I laughed as I wrote the title to this post because I don’t think there is such a thing as a typical day. But many people ask me what I do and so I thought I’d write a little about what my day looks like.

So I say that my job title is “teaching artist” which to me means that I do a lot of both of those things. Yesterday I started the day with a cup of tea and responding to emails and odds and ends. I’ve got two other teaching things this week so there were logistics to work out like when I’ll get to the venue or that kind of thing. I needed to confirm another thing and one partner sent a new schedule of submission deadlines, so I put all of those into my calendar. I actually like answering emails. I know lots of artists that will avoid that task like the plague.

Then I started the day preparing materials for my evening class. I knew this class would be a little squeezed for time, so I did just a little more prep than usual so we could jump in and start working right away. This means making individual kits of materials for each student. It’s amazing how much time it takes up in a class to say “choose your colors” and let everyone pick out their supplies.

These materials kits had about 7 pieces of felt, some with pattern pieces printed and stuck on to them with freezer paper. That’s what you see in the photo is the freezer paper pieces getting cut down at the paper cutter. Our project was these flower topped trinket boxes; we made a waterlily version. Then I double checked my class bins of scissors, glue sticks and threads to make sure that they were all ready to go. My last class left a little bit of a mess in the thread bins, so I spent some time fishing trash out of the boxes and putting everything back together. Finally I went through the project and made myself a little list of bullet point steps, so I remembered the order to teach everything and made sure that I hadn’t forgotten an essential material.

Once that was set up, then I packed some Etsy orders. Weekends are usually busy for my Etsy shops, so I had about 7 orders to pull and pack. I have three Etsy shops because each has a really specific theme (fiber art geekery, dog art and oboes) so I usually pop in and just check in on all three. I print shipping labels and then check on things that need an update like listings that have expired.

Then, I really believe in balancing work with free time so I worked on a more personal project for a couple of hours since I would be teaching that evening.

On Thursday this week, I am doing a curator talk for a show that I served as co-curator for. It was a super fun experience and I decided that I wanted to make something to wear for the event. The theme of the show was mixed media, so I decided to design a mixed media fabric and make a dress. I am working on an alphabet book, so I have stitched the entire alphabet in felt letters. I already took photos of them for the book and I love when I can reuse art, so I pulled them into a Photoshop canvas and decided to write a pangram sentence, or a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet. I thought it would be funny if it was something slightly sewing themed, so came up with “When vexed by quirky design, calm stitcher jumps for bold azure threads”. I layered the letter photos with some handdrawn pencil lines and a painted texture in the background and desaturated the colors a little bit. You can see my finished fabric there in the center.

I started sewing a dress yesterday and got completely stuck at the zipper step. I’ve sewed about a zillion zippers, but I don’t work with metal ones very often. This pattern calls for a 12 inch metal zipper and I dug through my bag of zippers and only had 14 inch. So I looked up a tutorial and shortening it looked like a total breeze. Wow was I wrong. I watched 3 different videos and looked at two tutorials. I rummaged through every tool and pliers in my studio and there was absolutely no way I was making that zipper shorter. The videos make it look so easy and it’s just not. So I posted something on Instagram and several of my good sewing friends agreed that it was basically a nightmare and I just ordered some new zippers. Those came today so I’ll try again.

Then it was time to head to the library. This class was at a county library branch that is about 20 minutes from my house. I always end up driving in rush hour because class is usually in the early evening. So I leave in plenty of time and usually listen to something fun on the way; Prince was my soundtrack last night. I remembered my mug of tea (Sleepytime Peach).

The classroom was set up when I got there which I always appreciate. So I right away got materials set up on tables and everything ready to go. Someone always arrives at least 20 minutes before class starts, so I try to get things done asap, so I’m not running behind if people are chatty or have questions.

Class went great! I had about 16 students and they say that there were that many more on the waiting list too. I’m glad that it was popular and I always feel sorry for the people who aren’t able to get in. It’s super important to fill out those surveys that they always give you at the end of class, so that the people setting the budget know that these kinds of events are wanted and appreciated and maybe they’ll be able to do more of them. If you love this project, I also have it as an on-demand class on my website.

Class wrapped up and I headed home to a late dinner. I will go through all of the extra materials and put things away today sometime. I noticed that a bunch of glue sticks are getting kind of dried out, so I will go through that bag and weed some out. If people don’t take their sewing needles with them, then I wash those off with alcohol before I put them away. Finally today I’ll post a thank you on my social media channels. I almost always do this when I teach a community class, not only to thank the partner I worked with like the library, but I also want to make sure that people know that I teach these kinds of classes in a big variety of places so they know to look for more.