All levels welcome

Visible mending not only makes our clothing unique and extends wear, but it also lets others know that we have fixed our clothes. This visible alteration carries meaning in a fascinating number of ways. At the very least, mending can communicate personal aesthetics and care. It might even inspire others to take up mending as well! Students will learn a variety of mending techniques that can excite the senses and expand on how fashion can be made personal.

Megan Piontkowski is an artist and illustrator living in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a BFA from Montclair State University, and her MFA in Painting and Drawing from Brooklyn College. Her book, Feminist Ships, celebrates the lives and achievements of women sailors. Piontkowski discovered visible mending a few years ago and has been off to the races ever since.

Fee: $420 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $50 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

The Catskills are alive with nature. Learn embroidery and sculpt those complex, buzzy, harbingers of summer. And while we might not want to admit this, bugs are among our most important cousins on this planet. As you know, they do a lot for us. Now let’s do something for them! Students will learn to create wings embroidered on fabric and wire and then sculpt them into an insect body to create a three-dimensional sculpture of the beautiful, sometimes annoying, invertebrate. Students will be taught basic and complex embroidery techniques. There will be fun discussions and demonstrations on how to analyze the subject matter and then create a strategy for sculpting the object. This workshop is perfect for those who want to learn embroidery and for those who want to sculpt.

Deborah Simon’s art focuses on humanity’s discordant relationship with animals. Her sculptures and paintings of animals have been exhibited around the world. She has received numerous fellowships including the Chulitna Lodge Creative Summer Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Saint Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab, Sculpture Space, Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program and the Cultural Space Subsidy Program. She has received grants from the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and NYSCA. Following studies at the Repin Institute of Art in Leningrad, USSR, Simon received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and MFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts.

Fee: $390 (Course Fee: $300 + Lab Fee: $50 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

This three-day workshop offers an immersive introduction to cattail weaving, you will be exposed to some of the various methods of working with this versatile native plant, then apply them to a larger project. Working in a supportive studio environment, you’ll receive hands-on instruction and individual support as you work on a project of your choice. Suitable for complete beginners as well as experienced makers interested in working more deeply with cattails. All materials provided.

Renee Baumann is a Catskills-based designer, chef, and nature enthusiast with a passion for wild plants and fungi. Trained as an architect and a chef, she brings a creative, interdisciplinary flair to everything she does—whether she’s weaving baskets from local plants, illustrating mushrooms in watercolor, or whipping up delicious meals from foraged ingredients. Renee teaches workshops and techniques working with local fibers, with an emphasis on creating three-dimensional forms from bioregional components. Her work varies from traditional basketry using cattail and willow to sculptural felt and spinning foraged fibers. Renee teaches workshops on identifying and cooking with plants and fungi growing in the Catskills. 

Fee: $415 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $45 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

Explore sculpting with wool felt during this workshop. Using the ancient technique of wet felting, you will learn how to sculpt wool into a multitude of natural and three-dimensional forms such as bowls and vessels, branches and coral, barnacles, undulating layers and more! Day one will be an introduction to wet felting, learning the history and the process while focusing on learning multiple techniques and creating a collection of samples. Day two we will work on felting bowls, hollow forms and how to apply thetechniques from day one to those forms. Day three will see you using all your newfound skills and techniques to design and create your own unique felt sculpture.

Mallory Zondag is an award-winning artist and artist educator living in New York. Exhibited internationally in solo and group shows, her work focuses on the natural world and how it relates to the physical body and human experience. She explores deeply personal and connective universal stories through the meditative and hands-on practices of wet felting, weaving, sculpting, and stitching, seeking to bring the ephemeral into physical being. The growth and decay of the natural world, the duality of discomfort and attraction we feel towards it, and humanity's place within this dichotomy informs her sculptures.

Fee: $450 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $80 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)