Day-a-Month Classes

10 Days across 12 Months

We have offered a schedule of "day-a-month" classes since the inception of Committed to Cloth. In brief, these classes enable students to work progressively on a specific day of the month, every month, for 10 months. Class fees will vary according to whether the focus is wet work or dry work. Fees are paid monthly for everyone's benefit in terms of cash flow. Students who sign up need to acknowledge that they are committing to the full 10 days of study... and need to commit to paying the monthly class fee even if they cannot attend.

Four types of classes are offered

• Wet 'n Wild
• Independent Study
• Colour!
• Stitching with Intent

Details for each type of class can be found by click on the appropriate tabs above.

Wet 'n Wild is a structured programme that enables students to undertake "progressive" learning across the key wet media and surface design processes:

• Procion Mx dyes; vat dyeing, tray dyeing and using dyes as paints.
• Colour removal; discharge techniques in the immersion bath and using discharge paste.
• Resists; use of various resists and resist mediums such as reversible PVA, Soy Wax, Flour Paste, folding, pleating etc, and direct resists such as book cover plastic, freezer paper and masking tape on cloth.
• Polymer products; using products from the acrylic family such as fabric paints and polymer mediums.
• Metal leaf; using metal leaf for final accents.
• Surface design; exploring and using various tools and techniques including the silkscreen, thermofax screen, brushes, rollers, scrapers, stamps etc.
• Design, Composition & Layering; getting to grips with the key principles of layering, undertaking design work, responding to the cloth and moving it forward.

Please email cb(at)committedtocloth.com for a full overview of the class (10 pages!).

Dates: two separate classes are being held on Fridays and Mondays:

Friday Class	Monday Class
January 8th	January 11th
February 5th	February 8th
March 5th	March 8th
April 9th	April 12th
May 21st	May 24th
June 11th	June 14th
July 9th	July 12th
August - No Class	August - No Class
September 10th	September 13th
October 15th	October 18th
November 5th	November 8th
December - No Class	December - No Class

BUT... both Wet 'n Wild classes for 2010 are full. To be added to the waiting list and to register on the site to receive up-dates, please email Claire at cb(at)committedtocloth.com

Class size; limited to 8 students.
Venue; Bovey Cottage, Station Road, Betchworth, Surrey RH3 7DF.
Class fees; £450 for the year (10 classes), payable at £45 per class for everyone's benefit in terms of cash flow. Please acknowledge that you are committing to the full 10 days of study... and need to commit to paying the monthly class fee even if you cannot attend.

This programme is geared to provide a focused studio environment for intermediate to advanced level students. Participants turn up prepared to work with intention towards specific, individual goals. This might include working with wet processes, stitch, design or potentially all three. Our job is to guide, mentor, give feedback and teach technique where appropriate.

The Independent Study programme is not suitable for absolute beginners - as without some experience of process, it's hard to be independent! As such, whilst help and guidance is always available, Leslie and Claire need to prioritise one-to-one sessions on any given day and you'll therefore need to be reasonably familiar with wet processes and able to make a start independently.

The fee for an Independent Study programme will be between £400 and £450 for the year, as 'wet' days cost £45 and 'dry' days cost £40. Fees are paid monthly for everyone's benefit in terms of cash flow. Students who sign up need to acknowledge that they are committing to the full 10 days of study... and need to commit to paying the monthly class fee even if they cannot attend.

Five independent study groups will be offered in 2010 with a class size of 8 per group. Places will be offered to current students first, as many come back year-on-year.

Days and dates are shown below and to register your interest, please email Claire at cb(at)committedtocloth.com

Tuesday Group	Wednesday Group	Thursday Group	Friday Group	Saturday Group
January 12th	January 13th	January 14th	January 15th	January 16th
February 9th	February 10th	February 11th	February 12th	February 13th
March 9th	March 10th	March 11th	March 12th	March 14th
April 13th	April 14th	April 15th	April 16th	April 10th
May 25th	May 26th	May 27th	May 28th	May 22nd
June 15th	June 16th	June 17th	June 18th	June 19th
July 13th	July 14th	July 15th	July 16th	July 17th
September 14th	September 15th	September 16th	September 17th	September 18th
October 19th	October 20th	October 21st	October 22nd	October 23rd
November 9th	November 10th	November 11th	November 12th	November 13th

Please note No Classes in August and December

Class size; limited to 8 students. Venue; Bovey Cottage, Station Road, Betchworth, Surrey RH3 7DF.

For registration please email Leslie at lm(at)committedtocloth.com

This is a day-a-month class, is suitable for any level of experience. The key aim is to enable you to explore and get to grips with colour. Key topics will include:

• Colour inspirations.
• The emotional, symbolic, and psychological use of colour (and its relevance to you and your work).
• Understanding why you like certain colour schemes and how they can be used effectively.
• Achieving what you want to achieve with colour.
• Colour theory made accessible; discussing colour using language and context to build understanding and enable you - with experience and practice - to use it in your work.

