Taught by:

Offered:

Monday + Tuesday (part one)
Friday + Saturday (part two)

Experience level: all levels welcome

Six is a number of the HEART, representing unconditional love,
the power of healing, service to others—an all-around beacon
of light that offers compassion, empathy and hope.

This class will be at the center of our week together as we explore the story of the Six Swans as recounted by the Brothers Grimm. Using this fairy tale as our jumping off place, we will unearth both the collective and personal mythic archetypes and elements that the story presents and see how they are showing up (or are absent) in our daily life. We will do this together and individually through discussion, guided meditation, journaling, photo walks and collage.

Our intention is to take the sparks of inspiration, symbols and metaphors found here into both Stories + Layers and What She Stitched so that we might translate and transform our discoveries into a visual narrative.

Six Swans is a fabulous story for many reasons, not least of which is because the valiant princess saves her six brothers through the act of hand-stitching six shirts from aster flowers—makers for the win—but also because of the extraordinary life challenges she must overcome in order to break the curse. She is fully rooted in her heart to complete this extraordinary feat which demands focus, commitment, dedication, unwavering faith over the course of many long years where she cannot speak or laugh. Dang—these fairy tales, they really lay it on heavy—I’m telling ya’

To add one more bit on top of all that, despite the fact that her brothers’ only hope is the courage and strength of their little sister to break the curse—they don’t believe she has what it takes.

“The conditions are too difficult. You would not be allowed to speak or to laugh for six years, and in that time you would have to sew together six little shirts from aster flowers for us. And if a single word were to come from your mouth, all your work would be lost.”

um, thanks for the vote of confidence, guys? not—

The first part of class will be spent journaling and identifying the different symbols, colors, motifs and archetypes that resonate most for each of us. As we play with the elements of this old myth, we will follow the different threads that the story provides. Then, using your preferred medium — textiles, mixed media or both — each of us will create a piece that speaks to what happens when we lose our voice and the extraordinary surge of power that informs our daily life when we do the hard work to reclaim it. The second part of class will be about calling in six aspects of our self and weaving each piece into place so that we are renewed in the strength of our essential vitality, wisdom and creative spirit.

If this offering sounds serious, it is not.
We will be working from the heart of which feeds
and nurtures joy. Our creativity, curiosity, intuition, kindness and generosity will be the rich resources guiding this journey. And as with any good journey, there will be many a surprise and discovery along the way.

Kit fee: 12

Materials:

All materials (including a pdf of the fairy tale) will be provided with your kit fee. 

optional: any favorite bits of ephemera, fabrics, sewing notions, preferred pen, etc