Art Classes & Workshops
Elaine Luther is an art teacher with 20+ years of experience supporting students’ creativity. Now teaching:
- Clocking in for Unpaid Labor Workshop
- Collage Workshop for Libraries
- Shibori Dyeing
- Photograms on Fabric with Solar Fast Dye
- Protest Posters
- Activist T-shirts
Collages by Elaine Luther, 2020.
Collage Workshop for Libraries – Great for World Collage Day, May 13
Learn to take your collage work to the next level by making your own collage papers using paint (but no paint brushes!) as well as found papers. We’ll quickly go over types of compositions – with examples! – and cover easy and intuitive ways to find imagery and shapes. Use hand stitching to further embellish your collage (optional). Beginners to advanced are welcome!
Students do not have to bring anything, but if you’d like to: bring magazines, envelopes, including the ones return envelopes that come with your bills, if you don’t need them, any bits of paper or fabric that makes you happy.
Shibori Weekly Class
Learn the Japanese art of Shibori folding and dyeing. Learn the arashi, itajime, kanoko, and ne-maki styles of folding/tying.In addition, learn two all-over patterns for two color dye processes.Learn to dye with Procion fiber reactive dyes. We’ll use simple tools and you’ll be able to repeat this at home on your own. Make gorgeous fabrics each week that you can use to sew into garments or quilts, or dye all bandanas and T-shirts, your choice!
Doily printed with Solar Fast by Elaine Luther in blue and white says, “Shadow work is work that you do that someone else used to get paid for.”
Photograms on Fabric with Solar Fast Dye
Solar Fast is a light reactive dye that you can use to make contact prints of anything flat – dried, pressed plants, lace, shapes cut out of card stock, anything!. Or you can print a transparency with an image of photograph, or with text. The possibilities are endless! Solar Fast is safe, non-toxic and comes in many colors. We’ll apply it to the fabric in semi-darkness and then expose our prints using special UV lights (provided by the teacher). What do you do with it? Solar Fast is extremely wash-fast, hence the name. It doesn’t fade in the wash, the dye is permanent. This makes it ideal for quilts, clothing and artwork. You can print on pieces of fabric (cotton, linen, etc., fabric must be natural) or directly on clothing. Solar Fast also works on paper, and students are welcome to explore this medium on paper.
In this class we’ll start with printing photograms of objects and then learn how to make and print transparencies (no advanced computer skills required.)
Elaine Luther has been working with Solar Fast extensively in her artwork, printing images of vintage doilies onto vintage hankies, and printing text such as “Your Cashier Today was Self” on vintage doilies. These artworks have been shown in galleries in her recent solo shows.
Activist T-shirts
In this workshop, participants identify an issue they’d like to get the word out about, make a stencil and use silkscreen ink to create a shirt. We look at protest art and creating symbols to represent ideas. Best for teens and adults.
Here’s a sample shirt, not on an activist theme, made in another class:
Rock the Protest Poster
Have something to say? Have an issue you want to draw attention to? In this class we’ll make posters about issues we care about. Learn the principles of effective poster design through hands on practice. Digitize your poster(s) and share them online. Look at art historical and current examples of protest art, propaganda and top notch gig posters. Best for teens and adults.
Philosophy and Where I’ve Taught
You can read my teaching philosophy and see the extensive list of art centers, libraries and more where I’ve taught, HERE.
Start the conversation, message me HERE. Thanks!
