instructors

Alli Sheridan (she/her) is a craftsperson and designer currently living and working in Oakland, CA. Over the last decade, Alli has split her time between working in architecture studios and in workshop/ fabrication settings. She has found the movement between physical and cerebral spaces to be as vital to her learning as it has been to her happiness.

If culture is created through participation, Alli believes that when people create and see others in the act of creation, there is an often unrecognized value therein. A finished product can be a statement in its own right but she is perhaps more interested in the electricity of the act - the uncharted conversations, connections, revelations and moments of inspiration that happen in the shop, on a job site, in the field, over a shared meal. She is driven by a curiosity about material and process and holds the belief that there is no one right way to do a thing, no such thing as a perfect object.

imperfectform.com
@imperfectform

Karin Dahl (she/her) is an artist and cartographer living in Oakland, CA. She has an MA in anthropology from SFSU with an emphasis on archaeology and material culture studies. Karin’s art practice includes textiles, watercolor, music, and collaborative explorations of relationships to place.

Textiles are a central element in Karin’s creative practice, whether it’s mending and over-dying friend’s old clothing, or performing an archaeological excavation of a 1,000 lb. bale of clothing discard.

She is interested in craft and art practice as a way people form relationships with, and situate themselves within, the material world. She views learning about craft practices, historical processes, and spending time with materials, as a potential counterpoint to fast paced consumerism and throw-away culture.

karinelisabetdahl.com
@karinsideout

Jessie Mordine Young (b. England, 1993) is a Brooklyn-based artist who researches, writes about, curates, makes and teaches textile art. She believes that textiles can be carriers of empathy, memory, and lived experience and that they are evidence of humanity. This sentiment is at the root of her art practice. In one of her more recent bodies of work, she embarked on a project of creating daily artworks, which she calls “woven drawings” or “thread sketches.” These pieces directly connect to her experiences in nature, where color and texture become tangible references to sites, sounds, and forms she finds when immersed in the landscape. Jessie is also enamored by the alchemy of the dye vat; she often paints her yarn and woven fabrics through a natural dye process and by thoughtfully sourcing plant matter.

Jessie earned her BFA in Fiber and Material Studies and Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and an MA in Material Culture, Design History and Object Study from the Bard Graduate Center in NYC. She is a part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design. Through extensively researching various craft histories in her academic and former curatorial practice, she has developed an appreciation for slow, thoughtful acts of making as an act of autonomy.

@jessiemordine
www.jessiemordineyoung.com

Cordy (they/them) is a quilter, dyer and oral historian living in the East Bay. They often teach and learn with young people, particularly queer and trans teens. They are drawn to the crossover between quilts and poetry and they love to swim.

Cordy is interested in the time scales that quilts live within. When we lay under them, we are connected to the hands and intentions of generations ago. When we make them ourselves, we think of how far down the line they will travel. Quilts are considered to be "antique" when they are older than 100 years old. Some say they receive this label when they outlive one human lifespan. How is our art-making influenced when we make it with this time scale in mind? How do our knots change when we expect that level of durability? How do we encase secrets, messages, power into a piece when we anticipate our grandchildren sleeping under it? I'm interested in the poetic power of these questions of the objects themselves. When words escape us, can quilts accomplish something similar?

Cordy makes their art and leads workshops with these questions in mind, blurring writing, imagining, remembering and future-building with stitching.

@coanofsilence
corduroyjoan.com

Rachel Marcotte (she/her) is a natural dye expert based In Oakland, CA. A native of Rhode Island, she graduated from NSCAD University with a focus on fashion and textile design. Over her past five years in the Bay Area, she has cultivated her own dye garden, where she grows and tests out a variety of different plant and flower material that thrive in the area. With her deep understanding of natural dyes, she especially enjoys sharing knowledge of both her techniques and of the plants and flowers that produce a diverse array of color.

golden-loom.com
@thegoldenloom

David Wood (he/him) was born and raised in the bay area, but currently lives in Nevada City, CA and works full-time for a company designing and building traditional Japanese houses and other structures. Although he has been immersed in that particular tradition for a number of years, David has a wide range of interests when it comes to woodworking, from chairmaking to traditional hand-crafts like those in the "slöjd" tradition. One element that runs through many of his interests is the appreciation of the value of thoughtful self-sufficiency and the beauty, practicality and thrift inherent in making or fixing something yourself, whether it be a tool or a functional object for the home, for example. David hopes that spoon-carving can open the door to a skillset that makes compelling the idea: "I don't need to buy that; I can probably make that myself!"

@davidbrycewood

Iso Marcus (they/her) is a queer artist who explores the entanglements of relationships through performance, sound, clay and therapy. They hold a license in clinical social work and their primary training is in trauma-informed care. They are interested in the complexities of the human and non-human relational plane as materiality. They center a process-based and collective approach and have contributed to numerous collaborative projects over the last 15 years.

Lauren Conn (she/her) is a professional bodyworker doing Jin Shin jyutsu energy work. She also is a singer-songwriter in the band Gold Anchor.

Iso and Lauren started singing together in 1st grade where they met and became lifelong friends.

isoisoiso.xyz
@_isoisoiso_

@barelyhug

Sarah Moss-Horwitz (she/her) is an artist and designer based in Oakland, California.

