QC January Speaker and Workshops

  • MaryPal_WindsweptPine-1
  • MaryPal_WindsweptPine-2
  • MaryPal_WindsweptPine-3
  • MaryPal_PortraitureinCheesecloth_1
  • MaryPal_PortraitureinCheesecloth_2
  • MaryPal_PortraitureinCheesecloth_3

Mary Pal, One Wild Ride, via Zoom

One Wild Ride

Mary Pal is a Canadian fiber artist best known for her cheesecloth portraits. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally. For over 40 years she has enjoyed teaching, and for the past decade in sharing her passion for textile art with students all over the world. A Juried Artist member and former Board member of Studio Art Quilt Associates, she is an enthusiastic promoter of the fibre art movement.
Join Mary as she shares her adventures in her transition from traditional piecing and applique to work with textiles in cheesecloth. Such a journey is filled with bumps and unexpected turns. Decide if you would make the same choices! Her presentation is filled with images that will surprise and delight and have you looking afresh at all the possibilities we have with our fabrics.

Friday Workshop Details

Windswept Pine

Students in the class will work from a common pattern to learn the various methods of designing with this technique, learning all the skills required to create a 16x16" landscape scene, including:
You will learn how to:

  • practise specific techniques to get different cheesecloth effects for effective imagery
  • colour cheesecloth simply, with paints or inks or household dyes
  • use monofilament for "invisible" applique?
  • paint a simple background "home" for your pine tree (or use any commercial fabric!)
  • finish your fibre art work as a simple turned quilt or by adding facings.
The goal is to show you how cheesecloth can be used to add texture and originality to any subject from nature. Slideshow and video presentations are included to walk you through every step of the process. Mary provides advance guidance with a link to an online lesson on how to colour cheesecloth, coursecraft.net/courses/z93Mr/splash

Click Supply List

Saturday Workshop Details

Intro Portraiture in Cheesecloth
Learn how simple it is to create a portrait out of cheesecloth. No drawing skills required! Learn fibre artist Mary Pal's unique method of manipulating cheesecloth that combines "sculpting" or "painting" with fibres and stitching them to a background fabric. Confident beginner friendly.
Students work from a common photo to learn how to depict the human face using cheesecloth, practising all the skills required to create an 8x10" portrait.
You will learn how to:
   apply specific techniques to get different cheesecloth textures for effective portraiture
   assess photos for tonal values
   create a pattern to determine where the different values will be applied in cheesecloth
   use monofilament for "invisible" applique?
   quilt and border your completed piece
... with supportive guidance every step of the way!
Slideshow presentations and videos are included to walk you through every stage in the process and to inspire you with examples from the instructor's own significant collection of completed cheesecloth portraits.
Mary provides advance guidance by email on sources for the essential supply on the list (well, yes, cheesecloth, but that is easy to find. Glue? Also easy. But Dura-lar is absolutely essential. Easy to get in the US; trickier in other world locations.)
Here is your opportunity to learn the basic technique and gain the confidence to begin a black and white portrait of a subject of your own.

Click Supply List