I love to teach.
I teach colorful, beginner-friendly workshops that blend handcraft, creative technology, storytelling, and practical skills. My specialty is breaking creative techniques into approachable, confidence-building steps that make students feel curious, capable, and excited to experiment — whether they’re picking up embroidery for the first time, designing their own fabric, or learning a new creative tool.
I teach both in-person and online via Zoom, with a professional studio setup including an overhead camera for close-up demonstrations and detail work. You can also find pre-recorded, on-demand classes on my Classes site and on Skillshare.
This page features classes and workshops I teach for guilds, libraries, community groups, conferences, and arts organizations. Just like ordering a sandwich and saying “hold the onions,” these classes can be customized to fit your space, schedule, audience, or experience level. I’d rather make sure a workshop is the right fit than insist you “order off the menu.” I’ve taught many more topics than could possibly fit on one page, so if you’re thinking “I wonder if Becka teaches a class about xyz?” — please ask. I’m always happy to put together a custom class proposal.
Popular Workshops & Topics
Fiber & Embroidery
- Modern Blackwork Embroidery
- Gathered Bead Edge Basket
- Embroidered Ledger Book
Fabric Design & Creative Technology
- Intro to Fabric Design
- Fabrics from Scratch
- Why Does Your Brain Love Pattern?
Book & Paper Arts
- Collage Cover Mini Coptic Sketchbook
- Exceptional Envelopes
- Folded Paper Window Stars
Artist Business Skills
- Newsletter & Blog Basics
- Etsy Behind the Scenes
- Trailblazing an Art Business
Lectures for Guilds & Interest Groups • 60-90 minutes with Q&A
Fun, idea-filled talks designed for creative groups, guilds, conferences, and community audiences. These presentations combine storytelling, colorful visuals, behind-the-scenes process, and practical inspiration drawn from my work in fabric, paper, embroidery, design, and creative technology.
A Spoonful of Spoonflower
Designing fabric is more than just putting pencil to paper or generating pixels in Photoshop; it’s about connecting and sharing stories and ideas. Get a tour of what it’s like to design fabrics and print them using Spoonflower, a web-based service for printing your own fabric designs. Get the scoop on the technical details of uploading and proofing your files, see samples of different fabrics and walk through the process from start to finish. We’ll also talk cost-saving tips for getting the most out of your yard of fabric, ways to proof designs and more.
Trailblazing an Art Business
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by…” Becka talks about the secret power of saying YES, even when that unexplored path in front of you definitely has wolves and quicksand. She’ll share her journey of creating a full-time art business from nothing, the essential skills you must have in your travel pack and the unforeseen dangers on the road. Learn about how she quit her day job and found out how amazing and difficult it is to be her own boss and blaze the trail. Finally, she’ll share some tips for recognizing milestones on your path and finding some hiking companions along the way.
Why Does Your Brain Love Pattern?
As fabric artists, we work with patterns everyday. From polka dots and stripes to tropical florals and mid-century mod, we each have designs that we are drawn to. Whether you are interested in designing your own fabrics or creating repeating patterns from quilt blocks, there are ways to make your patterns sing and it’s based on a little bit of brain science. Join fabric designer Becka Rahn as she talks about why our brains love to find patterns and how you can design repeats that light up more of your creative neurons.
Handcraft & Artist Business Classes • 2 hours
Project-based classes designed for beginners, community groups, guilds, libraries, and creative gatherings. Most classes include hands-on materials and can be adapted for different skill levels.
Weave a Miniature Tapestry
Create a small woven masterpiece using a laser cut bamboo loom. These playing card sized looms are easy to learn and you can finish your woven project in just an afternoon. Learn how to combine and weave with yarns, wool roving, beads and textured threads to create a landscape or abstract design.
Embroidered Ledger Book
Make a pair of small notebooks with embroidered Kraftex paper covers. The notebooks are 3×5 inches each and stitched at the top to make a ledger style book. You will learn an embroidery stitch called the sorbello stitch to embellish the covers.
