Hi, I’m Becka.
I’m an artist who explores ideas through paper, fiber, pattern, and technology. My favorite projects usually start with curiosity and end somewhere I wasn’t expecting. I enjoy exploring new techniques, combining ideas from unexpected places, and seeing what happens when I follow a question instead of a plan.
I share that process through my artwork, writing, and teaching because I think creativity is more fun when it’s shared. I believe that seeing the whole creative process—the experiments, the successes, the failures, the art, the business, and everything in between—makes makes trying something new feel a little more possible.
Curiosity is contagious. I hope you find something here that inspires you to follow your own.
Upcoming Classes & Events
Studio Journal
What I Wish People Knew Before They Start Designing Fabric
Spoonflower announced a sort of re-branding this week and I was thinking back about my relationship with Spoonflower over the years. If you’ve taken a class from me, you might have heard some of my stories, but I was on the beta-test list back when Spoonflower was basically just an idea and a single ink-jet printer. I’ve still got that first yard of fabric that I printed. We wrote The Spoonflower Handbook a few years after that. I’d like to think Spoonflower and I were still friends these days, although I don’t think I even know anyone who works there anymore. It’s been a lot of years and rebrands since then; I’m sure they’ll never see this post.
I met Spoonflower’s co-founder, Steven, because I was an assistant at a class he taught here in Minneapolis for the Surface Design Association. In class, we were making dinner napkins from crayon drawings. Yes, a big national conference workshop and we were drawing with crayons.
And that got me thinking about what I wish people knew about designing fabric. In the time since we wrote the book, the marketplace for teaching people about fabric design has [read more…]
I love people who love.
I was watching a video today of Lin-Manuel Miranda asking Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel) to sign the DVD cover of his copy of The Little Mermaid. The look of pure joy on his face just made me smile. That kind of love for something is completely contagious and infectious. It makes me feel good to see that happen. It made me think about how much I love it when I meet someone who tells me about something they love. Now, I’ve never met Lin-Manuel, but he is utterly transparent about things that bring him joy. And one of my themes for the year is about finding more joy, so why not seek out some more people who love things!
Here are some things I love.
- Two of my very favorite moments of joy were meeting Kermit the Frog while wearing my Sesame Street tshirt (2006) and seeing the original ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz (2019).
- Every one of my dogs has had a theme song. We sing it to them often. Olive’s theme song is All of Me by Willie Nelson but you have to change the lyrics to “Olivine, why not take Olivine? Can’t you [read more…]
The Exhausting Business of Maybe
I’ve been thinking lately about bandwidth and burnout as an artist.
A few weeks ago, a friend posted on Instagram about a kind of post-event depression that sounded really familiar. She talked about the constant cycle of making, selling, and finding the next event, and the feeling that you can never really slow down. That got me thinking about how much of being an artist is actually preparing for the next thing.
In the past two weeks, I’ve written and submitted two grant applications and an article proposal, written seven blog posts for a partner, submitted work for three juries, taught three classes, designed and proposed another class and made the samples, and shipped about a dozen orders from my Etsy shops. And that’s just the stuff I remember. I also have also personal stuff going on (who doesn’t?!), laundry that needs doing, and I don’t think we’ve mowed the lawn in months. I’m sure this sounds familiar.
Most of the work I’ve been doing this week is for future work. I don’t work if I don’t make the work. There is always another application, proposal, class, project, or opportunity that needs to be imagined [read more…]
Unplugging the sewing machine and making truly by hand
I just got done stitching a couple of handmade books this afternoon and as I walked to the kitchen to make a pot of tea, I realized I was smiling. I like making books and not just as an entertaining way to pass the time but I feel good after I’ve finished one. Books have a lot of repeating elements. There is a rhythm and order to the way you cover a board with paper and the folding and punching of signatures. The stitching method has a pattern. There have been studies that are often quoted about the way your brain responds to repetative motions like knitting as a way of reducing stress and lighting up sections of your brain that are connected to making repeated motions with your hands. No one is ever going to study bookbinding the same way, but my guess is that its the same responses and neurons that are firing.
There’s a new art marketplace that hasn’t even launched yet, but I’m part of the first wave of artists to try it out. I was the same way with Etsy. It’s always been my philosophy as an artist with any new show or program or marketplace [read more…]
Shop my art
Also find me at
Recent Comments
beckarahn says:
beckarahn says:
Lynne Zawada says: