Summer Sessions

5/BASKETS

Strong Materials, Flexible Mind

Thirteen-leaf Book by Hisako Sekijima, 2009. Kozo bark, looped and beaten, approximately 6" x 12" x 9".

This workshop is for those who want to re-conceive basketmaking in terms of relationship of a maker with materials. It is designed to be very experimental as well as hands-on. Participants will re-evaluate their own techniques and common ideas in a fresh look at the material domain as well as non-material factors such as “negative space” and drawing in the space. Exercises might include remaking a simple basket you are interested in and exploring—from an alternative viewpoint—properties of materials, tools, and sculptural devices that you normally work with. Projects are designed to help you learn again or “un-learn” what you think you know. All levels welcome.

HISAKO SEKIJIMA is a Japanese basketmaker and a visiting professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Her teaching method has been influential with self-development not only to basketmakers but also to wide range of craftspeople such as papermakers. Hisako Sekijima has lectured and taught workshops widely and has previously taught at Haystack three times. Her work has been in numerous exhibitions and is in the collections of the Erie Art Museum, Pennsylvania; Long House Reserve, New York; Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Japan; and Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth.

5/BOOK ARTS

Writing for the Artist’s Book

West by Beck Whitehead, 2011. Pulp painting stretched over wood frames, 24" x 28".

This workshop will explore the relationship between words and images, content and form. Writing exercises will lead to image making and these images will be developed through papermaking and pulp painting. Work will begin prior to the session with an assigned reading. Daily class will include both writing and studio processes. During the studio portion of the class, participants will learn how to make their own paper and learn techniques for adding design that will increase the impact of the text. Participants will learn simple printing and binding techniques and will create their own unique artist’s books. All levels welcome.

BECK WHITEHEAD is Chair of Papermaking and Book Arts at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, Texas. She has taught workshops in papermaking around the country and in Canada. Beck Whitehead creates paper paintings and one of-a-kind books. Her work has been in exhibitions at the Robert C. William American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, Georgia and IAPMA 2012 Conference at Convivium 33 Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, and she is co-producer of the documentary, Pulp Painting Symposium 2010 (released in 2012). beckwhitehead.com

Bad Fairy by Audrey Niffenegger, 2006. Oil on Birch Panel, 12" x 9".

AUDREY NIFFENEGGER is a visual artist and a writer. She has published two novels, The Time Traveler's Wife (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004) and Her Fearful Symmetry (Scribner, 2009). She is a Professor in the Fiction Department of Columbia College Chicago. Her artwork will be shown in a retrospective at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC in the summer of 2013. Audrey Niffenegger is also collaborating on a ballet, called the ‘Raven Girl’, with Wayne McGragor, that will premier at the Royal Opera House Ballet in May, 2013. She is currently working on her third novel. audreyniffenegger.com

5/CLAY

A Chicken on Every Pot

Fox plate by Ayumi Horie, 2012. Porcelain with gold luster decals, 1" x 8" x 8".

Thousands of years of ceramic history has made clear that pottery and animals are indelibly linked. This workshop will focus on drawing animal imagery on functional earthenware and exploring the emotional and environmental connection human beings have to them. We will look at historical and contemporary sources in art, touch on animal anatomy, animals as metaphor, and participate in drawing exercises designed to release any reservations about mark making and drawing on clay. Come with a spirit of play! All levels welcome.

AYUMI HORIE is a studio potter who was named Ceramic Monthly's first recipient of the "Ceramic Artist of the Year" award. After the Great Japan Earthquake of 2011, she-cofounded Handmade For Japan, raising over $100,000 for disaster relief. Ayumi Horie is on the board of directors of the Archie Bray Foundation and the American Craft Council, and has taught workshops and lectured on ceramics and the Internet across the US and internationally, at the Archie Bray Foundation, Haystack, Greenwich House Pottery, and at the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark. Her work is in the Museum of Arts & Design, New York and in many private collections. ayumihorie.com

5/GLASS

Visualize Invisibility: Innovations with Glass

Structure of Shadow by Bohyun Yoon, 2007. Silicon, wire, steel, light bulb, motor, and sensor, metal structure: 90” x 60” x 60”.

