CLASSES Welcome. Color Creek offers an exciting trip down the river of creativity, color, discovery and beauty. Mary teaches a range of subjects, in various settings, and to audiences from children to professional artists who are looking to expand their repetoir. Introductory Workshops Advanced & Specialty Workshops Please call Mary (970-778-5985) to discuss setting a time and place for your workshop. Want a special day at your place or in the schools? That can be arranged. Mary travels out to work with special needs children, bed-confined patients or other home bound individuals or groups. Most classes are held at the Color Creek studio in Grand Junction. Introductory Workshops Silk Painting: Find the magic of putting color to fabric. Mary will teach you the "ins and outs" of Gutta Resist—a way to draw on fabric that separates colors from one another. You don't need to know how to draw. Lots of patterns are available to trace on to the fabric so that you can take the stress out and just enjoy the flow. Cost includes all materials and a silk scarf. 3 hours. Batik: Layer color, wax, color, wax, color to create a wonderful riot of color and design. Layer-layer- layer then unwrap the package at the end when you iron the wax out revealing all that you put into it. We use the acid dyes and a mixture of paraffin and bees wax to resist and then crackle it to create that specific "batik look". All materials included with a silk scarf. 3 hours. Fused Silk Fiber: A most unusual and beautiful way to use unspun silk to create fabric or sculpture. In this class you will learn to layer the silk fiber and then fuse it into a paper that can be used as a book cover, or sculpt it into a bowl or wrap it around a glass for a lighted candle. Fused silk is durable as a fabric or delicate as a paper. All materials provided. 3 hours. Felting: The art of taking unspun wool and creating buttons, balls, purses, flowers, bracelets or other very fun projects. This class is all about how to manipulate wool into a wide variety of objects. Once you learn these techniques than you will graduate quickly to the larger projects. There is no knitting—just using your hands to "mold the fiber." All materials provided. 2 hours. Advanced and Specialty Workshops Silk Painting Beyond the Basics: There really isn't an "intermediate" only a willingness to try techniques that allow you to "go beyond" a simple design into layering color and line so that you have depth, shadow and a more complex design. We work smaller with these pieces but the rewards are great. 3 hours. Creative Flows: This is the final of the silk painting series. First part of the workshop focuses on frames and stretching the fabric. You can arrange to come to the shop to build your frame or receive instructions on materials and sizes for ones you can build at home. We turn our focus on dyes that can be used to achieve different color sets and results. The rest of the day is spent painting and experimenting with a variety of techniques to add to your silk painting toolbox. This is the time to explore ways to paint dimensional waterfalls, leaves on water, stacking colors, or many other ways to expand skill with the silk painting. Materials provided. 6 hours. Surface Design Series: These are stand-alone workshops or complete a series. Each workshop is 6 hours. The World of Dyes: A journey into the dyes that color the plant fibers, the protein fibers and the synthetic fibers. This is an in-depth look into the confusing world of dyes, mordents, accessories and requirements for dyeing any type of fiber. You will create a small dye book of colors and techniques for each of the dye types, learn to mix dyes and practice color matching. Textures & Resists: Explore various ways of creating specific textures on fabric. This is the art of resisting the dyes using wrapping, sewing and washable resists in order to create patterns and texture. This workshop explores methods of Shibori (Japanese tying, clamping and sewing resists), along with the washable potato, rice salt and sugar resists that produce texture and design. We will experiment with both the acid dyes and MX dyes and with cotton and silk. Materials provided. Bring additional fabric if you wish. Thickened Dyes: Screen, stamp, brush using thickened dyes on silk or cotton. This workshop includes using discharge techniques with both bleach and other discharging chemicals that can be used on silk or cotton. Materials provided. Bring additional fabric if you wish. Airbrushing on Fabric Introduction to Basic Airbrushing on Fabric: Basic techniques for airbrushing dyes on fabric for those who might want to experiment with the possibilities before investing in a compressor and airbrush. Maximum of 3 people unless you have access to a compressor and airbrush. We'll practice and experiment with a variety of masks, dye mixtures and layering. This is a highly experimental and fun workshop. All materials provided. 6 hours Creative Design Stepping off the Edge in Creative Garments: Ever wonder how ideas for garments are born? How do you go from idea to actually putting something together? This is meant to be a "wild and strange" workshop in exploring garment design, concepts of construction and use of materials. This starts as a 6 hour workshop and may add on depending on the group.   COLOR CREEK FIBER ART www.colorcreekfiberart.com . Grand Junction, Colorado colorcreek49@gmail.com . 970-778-5985