2023 Special Topics Workshops

Colorful shoulder bags tapestry crocheted by Mayan men in Guatemala inspired Carol Ventura to give this versatile fiber art a try in the 1970s. She developed special graph papers that consider stitch shape and placement for designing complex figurative motifs while exploring and expanding the technique. Carol’s tapestry crocheted accessories, flat wall pieces, felted projects, and beaded bags and baskets have been widely published and exhibited. Her website includes links to tutorials and patterns, and the blog features “. . . the rest of the story”, a look at tapestry crochet around the world.

Instructor Website: tapestrycrochet.com
Instagram: @tapestrycrochet

Erin Carlson works as a fiber artist specializing in needle felt sculpture and weaving. Much of her inspiration is gleaned from a lifetime love of the plants and animals of Western PA. She teaches nature-based craft classes in the Pittsburgh region and has partnered with the Western Pennsylvanian Audubon Society and the Cleveland Metroparks to offer an educational component to her courses. Erin has a keen interest in growing fibers and natural dyes and is currently involved with the Rustbelt Fibershed’s One Year, One Outfit Project and the Rustbelt Linen Project. 
 
Instructor Website: redcottagefiberstudio.com
Instagram: @redcottagefiberstudio

Deb Mackie’s interest in leather began with a Tandy Leather “half-pint” saddle kit given to her by her grandmother for her 12th birthday. Her grandmother, an accomplished leather crafter, lent Deb her tools to finish the kit, and the journey began. Deb's leather artistry includes both full size and scale miniatures. She sells her work and teaches leather workshops online, at shows and festivals, and also at a gallery in her hometown of Elkton, Maryland. She is a member of The International Guild of Miniature Artisans and has taught a week-long class at the Guild School in Castine, Maine since 2014. Her work has been featured in the Leather Crafters & Saddlers Journal, and American Miniaturist magazine, and has been purchased by collectors worldwide. 
 
Instructor Website: whitehorsestudio.com
Instagram: @white_horse_studio

Jennifer Fleszar is a Pysanky artist from Southwestern Pennsylvania who learned the Ukrainian art of the egg at age 18. Through over 30 years of skill development and study, she has earned her novice and intermediate rankings from the International Egg Artist Guild. She has merited grants through her art and traveled to study with master instructors to learn new techniques. Jennifer is one egg submission away from being judged and considered for the ranking of Master of Batik Egg art through IEA. She shares her knowledge at festivals, pysanky demonstrations and teaching workshops, so that others can learn the intricate art that has been passed down in the Ukrainian culture for over 2,000 years.

Lanny Bergner is a mixed-media sculptor and metal mesh basketry artist. He received his BFA in sculpture from the University of Washington in 1981 and an MFA in sculpture from Temple University in 1983. His work has been exhibited in numerous museum collections around the world, including the Central Museum of Textile in Łódź, Poland. In 2005 he won a Gold Prize at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in Cheongju, Korea, and was invited to create an installation at the 2007 Cheongju Biennale. His work was included in the 2017 book Artistry in Fiber: Sculpture. He maintains a studio on Fidalgo Island near Anacortes, WA.

Instructor Website: lannybergner.com

Hanna Vogel is an artist and educator living in Philadelphia, PA. She grew up in rural Northern California and received a BFA from the California College of the Arts and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In her work, she uses craft-based materials and techniques in non-traditional ways to make sculptures and installations that explore aspects of entropy in the natural world. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including at The Huntington Museum of Art, The Spartanburg Art Museum, The Delaware Contemporary, The National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute, and the Biblioteca Henestrosa in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has presented and published papers internationally and has received fellowships/grants from Yaddo, the California College of the Arts, I-Park, Sculpture Space, The Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation, and Lighton International Artist Exchange Program among others.

Instructor Website: hannavogel.com
Instagram: @hanna_c_vogel

Cheryl Capezzuti is an artist, educator and giant puppetmaker whose work is inseparable from the communities in which she creates. She has been working in the Greater Pittsburgh community for over 20 years and continues to deepen her connections to this community every day. As a giant puppetmaker, she is best known for the artist-made, people-powered First Night Pittsburgh Parade on New Year’s Eve in downtown Pittsburgh. What started for Capezzuti in 1998 as a handful of puppets and a marching band, now features over 300 giant puppets, puppet-mobiles, dozens of musicians, fanciful pedicabs and over 500 volunteers making it happen. She has also been commissioned by the City of Pittsburgh to tell the history of Pittsburgh using giant puppets for the city’s Bicentennial Parade and was the Artist-in-Residence at the Pittsburgh International Airport, making giant puppets out of items discarded in the airport. Between parades many of her giant puppets are housed at the Braddock Carnegie Library and can be checked out with a library card for any type of event or celebration through her giant puppet lending project, Puppets for Pittsburgh. She is on the visual arts faculty at Falk Lab School at the University of Pittsburgh.

Instructor Website: puppetsforpittsburgh.com
Instagram: @giant_puppet_dance_club

Laura Rendlen’s aesthetic and style for mosaic art is representational. She creates environments that capture the essence of a place. Through vivid color and soft expression, she conveys the intangibles in nature, particularly wind, light and movement. As well as creating large scale commissions for various cities, Laura teaches Master Workshops in contemporary mosaics nationally and internationally.

Instructor Website: KansasCityMosaics.com

Geoffrey Gorman is a practicing artist, creating his original found material sculptures in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He shows his work around the United States and had also exhibited in China, South Korea, and Canada. Over the years, his unique sculptures have been written about in the New York Post, Southwest Art, American Craft, American Style and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Gorman’s fondness for animal subjects and use of found materials comes largely from his upbringing. He had a self-described “Huck Finn” experience of youth. He spent his childhood exploring the barns and woods around old horse farm he lived in outside of Baltimore, Maryland. The menagerie of pets, both domestic and wild, he kept as a child explains his fascination with animals.

Instructor Website: geoffreygorman.com
Instagram: @geoffreygorman

April Stone is a self-taught Black Ash basket weaver and member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. In 1998, she spent a full year watching a basket get used daily, unaware of the intimate relationship that was being formed. After one year of this basket in use, the lashing around its rim broke. The strength of this natural material moved her to the point of wanting to know all she could about the qualities and characteristics of the wood, what it could do and how to weave with it. She then spent the following year raising babies and weaving one basket after another after another. Prompted by a community member to share what she had learned, she then started to share her knowledge of Ash splint with others and has been researching and sharing ever since.  
 
April harvests all her raw materials from the ceded territory swamps and forests of northern WI. and processes it all by hand. The finished basket came first, followed by traditional teachings and healing. Now, all these aspects come together during the creative process of basket making. April has received much recognition for her working knowledge of Black Ash basketry, while being thought of as a patient, gentle educator.

Instagram: @april.l.stone