Gathered Bead Edge Basket
Using a gathering stitch with wooden beads, you will learn to create a wool felt basket with a reverse appliqué design. This fun technique makes a double layered felt bowl shaped vessel which is sturdy enough to hold jewelry or odds and ends on your desk or dresser or make an abstract sculptural art object.
Modern Blackwork Embroidery
Unleash your creativity with modern blackwork embroidery, a twist on a classic backstitch technique. These mesmerizing designs evoke the intricate patterns of contemporary zentangle patterns, but are made with thread.
Folded Paper Window Stars
Learn to make folded paper stars from translucent glassine paper. These stars look complicated but use lots of simple layered repeating shapes to create the complex designs. Your completed stars can be hung in a window for a colorful display.
Sparkling Sea Monster
Make a felt sea serpent embroidered with sparkling sequins. You’ll learn three different hand embroidery stitches and make your own ornament (or you can finish it as a pin or magnet).
Waterlily Trinket Box
Learn to stitch a small trinket box with a waterlily or sunflower in full bloom on the lid. This little box is the perfect size for tiny gifts or storing odds and ends.
Folk Art Blackbird
Learn to craft a vibrant folk-art style red-winged blackbird, using felt fabric and hand embroidery. You’ll learn several decorative stitches and a plied cord technique to create your design.
Fabric Design Inspired by Your Gallery
Get a taste of creating your own fabric designs inspired by an exhibition, book, or photo. No drawing skills are needed; we’ll work from a recycled paper collage. Using a digital kaleidoscope tool, we’ll virtually cut and repeat your design to make a geometric pattern. Student will get a swatch of their design printed on fabric (mailed after class). In person class only.
Embroidered Sheep
Make a bead embroidered sheep from layered wool felt, beads and sequins. Learn the backstitch to do some contrasting stitching. You can choose to finish your sheep into a pin, keytag or holiday ornament.
Embroidered Felt Toad
Stitch your own charming frog from wool felt and sparkling sequins. Learn basic decorative embroidery stitches including the whip stitch, running stitch and French knots. See demo of how you can finish your frog into a magnet, pin or ornament.
Nesting Doll Ornaments
Design and create your own nesting doll from wool felt and hand embroidery. You’ll learn three different embroidery stitches to make a vibrantly colored ornament. Embellish it with sparkling sequins and novelty trims.
Animal Portrait Ornaments
Traditional art meets technology in this class. First, you’ll design and digitally print patterned art paper. Next, you’ll wrap a bookboard ornament, using a traditional technique used for making handmade book covers. Add an animal illustration inspired by your pet or found-art collage to your design and a ribbon hanging loop. In person class only.
Stained Glass Silk Pin
Stitch a tiny improvised patchwork of iridescent silk scraps. Add a pin back and finish with a wool felt border to create a stained glass window effect.
Sardine Pencil Case
Stitch a wool felt pencil case with a magnetic snap. You’ll learn two different hand embroidery stitches and create a practical container you can use to store pens and pencils, crochet hooks, knitting needles and more.
Mushroom Ornament
Learn the woven wheel stitch to make a polka-dotted mushroom with wool felt and hand embroidery. Finish as an ornament or luggage tag.
Exceptional Envelopes
Learn to make an envelope book with an elastic closure and an origami heart envelope made with beautiful art papers. Tuck tiny presents like cash, gift cards or photos in the pockets for a special gift for someone you love.
Travel Address Book
Create a tiny address book to take on your travels and send postcards to all of your friends. It has a stitched binding with pages for addresses and pockets to hold stamps and stickers. The clever folded cover creates 4 pockets from one sheet of decorative paper.
Newsletter & Blog Basics for Artists
Your email newsletter list is your most valuable social media tool as an artist. Learn how to write a newsletter that people will be excited to see in their inboxes. A newsletter and blog go hand in hand to give your art a home in cyberspace that’s not influenced by social media algorithms. Get tips for how to write it, what to include, the tech skills and apps you’ll need to get started.