She works with natural dyes, inks, textiles and printmaking to make sense of what it means to be alive in an era of human and environmental catastrophe. Her practice is one of curiosity, exploration and surprise, harvesting materials and inspiration from her lived experiences and physical material surrounds to capture moments and reflect.

Creating materials helps her understand and consider the history and meaning embedded into the work. She began experimenting with making inks from plants she grows and forages for her own art practice a few years ago and was quickly drawn to the endless rabbit holes for learning and experimentation. She believes that materials for creating art are all around us, and is excited to empower others with knowledge to create inks and paints from materials around us.

@flowersoupproject

Pauline Canteneur (she/her) and Rachael Sharkland (she/they) have danced together since 2016, with a more formal collaboration beginning in 2018. Their projects examine themes of identity, kinship, power, intimacy, and belonging. Enchanted by the natural world, they reference imagery and explore relationships inspired by the creaturely and an inclusive ecology. They believe in making art that loves you back, and dedicate their practice to the surviving and thriving of all life. They have performed at venues around the Bay Area including BAMPFA, CounterPulse, Fort Mason, The Exploratorium, Joe Goode Annex, SAFEhouse Arts, and Pro Arts Gallery.

Pauline practices Intuition Medicine (c) supporting students of the Academy of Intuition Medicine in Sausalito, CA as a teacher assistant. She also works in farming technology.

Rachael Sharkland is a mother, artist, and Mind-Body Coach, find out more about her practice at: rachaelsharkland.com

Laura Wasserman is a fiber artist and autobiographical weaver based in Alameda, CA, whose bold, abstract weavings and notably feminist compositions showcase the power of fiber to both comfort and evoke. Her pieces are maximalist in nature, experiment with found and recycled materials, and incorporate her own brand of small-batch handspun yarns. Her weavings explore both construction and deconstruction—often leaving openings where the warp thread and mechanics of the weaving are exposed—and intrepid colors and chaotic texture invite the viewer to sit with complex feelings. Personal narratives highlighted in her work include themes of loss and motherhood. With formal degrees in creative writing, her weavings are self-taught explorations. Her work has been shown at Jackknife Studios, Flax Art Supply, ACCI Gallery, and Mann Gallery at Cornell University.

radcraftstudios.com
@radcraftstudios

Lara Head (she/her) is a ceramicist, bookbinder and printmaker living in the Bay Area. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, she graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with her Masters of Fine Arts with a focus in printmaking and sculptural bookbinding. She moved to the Bay Area in 2019 and has worked in the production studios of ceramic artists in Oakland and San Francisco. She now works in her home ceramics studio in Castro Valley where she makes utilitarian ware for every day.

Throughout her multiple medias of choice, Lara focuses on pattern, shape, and meditation through repetition. In her free time, you can catch her knitting, gardening, or dabbling in basket weaving, dyeing, and any new craft she can get her hands on.

laraheadstudio.com
@larahead.studio

Emily Parkinson (she/her) is one half of the sister duo behind Homebody Textiles, a small studio that specializes in always-patterned, always-playful home goods and accessories. Their work brings together a love for hands-on engagement, a keen eye for balance and rhythm, and a deep fascination with the natural world. Their chosen process (screen printing) and materials (natural dyes) force them to work at the intersection of loose and laborious, and to keep the compass fixed firmly on experimentation.

homebodytextiles.com
@homebodytextiles

Jenny Williams (she/her) is a musician, writer, and crafter living in Oakland, California. She has been an artist in residence at the Winslow House Project, E.M. Wolfman Books, Cabin Time and more. Jenny has facilitated workshops on the creative process and now hosts day long writing retreats at Winslow. She picked up her love of crochet (and knitting and latch hook rugs) from her grandma, and has leaned heavily on the craft as a way to relax since the COVID lock downs. She appreciates not only how calming it is, but also how intuitive and adaptable patterns such as granny squares can be. When she isn't working with yarn, she can be found playing guitar, revising her novel, or hanging out with her dogs.

@past.time.wears

Kim Bennett (she/her) is a Bay Area artist and teacher who works in drawing and embroidery. While she is working, she thinks about the intersection of dreams and traditional craft practices and this weird thing we are calling contemporary art. She has exhibited her work locally at Stephen Wirtz Gallery, Interface Gallery, pied-a-terre, and other spaces, as well as Transmitter Gallery in New York City and Conduit Gallery in Dallas. She is a recipient of a Creative Time commission, a Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, and a Kala Parent Fellowship. She is a Senior Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts.

kimbennett.net
@tealbennett

Sierra Reading (she/her) is an artist, educator and rancher, living and working in her hometown of Arbuckle, California. Within her work, Sierra focuses on creating spaces for people to interact with craft, food, animals, or one another in order to build a larger discourse that examines current events of the moment or space that these interactions happen within.

Currently, Sierra is focusing on bringing contemporary art thinking to her small, rural town in Northern California, which includes public murals and visiting artists.

She and her partner, Ross Roadruck, are also creating an Artist in Residence Program titled Social Studies, where artists are given space, materials and time to work on personal projects.

sierra-reading.com
@madebysierra

socialstudiesresidency.com
@social_studies_residency