The Secret Society of Weird Weavers

Summer Seminar:

July 10th - Sept 19th 2021

TSSoWW has sold out for the Summer 2021 Cohort. Get on the wait list to find out when another one rolls out.

What is this?

For years, after people have taken my Modern Tapestry Weaving Workshops, I’ve been asked “Mandy, what’s next …do you offer intermediate classes?” from folks who got really energized by weaving and the way I teach it.

Also, what actually a lot of people new to weaving need to make more amazing weavings, are to develop more design chops and find their own unique voice — which is a more meandering process than just knowing more stitches.

So The Secret Society of Weird Weavers is my search for an answer. TSSoWW for short!

The Secret Society of Weird Weavers —

- an 8 person cohort, summer-long seminar, working with my high-weirdness self on busting your tired habits with weaving — using experimental weaving as a vehicle for fine-tuning your intuition, creating social magic through mutual support during creative risk-taking, to glow-up your visionary brain through weaving, even if you aren’t an artist or don’t want to be one.

This is going to be part social club, part Atelier-style learning ( without the patriarchal vibe of the Geeeeniiusss Artist at the helm), part intermediate/advanced weaving skills power-up.

We’ll have creative challenges, talks on design theories, inspiration slide decks, access to my wild studio supply hoard and a private FB group to share ideas and get advice when we aren’t meeting.

This will be at my Seattle Fiber Art Studio, utilizing my outdoor garden studio for the time being, with slide decks shown inside next to my half-wall for ventilation.

Secrecy has a certain power and permission to it.

Let me be your ring leader!

What you get as a member of the 8-person summer cohort:

• Six 5.5 hour workshops at Mandy Greer Studio -

  a total of a 11 hours a month, and a grand total of 33 hours at the studio! I’ll talk more below about what will happen in those 5.5 hours.

• Access to a ton of materials while you work at the studio -

  (I have some serious hoarder tendencies!)

• my usual workshop yarn stash, my retreat yarn stash, and featured selections each class from my private collection of vintage materials and boutique yarns, hand-dyed, hand-spun (the really good stuff). Tons of reclaimed fibers, roving, beads, found objects.

• Paints, dyes, inks and other mixed media stuff, like silver leaf. I’ll collect all kinds of woods, metal, and other cool object ideas for mounting weavings.

• Access to loads of tools at the studio -

  like swifts, ball winder, rolling cutter and mat, tassel winder, wood working tools, pom pom makers, crochet hooks, felting needles, hand carders

• A private Facebook group for members to communicate between classes -

• get feedback on works-in-progress, encouragement for your creative challenges.

• Share ideas and discoveries - anything you’re nerding out about in your weaving.

• Share our intuition exercises and any important readings.

• We’ll foster a sense of mutual support and be your creative accountability cabal to keep you on track.

• There will be a section to house our own Inspiration Pinboards we’ll each create.

• The design lecture and inspiration slide decks I’ll create for each class can be found here for you to refer back to.

• And I’ll be filming my hands doing technique demos during our workshops, so you can refer back to anything you don’t remember.

• I’ll shoot some high resolution images of your favorite piece -

  During our last meeting, with my (semi) professional lighting and camera equipment set up, and edit them for you, so you can go through the process of documenting your work, and I’ll provide you with some beautiful images to share!

• I’ll ply you with my favorite snacks from Uwajimaya and sparkling water!

what happens when we meet?

• Each session, I’ll have a mini presentation on design theories, intuition, how to access inspiration and more, with some slide decks on other artists’ and weavers’ work we’ll use as springboards for trying to infuse new energy into our work.

• Each session, we’ll spend time learning how to look deeply at each others work and offer rich brainstorming and new eyes on where our work might be stagnating. It won’t be ‘art-school firing squad critique-energy’ and no you won’t have Heidi Klum saying, “I’m sorry, you’re out”. It will be like having and 8 headed imagination Hydra spurring you on to new ideas, and illuminating places that need your attention.

• If you’re stuck, it can be exhilarating to have others who’ve got your back. If this makes you nervous because you’ve never done this process before, don’t worry, I’ll provide lots of structure and prompts, and you have agency to have boundaries and ask for what you need.

• We all need support and hype squads, but the reason kids don’t really grow from “ good jobs” is, it isn’t meaningful. So we’re going to learn how to do more than just “wow, I love it” for each other. We want you to groooowww, so we’ll work on strategies for this, so that we are all meaningfully helping each other see some new insight into our pieces.

• Each session, we’ll work at our looms and I’ll give you a delicious buffet of new intermediate-to-advanced weaving techniques. I adore taking stitches and techniques that have been around forever, and the everyone is doing, and tweaking the hell out of them, like Molly Ringwald and that pink dress. We’ll have demos on different mounting ideas, interspersed between lessons, to stretch waaaay beyond the really play-out dowel hanging method for wall hangings.

• Each session I’ll give you Creative Challenges (aka assignments) to do at home to get you engaged with your environment, get your weavings off the wall, stop seeing a weaving as done when it comes off the loom, see the loom as a tool to make parts for a larger whole. This will give you a rhythm and some accountability to stay engaged in your weaving process for the duration of the cohort. I’m bringing my whole-ass-artist-self to you, so this will be a very mixed media, experimental approach.

• Sprinkled throughout our time together will be goofy, playful, fun and transgressive creativity and communal games, both to loosen you up and get you syncing up with your cohort friends - like stash swaps and some other secrets I’m not telling you about just yet. This isn’t just a bunch of classes — it’s about sharing yourself, expanding your own efforts through helping others do the same!

• Dada, Fluxus, automatic drawing and Arte Povera are my fairy goddess-mothers and the seasoning to my approach, and movements were not just about art, but the communal creativity engine created by its members.

Why an application?

My role is to create a container for all of us to learn from each other and help each other super-charge our ideas and impulses, and honor them. I want to know what you need from me.

It’s why I am managing this project with applications. Not to judge anyone, no no no. But to make sure we’re on the same page with what I’m facilitating, and how I’m asking folks to support others. To make sure this isn’t just a class, but a group of people who fit well together.

I also may get ideas from you on ways to offer - later - what you are looking for, if this time around I’m not.

I am so giddy and lit-up to begin this with you, and ready to work my buuutt off for you, to help you electrify your aliveness through weaving. Let’s do this!