Practical experimentation sessions will help you to relate the colour(s) you're working with in a way that influences effective design work with energy, mood and atmosphere.

Ultimately, the class is about helping you to achieve the colours and colour combinations you want, through dye, paint, piecing or stitch - or all of these things. Homework will be set after each class - so be prepared for this!

• Class size; limited to 12 students.
• Venue; The Studio, Chequer Mead Arts Centre, De la Warr Road, East Grinstead.
• Class fees; £440 for the year (11 classes), payable at £40 per class for everyone's benefit in terms of cash flow. Please acknowledge that you are committing to the full 10 days of study... and need to commit to paying the monthly class fee even if you cannot attend.
• Registration: please email Leslie at lm(at)committedtocloth.com.
• Deposit; £80.
• Supplies list: this will be sent on receipt of registration.

Dates

You will need to commit to attending on the following dates (all Wednesdays):

Wednesday Class
December 14th 2009; pre-session & Christmas lunch
January 20th
February 17th
March 17th
April 7th
May 19th
June 23rd
July 21st
September 22nd
October 27th
November 24th

Please arrive between 9-9.30am for each session. The class will begin no later than 10am and finish at 3.45pm. Tea/coffee, lunch and light refreshments are available in the Bistro within the arts centre.

Most of us get to a stage in our textile endeavours when we ask "where am I trying to get to with all of this?". This independent study class therefore seeks to help you work with construction (piecing and/or collage) and stitch techniques to generate textile pieces that achieve your intent.

The emphasis will be on independent study and focus on helping you to:

• Take what you know and push your work forward with construction and stitch
• Use paper or cloth based design and composition tools to flesh out ideas and generate studies or rough guides as to potential ways forward

You will need to give thought and consideration in advance of each class in terms of:

• Intention: what are the specific goals in terms of producing a body of work.
• Source material: collages, photographs, journals and other reference material
• Fabrics: assembling the 'palette' (if pieces are to be constructed) in terms of colour and value range, solids, graphics etc., or producing the whole cloth.
• Tools and materials: threads, scissors, needles, cutting mat, rotary cutter, rulers, fusible web, backing fabrics, design tools etc. and your iron and in the winter months maybe a angle poise lamp.

Leslie's main focus will be to guide and mentor rather than instruct and she will focus on:

• Understanding individual goals in terms of the body of work each student wishes to produce. To help with this, a 'pre-class' session will be held on December 14. You'll be asked share your personal vision with the group, present source material and generally discuss your intention and goals.
• Providing advice and guidance on techniques appropriate to the work to be made.
• Running one-to-one and group discussions to help you respond to work-in-progress, brainstorm, trouble-shoot and plan ways forward.

As such, this is not a technique-based class. It will encourage the evaluation of work-in-progress and the discussion of ideas, concepts, design and composition. Students are expected to take responsibility for thinking through what they wish to focus on and work towards and work independently, receiving help and advice on technique as needed. If there are students wanting to use a specific technique unfamiliar to them, demonstrations will be provided.

The Studio has wet facilities in that it has several sinks. As such, you'll be able to undertake wet work in order to generate specific pieces of cloth. However, it must be stressed that this is NOT a wet class and students will need to bring the tools and media they wish to use in order to work wet.

Two tables will be provided per student, with risers to lift the cutting table top comfortable height. Two ironing boards and design boards will also be available.

Experience level; this study class is not suitable for beginners. Students must be of an intermediate to advanced level, have experience with a reasonable number of construction and stitch techniques and have a reasonably clear idea of what they wish to achieve.

• Class size; limited to 12 students.
• Venue; The Studio, Chequer Mead Arts Centre, De la Warr Road, East Grinstead.
• Class fees; £440 for the year (11 classes), payable at £40 per class for everyone's benefit in terms of cash flow. Please acknowledge that you are committing to the full 10 days of study... and need to commit to paying the monthly class fee even if you cannot attend.
• Registration: please email Leslie at lm(at)committedtocloth.com.
• Deposit; £80.
• Supplies list: this will be sent on receipt of registration.

Dates

You will need to commit to attending on the following dates (all Tuesday):

Tuesday Class
December 14th 2009; pre-session & Christmas lunch
January 19th
February 16th
March 16th
April 6th
May 18th
June 22nd
July 20th
September 21st
October 26th
November 23rd

Please arrive between 9-9.30am for each session. The class will begin no later than 10am and finish at 3.45pm. Tea/coffee, lunch and light refreshments are available in the Bistro within the arts centre.