Soulful Doors
Ruth Rae

Class Description

Learn the secrets of creating the foundation for multi faceted interactive doors. In this workshop we will explore: Fabric and paper altering: dying, stamping, burning and hand embellishing. We will cover how to create Resin charms and papers along with transparencies manipulation. You will discover how to embed hidden elements and meaning into your piece along with the joys of machine quilting on paper or fabric.

Students Should Bring:

• Sewing machine
• Staz-on ink (Saddle Brown or your favorite color)
• Rubber stamps (I will have stamps in class, but if you have a special one that you want to use bring it)
• 3 Disposable blows or cups
• craft paint(s) (in your color pallet to stain your fabrics)
• Paper towels (I use viva)
• Muslin – Natural (1 yard)
• Organza (1 yard of sheer white or cream)
• Tulle (1 yard in an accent color)
• 100% Cotton Scrim (1 yard) or cheesecloth (1 package)
• Kunin craft felt felt: 1 yard (keep in mind that this will be the base color for your doors)
• poly-fil (stuffed in a zip lock sandwich bag)
• Decorative trim (at lest 10” to embellish top half of door)
• Small elements to capture under organza or cheese cloth embellishments such as ribbons, keys, buttons, beads, jewelry bits, trim, small sticks, shells or rocks (or anything that you would like to embed in your piece)
• Threads: quilting and embroidery (colors to complement your pallet)
• Needles: beading, yarn darners, embroidery.
• Craft or quilting pins (to hold layers together for sewing)
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Awl (if you have one already)
• Book text or sheet music (a few pages for background)
• Assorted fibers, ribbons and lace, old dollies
• Assorted beads (glass or gemstone in various sizes)
• Outdoor trash bag to use as a work surface.
• Heavy Duty Wonder Under Fusible Web: 1 yard

Artist Bio

Ruth Rae is a classically trained jeweler and instructor. During Ruth’s tenure as a metal smith she began to experiment with other forms of media and techniques. As time has progressed Ruth’s true passion has become “mixed media fiber art.” Ruth’s pieces are recognized for their unexpected yet elegant combinations of altered fabrics, vintage lace and antique papers that find themselves intertwined with transparencies, found objects and words that are bound together by hand and machine stitching. Ruth enjoys sharing her creative process in her contributions to Cloth Paper Scissors, Belle Armoire Jewelry, Somerset Studio and Artful Blogging. Ruth is currently working on her next book about mixed media fabric art that will be released in 2009.

Ruth can be seen on Quilting Arts TV (show # 204), with two Quilting Arts Workshop DVD’s available from Interweave Press. Ruth has most recently co-authored a unique book, "A Charming Exchange", that not only includes techniques with bounds of inspiration for creating mixed-media jewelry inspired from charms from an array of 25 artists but also walks the readers through step-by-step jewelry techniques.

You can view her work online at:
www.ruthrae.com
www.ruthrae.blogspot.com