Etsy Behind the Scenes
Learn tips, techniques and words of wisdom from a long-time Etsy Seller about what it takes to run an Etsy shop and sell your art online. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the technical side of running your shop, creating shipping profiles and what it takes to manage an online storefront. We’ll also talk about search strategies and pitfalls to help your shop get started on the right foot.
Workshops • 3 to 6 hours
These longer-format workshops allow more time to dig into techniques, creative problem-solving, and hands-on experimentation. Perfect for retreats, conferences, arts organizations, and groups that want a deeper, more immersive creative experience.
Bead Embroidered Bouquet
Learn eight different beaded embroidery stitches in this modern twist on a sampler. You’ll stitch a floral bouquet using beaded versions of a french knot, pistil stitch, buttonhole, four-legged knot, running stitch and three variations on stacked sequin flowers.
Sashiko Inspired Squares
Traditional sashiko is often stitched with white thread on indigo fabrics, but in this class students will create three animal sashiko-inspired squares to explore modern variations of the traditional stitches using multiple colors. Your completed squares can be finished into coasters, quilt blocks, decorative pockets, or framed as a piece of embroidered art.
Intro to Fabric Design
Have you ever dreamed of designing your own fabrics? Come to get a taste of creating your own custom fabric designs from start to finish. Work from a paper collage to create some source material. Then, virtually cut and repeat your design to make a repeating geometric pattern by using a digital kaleidoscope tool. Each student will get swatches mailed to them after class. In person class only.
Tea Towel from a Recipe Card
Make your own keepsake tea towel by scanning your grandmother’s handwritten recipe card and learning how to scale it up to fill a fat quarter of fabric. See how to upload and digitally print it on to linen-cotton fabric with Spoonflower to make a one-of-a-kind tea towel. In person class only.
Metallic Mosaic Notebooks
First, you’ll create custom repeating surface patterns using a digital kaleidoscope tool, black and white sketches, and scrap paper. Choose three of your designs and we will send them off to print on metallic wallpaper. We’ll meet back with our finished prints and make chain stitched pamphlet notebooks using the custom wallpaper for covers.
Making Monochromes
Learning surface pattern design can be complex. This class is about the surface design process focused on the design and simplifying the color so you only have to make one color choice. Monochromatic prints are one of the most versatile kinds of surface designs. Monochrome means one color, so you can use them to accent and compliment other more complex prints when you are making any kind of project that combines different patterns all together. No matter if you want to design fabric, paper, wallpaper, or just to incorporate more pattern into your own art pieces, you will learn something you can use in this class.
Intermediate Workshops • 2-3 Days
Multi-session workshops give students time to build skills step-by-step, experiment with materials, and develop more polished finished projects. These classes are ideal for guild programs, community education, and students who enjoy a slower, more in-depth learning experience.
Fabrics from Scratch: An Intro to Designing & Printing Your Own Fabrics
This class is packed with projects you can design using simple and low-cost digital design tools, most that work just from your web browser. You will learn how to create a variety of projects, from repeating geometric patterns to a faux batik print, and gain the confidence you need to build on those basic instructions to make your own designs. Then, we’ll take a tour of everything you need to know about printing with Spoonflower, including pro tips about working with color, resolution and scale.
Collage Cover Mini Coptic Sketchbook
Create a mini coptic-bound sketchbook or journal with a hand-embroidered paper collage cover. We’ll start with a paper collage: layering handmade, hand-painted, and recycled papers and adding accents of hand embroidery stitches. You’ll use this collage to wrap your book covers. We’ll tear down drawing paper for the interior pages and you’ll learn to do a coptic stitch to bind the covers and pages together. Coptic books can open and lay flat, which makes them ideal for sketchbooks, journals and art books.
