
2013 -
2014 Schedule
