Stitching in the company of others is relaxing, and the process becomes a natural meditation, contributing to one’s well-being.
The Artists Association of Nantucket (AAN) is hosting free workshops on Stitching a Meditation Journal with Bee Shay for adults. Drop-in classes are held at AAN’s Visual Arts Center at 24 Amelia Drive from 6:30-8:30 pm on Tuesday evenings through August 19. Materials are provided, although participants are invited to bring in any additional materials they would like to use or incorporate into their work. Participants may attend a single session or every week.
No stitching experience is necessary to take the workshop. Using recycled textiles, students will create a journal, and then utilize various materials, including found objects such as beads, buttons, trims, and lace in their journals. Bee will teach diverse stitching techniques, both traditional (Kantha, boro, and embroidery) as well as nontraditional contemporary methods, as well as techniques and treatments to change the fabric of the pages themselves both before and after being bound.
Bee Shay has been a printmaker for more than 30 years and has been a longstanding member, instructor and board member of the Nature Printing Society, an international non-profit group whose mission is to teach the love and respect of the natural world through art, with outreach programs into public and private schools and groups all over the world. She is a nationally recognized instructor who decided to stop traveling to focus on her island community.
“Bee is a knowledgeable, talented, and generous teacher, and we are excited to be able to provide this special class to the Nantucket community free of charge, ” commented AAN Education Director Elizabeth Buccino.
