Land Love: Textile Topographies Workshop with Valerie Carew

Rug Hooking and Needle Felting Workshop

Date: Saturday, October 25, 12:30 - 4:30 PM
Location: 1106 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION HERE

Cost: $75 for Craft Ontario members, $95 For non-members. This includes all materials and a take home kit.

Have you ever been curious about trying your hand at rug hooking or needle felting?
In the Land Love: Textile Topographies workshop, interdisciplinary artist Valerie Carew will teach participants to connect to the wild through textile craft! Valerie will show you how she re-creates sand, stones, flora and fauna using these tactile and sculptural techniques. This is a fun, relaxed, environmentally friendly beginner class!

Learn: Participants will learn the basics in traditional hand hooked rug making, using a mix of re-purposed textiles and yarns. Choose to work with a pre-drawn 10” x 10” pattern, or draw your own design. Valerie will guide you through class demonstrations and one on one instruction. In the second half of the class, Valerie will show you how to incorporate needle felted wool components to your work. 

Create: By the end of the workshop, you will have a textile piece on an embroidery hoop, in progress. The knowledge to continue on your own and techniques for finishing the piece.

Materials: All materials and supplies will be provided to use on site including a wool cutter. A take home kit worth $35. is included in the cost of the workshop. This includes:
- rug hook tool and 3 needles
- foam block
- embroidery hoop
- burlap, yarn and textile strips, roving

Valerie Carew is an interdisciplinary artist in Toronto who explores human relationships with land using textiles. Embodiment and role-play are combined with rug making to express dwelling, identity and the self. Valerie’s hand hooked sculptural works are designed for the human body, then animated using photography, video, performance and mechanical motors. Memories of land and home are harnessed for new world building, made from a desire for connection and escapism. Carew hopes to re-wild and unsettle the colonial footprint, and connect inside and outside worlds through her art.

Registration is required to attend the Land Love: Textile Topographies workshop.

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION HERE