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. Every year I try to add interesting things to the workshops. Sometimes it is a special treat, like homemade chai latte, or hand massages. Other times it is an interesting guest, some music, or a little adventure of some sort. They keep changing and growing so that the creative process stays fresh. I try to make the workshops a retreat from everyday life towards a creativity. At the bottom of this page there is info about the community, and places to stay. I hope you'll join me in the studio for a few wonderful days.
Local Accommodations and Getting Here
Online Workshop this Winter: Starts April 2012
Registration Deadline in January 7
"Hand over Hand, thought over thought,mind in the moment. Such a beautiful thing to let your hand carry out your ideas, ease your mind, and soften the winter just a little."
Winter 2012 Workshop
Series at the Studio
Take a day this winter to learn more about rug hooking with Deanne Fitzpatrick in her new workshop room . Bring your hook and frame, and a brown bag lunch if you like and we will while away a winter's day learning, creating and letting the wool slip through our fingers.
all workshops will be rescheduled if the roads are bad or a storm is pending.
Hooking Words
Saturday, March 3, 10 TO 3 $98
This is the first time to offer this workshop. It will be about the power of words for creativity and art as well as specific lessons on how to hook them. We will will play with handwriting, fonts, and design in what I think will be a powerful and meaningful workshop. Includes backing or pattern and some wool. This workshop will focus on the beauty of words and hooking them in your rugs. We will play with words, writing, and creating designs around the power of words.
To register call 1-800-328-7756 or 667-0560
www.hookingrugs.com
2012 Workshop Schedule
Workshops with Deanne Fitzpatrick in her Studio for 2012
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.
Workshops with Deanne Fitzpatrick
at her Studio: 2012 Schedule
Hooking the Abstract: Abstract Design and Expressionism for Hooked Rugs
Wednesday to Friday, May 16 17 and 18
I am offering this workshop again this year because I learned so much from giving it last year. I think we all came together thinking that creating abstract rugs would be easy and fun, and learned that it is demanding and challenging, as well as fun. This year there will be an emphasis on the elements of designing for the abstract, and the meaning of expressionism. This will offer a solid ground upon which to design and hook abstract rugs. 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 This class is full but we still have room in the ones below......
Hooking People: Faces and Small Portraits for Hooked Rugs
May 23, 24, 25, 2012 Wednesday to Friday
This three-day workshop will focus on capturing the essence of people. A simple tilt of the head, a fold in the clothes, the tip of the hat, these are the things that bring people to life in our rugs. This workshop will focus on enhancing your ability with portraiture, showing movement, hooking skin tones, clothing, and backgrounds. We will learn how to create interesting and captivating faces with simple primitive shading. Though we will use a pattern as a learning tool, participants are encouraged to bring photos or stories to the workshop to use for discussion of ideas for future mats. The emphasis of this workshop will be capturing the spirit of people in hooked rugs. Topics will include hooking the face, skin tone, clothing, posture, and of course capturing spirit. Each day we will do a series of art related activities to enhance our hooking ability. We will be sketching and playing with the notion of drawing people for the purposes of improving what we can do with our hooks and wool when it comes to capturing their essence in mats. Like all the workshops, we will focus on experiential activities. We will also focus on creating big boned girls or small portraits of women. Using a series of patterns I have designed, we will adapt them so you can create small portraits of women who are important to you. It is an open minded workshop environment designed for adult learners.. Cost: $475.00 Canadian plus $38 HST
The Art of Rug Hooking : Creativity and Rug Hooking
September 12 13 14 Wednesday to Friday
This three day course is designed for those who want to use rug hooking as creatively as possible as a means of self expression. This course will be a mentoring workshop, with an emphasis on developing yourself as an artist. The focus of this design workshop will be enhancing your creative potential, and personal style of rug hooking. We will explore different types of inspiration, other rug hookers, other artists, writers and poets to try to divine some inspiration of our own. Each day we will do a variety of creative activities, including individual and group experiential exercises, writing, sketching, designing, and rug hooking. Part of one day will be spent on an inspirational field trip. I will provide a series of ideas, and you can go off as individuals or as a group. Each day there will be plenty of time to hook together but we will spend a lot of time working out creative ideas, design, and developing colour skills. The emphasis will be on developing skills that allow you to always approach rug hooking as creatively as possible rather than on creating a single rug during the workshop. We will each create one design on the first day that we will work on over the three days. This personal piece will be each individual's learning ground, a tool to use as you ask for help on colour, perspective, design, and creativity. The workshop will be self directed, in a studio environment, where we are working together creatively. In addition to being a rug hooking workshop it will be a creativity workshop, each element will be as important as the other.