Strawberry Needlebooks
Make a wool felt needle book, a classic sewing notion to store your needles and pins. You can choose from three different designs: Dog, Cat or Rabbit. No matter which animal you choose, the lessons and stitches will all work the same for everyone. The finished books are 2.5 x 3.5 inches with a snap closure and three felt pages for storing needles. You do not need embroidery experience for this class. Featured stitches in this project: blanket stitch, figure eight knot, rope stitch, whip stitch, back stitch, pistil stitch, fly stitch, and cross stitch.
Pricing & Booking Information
Every class and workshop is a little different, so the pricing below is intended as a general guide for budgeting purposes. Final pricing depends on factors such as class length, materials, travel, preparation time, and class size.
If you’re interested in booking a class, workshop, or lecture, please contact me and I’ll put together a detailed proposal customized for your group.
Base Rates
Lectures & Presentations
Starting at $150
Handcraft & Artist Business Classes
Starting at $200
Additional materials fee per student may apply.
Half-Day & Full-Day Workshops
$400–$500 per day
Additional materials fee per student may apply.
Online Classes
I love teaching online and have a professional studio setup with lighting, audio, video, and an overhead camera for close-up demonstrations and detail work.
Zoom is my preferred platform, but I’m happy to work with other systems when possible. I can also host the Zoom session for your organization, so your group does not need its own Zoom account.
In-Person Classes & Travel
I am based in Minneapolis and am happy to travel for workshops and events.
For venues more than 20 miles outside the Minneapolis metro area, host organizations are asked to cover reasonable travel expenses (current IRS mileage rate) and lodging when appropriate.
If you’re interested in bringing a workshop to your area, please ask! I love partnering with groups in new places.
Materials & Supply Fees
Many classes include a materials or supply fee, typically ranging from $5–$35 per student depending on the project.
I provide a detailed list of what is included in the materials kit for each class. Materials fees can either:
- be paid by the hosting organization, or
- be collected individually from students via cash, credit card, or Venmo.
Recommended Class Sizes
To make sure students have time for questions, individual help, and a relaxed learning experience, these are the recommended maximum class sizes for in-person sessions:
- Up to 25 students for handcraft or artist business classes
- Up to 15 students for workshops
Some classes are more flexible than others, so if you have a larger group, please reach out and we can discuss options.
Hosting a Workshop
I enjoy working with:
- quilt and craft guilds
- libraries
- community groups
- museums
- art centers
- conferences
- retreats
- schools and educational programs
I’m happy to provide references from previous host organizations.
If you coordinate programming for a group, I can also provide a formal proposal to share with your committee or planning team.
Interested in hosting a class in your area but not part of an organization? Please reach out anyway! Sometimes a local contact person is all it takes to help organize something wonderful.
Scheduling & Promotion
Teaching and making art are my full-time work, so my schedule is fairly flexible.
The earlier you contact me, the easier it is to find dates that work well for everyone. Once an event is confirmed, I add it to my calendar and help promote it through my:
- monthly email newsletter
- website
- social media channels
I want your event to succeed, and I’m always happy to help spread the word to potential students.
Contact Me
The best way to get started is to send me an email.
Tell me a little about:
- your organization or group
- the kinds of classes you’re interested in
- possible dates or timing
- whether you’re interested in online or in-person options
From there, we can put together a workshop or class plan that fits your group and goals.
I felt it was time I tried hand embroidery just to see what it was like. My stitches are bit wonky but I’m happy with how it looks. I used materials I already had – cheap craft felt and this variegated pink floss. I’m not even sure what flavor of ice cream this is. But now I’m seriously craving ice cream.
“The instructions were laid out really well, easy to follow and I am thrilled with the finished product.”
This was really fun and stretched me even though I have made similar kinds of patterns. I think it was combining the analog and digital mediums that made it supper interesting to me. Also the part on using duotone was very helpful for how to make a cohesive pattern with collage elements.
My 13 year old daughter and I took this class together… A fun afternoon project!
