Oil and Cotton at the Trans-Pecos Music Festival!

Woven Altars
Instructor: Sarah Westrup
Cost: $45Saturday, September 14 from 10 am to 1pm

Oil and Cotton will be out in West Texas celebrating the culture of the Southwest by creating miniature woven altars at the Trans-Pecos Music Festival in Marfa,Texas. Students will learn how to transform a simple box into a functioning loom and weave a space for memory. Utilize an assemblage of materials such as textiles, paper, photos, and cherished treasures to construct meaning within your own personal shrine. Found objects such as grasses, yucca pods, cactus needles, and tumble weeds will be incorporated into your altar so you can take a little piece of West Texas home with you. Participants will explore the process of creating layers with simple woven structures and collage natural and man made materials. Folks are welcomed to bring any items or images they would like to incorporate into their shrine or choose from an array of provided materials.

Visit www.sunbeamoperations.sqsp.com to learn more about the instructor, Sarah Westrup.


To register, email: Lizzy@elcosmico.com

Click here to see the full Trans-Pecos Music Festival workshop listing.

Weaving Fibers and Glass Cutting this WEEKEND!

Spider Web Loom
Saturday, February 18, 11-2pm
Instructor: June Covington
$65

People all over the earth make all the fabric they need on looms assembled from sticks which support a warp into which they weave local fibers and exotic threads into patterns of unlimited designs. Class participants will assemble a simple "spiderweb" loom made from fallen branches and weave a wall-hanging of rich design using yarn, threads, wool and fabric scraps of varied colors and patterns. The branches for the looms can be left in place to provide the means to hang the finished work on the wall.

Glass Cutting 

Friday, February 17, 6:30-8:30pm
Instructor: Larry Pile
$45-55

“Regardless of whether you do mosaics, stained glass, leaded glass, fused glass, small-volume picture-framing or small glass jewelry, glass cutting skills are important. Come to Oil and Cotton for this two-hour class with Artist Larry Pile (AKA The Kessler Craftsman). Larry will bring plenty of oil-fed hand cutters, running pliers and grozers, some electric tools, straight edges and practice glass. The class will start with learning to cut and run straight lines, then move to curved lines in everything from simple clear glass to opaque art glass. Larry will also show you how to cut thin strips, circles, use a water-fed ring saw for intricate cuts. He’ll also show you how to smooth the edges of your cut glass using either a diamond grinder or a hand-held alundum stone. You’ll walk out of Oil & Cotton with a fabulous start in glass cutting. Students will put their new glass cutting skills to work and make a fused glass night light.

No prior experience required, ages 16 and up. All Materials included.