you create with your own personal style. Cost: $475.00 plus HST
The Magic of Colour: Colour and the Art of Rug Hooking with Phyllis Cameron and Deanne Fitzpatrick
September 6 and 7 Thursday and Friday
This is the course that blends two different styles for learning about the magic of colour, intuition and knowledge. Traditionally, I have always used an intuitive approach to colour, relying on instinct, and past experience. Phyllis Cameron, an educator and fibre artist believes that in order to rely on your intuition many people need to develop a basic knowledge and understanding of working with colour, and uses three different systems to help people understand and use colour effectively and creatively in their art. Together our goal will be to explore how knowledge and intuition can work together to help you step outside a tight comfort zone, so that you can creatively use colour in your rug hooking with confidence.
This workshop will focus on both the intuitive and knowledge based approach to working with colour for hooked rugs. We will work on a primitive geometric pattern for this workshop that allows you lots of room to explore colour. We will also explore the art of dying wool. $295 plus hst
Big Lessons on a Small Canvas
Everything you need to know to become an extraordinary rug hooker
This workshop will be an adventure for rug hookers to learn important lessons on how to create masterful effects in their hooked rug seeking inspiration
from the natural world
October 10, 11 and 12, 2012
To be held during the fifth annual Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival
with special guests Susan Black on Design and
Don Miller on Originality
Based on a block approach, we will create a series of small rugs (approximately 8” by 8” to 10 by 10” squares) that will work together to create one larger piece of a series of squares hung separately. They could be hung as a diptych, triptych, four block, nine block, or any other combination squares hooked together in a related way and hung together. Each square will be an individual design. You can design your own or choose a pattern provided by us, depending on your comfort level. Over the three days we will focus on techniques to create specific elements through lessons that simplify the process. These will be the “big lessons” on a small canvas and we will focus on :
Design…simple lines and basic elements
Trees and Forest…that look as if you could walk into them
Flowers and Gardens…that bring you to the garden on your knees
Landscape….rolling hills, naturals fields, bushes
Water….seas that change from rolling thunder to calming bays
Sky….that makes you wonder at the magic of it all
Backgrounds…should be interesting and magical, fun to hook
Borders…layers on layers of beauty to the edges of your rugs
Abstracted Natural Elements…organic and gorgeous
This workshop will build your skills and confidence in technique and design. People will create their own individual rugs with an emphasis on creativity and freestyle hooking.
Cost $495
To register for any of the workshops contact Deanne at 1-800-328-7756 or register online at www.hookingrugs.com
A $75 non-refundable deposit is payable upon registration for all workshops. 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. We accept visa and mastercard.
On a daily basis I am in and out of the studio, working from home, and in and around the community. The workshops offer me a chance to work directly with you, teaching you what you want to know about my work. There is plenty of one on one time for questions, demonstrating and learning in a studio environment. I'll be here to greet you, teach you, have fun with you, and lead you on your way to a creative and engaging style of rug hooking.
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.
$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, or studio supplies 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.
What you need to bring
- your hook and frame
- a selection of wool/materials you like to work with
- a digital camera comes in handy
- a sketch book, with unlined pages
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, Moncton, NB
"After each workshop with you Deanne, I feel like a child that has been overstimulated, it takes me months to quiet down and find all the things I learned come to life in my rugs. But come to life they do." Roya Zarrepova, New York
“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, North Carolina
A much much belated thank you for such a beautiful time at the Abstract Rug Hooking Course. Coming to your studio inspires me in such a way that I want to hook day and night (which I did each night after the 3 day course). The lighting, the wool, the energy, your spirit. Sometimes there is just such a person who gives us the feeling we want and need when creating something (even if it's a yoga pose), in rug hooking it is you. You give such life to people's ideas. You challenge them, you re-inforce them, and sometimes you help to form them into something else in a direction in which we don't know that we are going. You help to push the limits of thinking by using words, images, and thoughts. You make it deeper and more thoughtful than just an image hooked into linen. You encourage us to think about making a piece have soul....
You brought a group of us together and it was such a wonderful group. We enjoyed meeting each other and talking and sharing. We ate scrumptious treats too! I love Amherst! I love the simplicity of it, the realness, that inspires me too...so much...it's a real town where real people live and work. It is SO endearing in such a way I cannot describe. Heather Schofield, New Jersey
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:
Super8-660-8888 Comfort Inn 667-0404
A twenty five minute drive in from the beach:
Willet Point A Private Cottage in a grove of birches for rent Contact Donna (my sister) 1-902-661-5694
Seascape, a private retreat on the ocean at Linden Beach, phone 705-626-6581
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. Flying here is easy. 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.