I am teaching two classes for the Dakota County Libraries this month. They are a little outside of the Minneapolis area but they are free classes (funded by a State Arts Legacy Grant) so it might be worth the drive.
First up is “A Taste of Digital Fabric Design” on January 22 at 6 pm at Wescott Library. You can register here. (It’s free, but we like to know who’s coming.)
This class is like the “get your toes wet” experience for designing your own fabric and printing it through Spoonflower. We will make a collaborative design in class and I will show you all of the steps to get it printed: scanning, resizing and setting resolution, uploading, repeats and so forth. You don’t need to bring anything – it’s presented demonstration style so you can take lots of notes and follow along without your laptop. I hope it will be just the right amount of information to get you started and give you confidence to try your first design and not so much technical stuff that you will fee lost and overwhelmed. After class, I will order some of our collaboratively designed fabric and I will mail you a swatch of it so you can see it in person. If you have ever wanted to try your hand at making a custom fabric, this is the class to get you started.
Here is a sample of a fabric we made in another class.
Valentine Grid repeat at Spoonflower. Collaborative class project.
On January 26th, it is “Etsy Behind the Scenes” at the Farmington Library at 6:00. You can register here.
This class is a tour behind the scenes of running an Etsy shop. Not just tips and tricks, but I log in and take you on a live tour of what my shop looks like from the seller’s perspective. I will show you how to use the built in tools and talk about options and ways you can run your shop. I have had an etsy shop for more than 9 years, so I will give you a wealth of ideas from what I have learned: what works, time savers and time wasters, Etsy vocabulary and more. If you are on the fence about opening a shop or you have one and aren’t sure what to do next, I think you will find something in this class to help you.
I hope to see you there!
It’s the month for classes for me. Another fun class you can come to is a panel discussion called “Digitizing for Dollars” that I will be participating in on January 29 at 6:30 pm at NE Bank Community Room in Minneapolis. It is presented by WARM (Women’s Art Resources of MN). Several panelists will be talking about digitizing your original art and selling it online. I will be talking about Spoonflower and using your original art to make fabric. The other panelists will be talking about things like making patterns, digital prints and putting your artwork on objects (totes and coffee mugs). I have worked with this group before and there is always great discussion and good questions, so I am looking forward to it. (The event is free for WARM members, $5 if you come as a guest of a WARM member or $10 for the public.)
