Workshops at the Studio
People enjoy the workshops at the studio. They are fun, energetic and rich experiences. We appreciate that everyone brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from their own backgrounds to the studio. We are not teaching a particular method, or trying to get you to hook in a certain way. All of the workshops at the studio are based on an adult learning model, where you come and learn at your own pace. We try to work with you to make sure you get what you came for. It is a place to get inspired, become more adventurous and creative in your approach to hooking, but most of all to relax, be yourself, and enjoy having the hook in your hand, uninterrupted for a few days. It is a retreat. At the bottom of this page there is info about the community, and places to stay.
2011 Workshop Schedule
Workshops with
Deanne Fitzpatrick in her Studio for 2011
Creativity and rug hooking are a beautiful blend
and they are the basis of all the workshops at my studio. We learn by doing,
experiencing, and by sharing ideas in a supportive and fun environment designed
for adults. The only rules will be the one you make for yourself. My goal is to
offer you a playground of ideas and a rich creative experience in a studio
environment. We offer a retreat to focus on the creative side of yourself. All
workshop includes instruction from Deanne, patterns, backing, generous amounts
of wool from the studio stash, lunch each day, supplies and materials for class
activities, tea, coffee, good homemade snacks.
We’ll treat you good.
the rugs pictured below are just style examples, we will be creating new work for the workshops
Hooking
the Abstract
May 16,17,18, 2011
This workshop on expressive rug hooking
will focus on creating abstract rugs of our own design. It will emphasize
creativity, flow, using colour, and hooking in the absence of design or pattern.
I have discovered the beauty of working with abstracts over the last few years,
learning to hook freely on a backing with out drawing anything on it. The
backing becomes a place for expressiveness, and the lines are created with the
hook. It is a place to make majestic rugs in a freestyle. The abstract style is
forever interesting, and adds a contemporary edge to an age old tradition. This
workshop is about taking an old tradition and making it contemporary. $ 475
plus hst
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The Imagination and the Sea:
Hooking the Sea with Playfulness September 7,8, 9, 2011
Powerful seas, windswept coasts, raging
waters, elusive mermaids, dancing fish, suspicious squid...this workshop is a
chance to take over the coast and turn it on it’s heels. We will hook playful
patterns that emphasize the wonder of the ocean. This course will also give you
a chance to create some sea inspired designs of your own. We will explore all
things coastal, seeking inspiration, and reimagining the traditional way we
approach hooking the sea. It is about blue, but not only, imagine the sea, and
all the things it inspires hooked in any colour your mind desires. This will be
an inspirational workshop $475 plus hst
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So
Small Under a Big Sky: Hooking the Sky
September 12, 13, 14, 2011
by popular demand we will offer this
workshop on hooking the sky again this year for a smaller group because we had
to refuse so many in 2010. We will focus on making the skies in your rug
magnificent and interesting. Paisley skies, diamonds in the sky, skies of
circles, realistic bib sunny day skies, storm clouds brewing….we will explore
these and more. The sky itself as a theme is limitless so this workshop will
focus solely on this element, making the sky as beautiful as can be. $475
Hooking
Freestyle May 5 and 6, 2011,
This workshop is about getting free and loose with the
hook, while still working with a pattern. We will explore ideas around colour,
design, perspective, texture and creativity while working with a small landscape
design. It is a workshop for people who want to break free of rules, and begin
working towards developing their own creative style. We will use many textures,
wool, silk, and other materials to learn what they can do. We will explore the
creative sides of ourselves and apply it to rug hooking. It is a playful
adventure in rug hooking that emphasizes freedom of style, creativity, and
getting the mat done. $295 plus hst
in the works.... for fall 2011 the big fibre art festival workshop is a great three day rug hooking workshop October 12, 13, 14, on hooking people and the power of story with a special guest... Sheree Fitch,
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The Yarns We Live By: A Workshop
about
to be
held during the fourth annual Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival There are few people who understand people, and human nature better than the story teller. I have asked renowned story teller and author, Sheree Fitch to join me to create a magical workshop about hooking people and telling personal stories through your rugs. This workshop will begin with practical lessons on hooking people into your rugs. Together, Sheree and I will guide you in taking your thoughts, pictures and ideas, and teach you the art of storytelling through your rugs. This is the workshop so many people have asked for, where you can bring the picture or idea you have been saving and turn it into a rug. The rug you create can be of any subject, with or without people ; a person, a place, a memory, a dream, an idea. We will interpret, imagine, inspire and create as we help you develop your own ideas and turn your story into art. This is a workshop about rug hooking, creativity, and personal stories; playing with them, and bringing out their beauty. You do not need a lot of design or drawing experience for this workshop. We will guide you through this creative process into the next level of rug hooking, telling stories and making art. 
Sheree Fitch is a much loved and admired author and speaker wrote her first book of nonsense verse, Toes in my nose, for her two year old son Jordan when she was twenty. After many rejections and rewrites, the book was published when she was thirty. Illustrated by celebrated Canadian female war artist, Molly Lamb Bobak and launched in 1987 by Doubleday Canada, Toes was a Canadian best seller. Two years later, Sleeping Dragons All Around, illustrated by Michele Nidenoff, published by Doubleday Canada, was released. An interview by Peter Gzowski on Morningside brought Fitch's words to a national audience. Sleeping Dragons All Around won the Atlantic Bookseller's Choice Awards in 1990 and the hearts of a generation of readers. Often described as a much loved Canadian “classic, a 20th anniversary edition of Sleeping Dragons All Around was published in 2009 by Nimbus.
spirit.creativity.fibre.
