Explore Shibori, where chance and material guide the dyeing process. Learn resist techniques, layering, discharge, and acid dyeing on silk to create rich, textured, and vibrant fabrics.

The Colorful Chemistry of Plants: A Botanical Printing Workshop—Bring a favorite plant to life and explore its beauty on fabric in this hands-on, creative immersion.

Aya Fiber Studio Open Studio in Stuart, Florida provides dedicated studio time for artists to work independently on fiber art projects. Enjoy a quiet, creative environment designed for focus, experimentation, and hands-on making in a professional studio setting.

Explore Wabi-Sabi through flax roving and natural materials, creating collages and visual haiku. Experiment with texture, mark-making, and materiality to express place and self creatively.

Our focus for this workshop will be for each student to develop their own personal design vocabulary on which to build a body of work.

This vocabulary will take the form of text, images and a personal color palate that will be developed through the exploration of surface design techniques including wax resist, mono-printing on a gel plate, paste papers, image transfers, collage, stitching, mark-making and more.

This 4-day intensive workshop explores kumo, stitched, mokume, and maki-age shibori as a progressive practice of drawing with thread. Students will work through multiple dye baths, selectively releasing bindings to create layered shade variations, and develop an original textile composition guided by line, tension, and form.

Experience the excitement of dyeing indigo patterns over color. Results can range from dramatic to subtle, with a bonus when the interaction of indigo and fiber-reactive dyes creates interesting haloes of color. The class will include instructions on mixing fiber-reactive colors and using an indigo vat and various Shibori techniques. There will be lots of time to create beautiful, unique fabrics as students team up to create solid colors that everyone can overdye in indigo shibori patterns.

While it is NOT required, students are encouraged to come up with a project in mind, such as a wall hanging, quilt, garment, or other textile.

No experience is necessary; experienced dyers are welcome.

The traditional Japanese art of katazome is ancient. Kata means stencil and zome is a form of the word someru which means to dye- hence katazome (stencil dyeing)

The basic process of stencil dyeing is not complicated. First, a stencil is cut and placed on a piece of fabric. Next resist paste is applied through the stencil.

The stencil is then removed, and the pasted fabric is allowed to dry in the sunlight. Fabric is then treated with sizing if going to be dyed with pigments. Fabric is then indigo dyed or the color pigments brushed on.

Finally, the fabrics are soaked in water to remove the paste.

The steps of creating Katazome must be followed in sequence, and timing is essential.

The South Florida Surface Design Association (SFSDA)2026 Annual Spring Trunk Show, a vibrant celebration of fiber art, surface design, and creative craftsmanship. This special two-day event showcases the extraordinary talents of our member artists and offers a unique opportunity to experience the many forms of contemporary surface design.

Create lovely collages using shapes such as map elements, floral motifs, and /or geometric patterns and shapes using opaque and sheer fabrics.

Explore the potential of intricately cut surfaces created with the Silhouette Cameo electronic cutter. This popular machine can provide precision cutting that leads to beautiful detail.

The instructor will also provide the opportunity to work with elements that are pre-cut with a laser cutter.

The Japanese Paper-making & Bookbinding Intensive is designed to give students the unique opportunity to learn three distinct Japanese crafts: Nagashizuki hand papermaking, natural dyeing and cover decoration, and hand bookbinding. Each day, we will build upon skills learned in previous sessions to create a body of work that is considerate of the resources, materials, and aesthetics that define Japanese bookmaking. Students can expect to leave this workshop with a collection of hand-bound books housed as well as a stack of luscious hand-dyed decorative papers to use for further exploration.

Welcome to my new techniques class!

We’ll cover multiple new ways of expressing ourselves on fabric.

Transfer printing: we’ll use non-toxic dye (provided by me) to transfer designs from paper to synthetic materials, using heat.

It’s a very different way of creating designs, as compositions can be created on dry paper with collage techniques. 

A huge variety of synthetic materials can be used, including sheers.

Also, botanicals can be used with fantastic results, matching or exceeding results achieved through eco printing. Post production: learn how to use various media such as gel pens, markers, and colored pencils, to enhance your stitching after quilting.

Watercolor techniques on fabric: We’ll use fabric paints on cotton to achieve similar effects of watercolor paint on paper, only it is permanent. These can make a great base for hand or machine stitching.

In this workshop, you will first learn how to paint images with Procion dyes on cotton. Learning to control the dyes will be emphasized. Among other things, we will cover blending, layering, special effects and painting without bleeding. All of these techniques can be used to create images as complex as portraits or as simple as a line on a scarf. Each student is asked to bring two or three 18"x 20" designs or drawings that they will transfer onto cloth and then paint. These drawings can be fruits or rounded objects, still life, animals, faces, or anything you would like to paint. Any image can be used as long as it has been made into an 18" X 20" black and white line drawing. It would also help to have an example or an idea of your color choices. In the second part of the workshop, we will explore new ideas about how to use quilting to enhance the look of your painted cloth. The main objective is to use quilting lines to create depth, texture, tension, or shadowing which will give a new dimension to your quilt. Lines can be inspired by an endless variety of things (nature, architecture, technology, etc.) to add visual interest and reinforce your overall design. Even straight lines can become a design in themselves. You will be working with the images you have painted during the first part of the workshop. This workshop is based on free-motion machine quilting but the design techniques can be adapted to hand quilting. Experience in one or the other is required.

Suzanne Connors will teaching at the Madeline Island School of Arts; July 13-17, 2026

The mission of the Appalachian Center for Craft is to promote excellence in American craft by teaching both tradition and innovation in professional studio craft, and fostering access to the highest quality craft education, craft artists, craft works and events in a community arts context.

Suzanne Connors will be teaching at Sanborn Mills Farm; August 12-17, 2026