This workshop will familiarize participants with glass as a new medium. We will strive to combine physics of sound and physics of glass. Our discoveries will lead to hands-on experimentation with generating sound with glass using, among other things, its frequency and vibration patterns. During this workshop we will investigate a variety of non-traditional techniques with hot and cold glass. Participants will be encouraged to innovate and think conceptually through demonstrations and tricks dealing with sound and optics that will also broaden your understanding of the material's possibility. All levels welcome.

BOHYUN YOON is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He received a BFA and MFA in Glass from Tama Art University, Japan, and an MFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design. He participated in the fellowship programs at the Kyoto University of Art and Design in Japan and the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia. Bohyun Yoon’s work has been in exhibitions at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Vermont; Hunter College, New York; and Chungju International Craft Biennale in Korea; and is in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery and West Collection, Oaks, Pennsylvania. bohyunyoon.com

5/METALS

Fence

How Many is One—pendant by Deganit Stern Shocken, 2003. Mixed texture: silver, paint, and zircons, 6cm x 6cm.

A fence is defined as a structure serving as an enclosure, a barrier, or a boundary, usually made of posts or stakes joined together by boards, wire, or rails. This workshop will focus on the idea that jewelry is a type of ‘fence’ – that defines and marks the wearer. Workshop participants will observe the tension between ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ that is created by a fence--or border--when either entry or exit is forbidden or allowed. Participants will explore the idea of ‘fence’ via quick, 3D “gut reactions”—a group exercise involving objects in their immediate surroundings through a textual, thematic, and visual exploration of the word ‘fence’; the expressions ‘mending fences’ and ‘sitting on the fence’; and the wordplay ‘defense/offense’. The workshop will conclude with a final design that will incorporate the different findings of this research. All levels welcome.

DEGANIT STERNSCHOCKEN is the founder and, for nine years, was head of the Jewelry Design Department at Israel’s Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, where she is now a professor and head of the D.Des. program and teaches in the First Degree programs. Deganit Stern Shocken received an MA in Design from Middlesex University, London. Her work has been in many exhibitions, including transit: Contemporary Jewelry from Israel in Germany; Bijoux d'Israel at Espace Solidor, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France; and How Many Is One at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; and at Gallery Loupe, New Jersey; and at ViceVersa Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland; Galerie Hebert, Paris, France; and Galerie Spektrum, Munich, Germany. Deganit Stern Schocken curated the 2005 Israeli Jewelry Biennial Beaten Gold at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv and founded the Inyanim group of Israeli jewelers. deganitschocken.com

5/WEAVING

The Woven Pattern

For Roy and Yayoi by Samantha Bittman, 2012. Acrylic on hand-woven textile, 15” x 12”.

Workshop participants will explore the relationship between image and structure inherent in a piece of woven cloth. With an emphasis on pattern and invention, participants will develop a personal approach to texture, form, pattern, and color. Students will experiment with a wide range of materials, sample a variety of weave techniques and structures, draft their own weaves, and learn how to create patterns in repeat. Beginners will be shown basic weave structures and learn how to set up and use a four-harness loom. Experienced weavers will be introduced to more complex weaves on eight-, or more, harness looms. All levels welcome.

SAMANTHA BITTMAN is an artist, textile designer, and on faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has participated in the Skowhegan and Ox-Bow residency programs. Samantha Bittman’s work has been in many exhibitions, most recently at Thomas Robertello Gallery, Western Exhibitions, and threewalls in Chicago, Illinois; The Green Gallery East, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; David Castillo Gallery, Miami, Florida; and Small Black Door in Queens, and Southfirst Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. samanthabittman.com