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For the fall ...October 2010
A four week course
Poppies on the Edge of Town 12 by 16”
Hooking Rugs from Start to Finish
A Complete Beginner Course
for beginner to early intermediates,
Includes large pattern and supplies, $125,
hoops and hook are extra $20
Wednesday Evenings from 4pm to 6pm , Four Weeks, October
20 to November 10
We’ll have a pot of tea and a snack each week to hold your supper over. This
workshop will focus on all the elements of basic hooking, and finishing a
rug. It is a comprehensive course, focusing on landscape, sky, texture, and
houses and if you hook some each week at home you should be well on your way
to completing a project.
Creativity and Rug hooking is a beautiful blend and it is the basis of all the workshops at my studio. We learn by doing, and experiencing, by sharing ideas in a supportive and fun environment designed for adult learners. My goal is to offer you a playground of ideas, and a rich creative experience in a studio environment.
To register, contact
Deanne at 1 800 328 7756 or register by adding a workshop deposit below .
Specify which workshop you want to register for in the comments section of
the order form and we will confirm your registration with you.
Register for a workshop here, specify the workshop in the
comments section.
You will not be charged $14 for shipping that the order form
shows.
$75
Deposit for Workshops
A $75 non refundable
deposit is payable upon registration. Deposits are for the specific workshop
you register for and will hold your place for that workshop. They are not
transferable to other workshops should you cancel.
Private Workshops and Group
Retreats
on various rug hooking topics,
and creativity are available but must be planned up 9 to 12 months in
advance for groups of ten or more. You can call me personally to talk about
planning a workshop
for your group at 1-8oo-328-7756.
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What people say about my workshops "I wanted to thank you again for the time you
spent telling us about how to develop and trust our own instincts in
our own work. You are a passionate artist and a generous one in
sharing with others your passions. The workshop was fun, relaxing
and it is rewarding (for me) to get your pulse. I appreciate it very
much. The excitement and the "newness" of this week's coastal
landscape piece will drive me to close the "loop" on my unfinished
fields landscape ....got to do that first ah! and it will be done
soon!" Brigitte Lapointe I have taken 3 different workshops with Deanne and getting ready to return in September. She has me "hooked", literally!.. The days we spend in the classroom are awesome and you don't want them to end!!!! She has you doing sketches and along with her thoughts and ideas really gets your creative juices flowing. She makes you think about shapes, color and design in a way that you probably have never thought about before. Deanne is so generous with her information and her wools for your project. While helping each individual set up their color palette for the pattern, you can watch how she puts colors together and just makes everything flow. But I guess the thing that has made my rug hooking so enjoyable is the technique she uses. I will never forget the first time I ever spoke with her. In addition to the awesome classes, she takes you to lunch at the most wonderful places and after lunch, we always have a chocolate treat. Tea and I think the studio's signature "oat cakes" are always there also. I have met four new really good friends and we are coming back in September and hopefully we are going to make this a yearly event!!!!!! Thanks Deanne for making a simple pleasure so awesome! Jane Tucker
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Local Accommodations
With in a five minute walking distance of the studio:
The Regent 902-667-7676 Gwen, the inn keeper is also a rug hooker, and works at the studio
Browns Guest Home 902-667-9769
Rhodes Manor Bed and Breakfast 1-877-660-3142
Victorian Motel 667-7211
With in a five minute drive from the studio:
Wandlyn Inn 902-667-3331 Super8-660-8888 Comfort Inn 667-0404
A twenty five minute drive from the beach:
Willet Point A Private Cottage in a grove of birches for rent Contact Donna (my sister) 1-902-661-5694
Please feel welcome to visit the studio at 33 Church St. in downtown Amherst, right beside Mansour’s Men’s Wear. We are open year round, Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 3pm. If you are passing through at another time, give us a call. If we can open for you we will.
Where is Amherst, Nova Scotia, and how do I get there?
Amherst is on the border of Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, in Eastern Canada. It is a warm , friendly town of about 10,000 people. It is fifty Minutes from the airport in Moncton, New Brunswick, and 1 hour and fifty Minutes from the Halifax International Airport. Both Moncton, and Halifax, are easily connected from most major cities in Canada and the United States. If you fly you might want to rent a car and drive around a little bit while you are here. Fifteen minutes in any direction from the studio and you'll see the sea coast. You do not need a car once you arrive in Amherst, there are accommodations and restaurants all with in a five minute walk from the studio. If you prefer to be picked up at the airport and delivered you can contact D and J's taxi, next door to the studio, and talk to Bob, tell him you are coming to a rug hooking workshop. His phone number 902-667-8288.
If you plan to drive we are right off the Trans Canada Highway, exit 3 from the highway takes you right downtown, on Victoria Street. We are located at 33 Church Street, just five minutes off the Trans Canada Highway. For those who prefer the train, the Via Rail Train Station is just two blocks away from the studio.
While you are here......
You might enjoy treating yourself to a manicure, a pedicure, or a facial. Patricia Leblanc has opened an Aesthetics Salon, From Head to Toe, just around the corner from my studio. If you want to book in her phone number is 902-660-4988.