Bidding Farewell to 2024
And workshops to get your creative juices flowing in 2025
It’s a rainy Wednesday. I’m working from home-ish. I called in sick-ish. Don’t fret; I’m fine enough, but not fine enough to commute and sit in an office all day long. Fine enough to attend a couple of Zoom meetings with a rest break in between. And fine enough to write about the year end, the new year ahead, some workshops I’m offering with fine, fine co-teachers.
This last quarter of the year has seemed endless in a way that rarely happens—a good way. October included teaching at Tatter in Brooklyn, NY and flying to Toronto to be a student (oh, how I do love being a student). I taught in West Hartford, CT in November, and enjoyed my group of beginning embroiderers as well as the group who learned how to embroider a portrait. Other than two end-of-the year workshops with Creative Patina, I’m taking December off from teaching.
Creating hand crafted holiday gifts has occupied a lot of my time this month. Whenever I have a spare minute or two, I’m stitching on some project (giftees may read this, hence vague discussion…I don’t want to drop any clues).
I’ve also been thinking a lot about the upcoming Solstice workshop (see our description below) Joyce and I have designed for Creative Patina. We both eagerly wait for the sweet moment in the depths of December when the light creeps back, when the days lengthen. But there’s also a quiet pleasure in the dark nights we still face. A chance to turn inward. To reflect. To dream. To rest.
That reflection, dreaming, resting, that turning inward almost always leads me to new approaches to my creative pursuits, whether that means teaching, making, writing, or consulting. I’m ready to do that inward turn and imagine what the new year might mean for me.
If you’re considering exploring your own creativity, consider taking a workshop with me. I’ve co-designed some courses designed to get your creative juices going. Here they are:
Writing and Book Making Workshops at Antler Editions
These are all in-person workshops at the Antler Editions studio in Easthampton, MA.
Exquisite Corpse Sentence Book
Create a fun, strange book filled with exquisite corpse inspired sentences. Exquisite corpse games originated 100 years ago, with players co-creating in writing or art without seeing the words or images other players created first. We’ll begin by responding to a series of prompts in writing, and then randomly selecting adjectives, nouns, and verbs from the responses to form exquisite corpse sentences. The fun doesn’t end there–we’ll learn to make a five panel accordion fold book, fill it with the exquisite corpse sentences and then mix and match them within the book.
Writing instruction from Beverly Army Williams and binding instruction from Lisa Hersey.
Class is on Thursday January 23, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Investment: $60
Turkish Fold Book
There’s something magical about this structure…from the outside it looks like any other book, but crack it open, and be surprised by how it unfolds. To match the magic of the structure, participants will examine fairy tale story structure before filling the book with a tale from their own lives. Writing prompts will be provided and writing support given as needed.
This class is taught with writing instruction by Beverly Army Williams and binding instruction from Lisa Hersey.
Class is on Thursday, February 20, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Investment: $60
Japanese Stab Binding Book
Does cracking open a new notebook or journal leave you with fear of the blank page? What if we fill pages first and then create a book? In this workshop, you’ll memorialize a favorite object while learning Japanese stab binding. You’ll respond to five different writing prompts that will invite you to engage with your object in creative ways, and draw your object using the low-pressure blind contour drawing method. Then you’ll create your book using the stab binding method. You’ll leave with a meaningful book and the skills to fill any blank page without fear.
Writing instruction from Beverly Army Williams and binding instruction from Lisa Hersey.
Class is on Thursday March 20, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Investment: $60.
Creative Patina online workshops
All workshop times are Eastern time, and all are held on Zoom.
Reparation Scholarships: Two full scholarships for BIPOC are available on a first-come, first-served basis for each workshop and series. These scholarships are our acknowledgement that it takes extra time and energy to navigate the systemic racism in the creative writing and publishing industry. The scholarships are meant as reparation, not as an assumption of financial need. If you are interested in a scholarship, please email creativepatina@gmail.com to let us know.
To register:
We hope you will join us for one or more of our workshops. To sign up,please complete this form and send payment via Zelle (joywag@yahoo.com) or Venmo (@beverly-ArmyWilliams).
All workshops will be recorded, and the recordings will be available for one month after the workshop’s date.
Greeting the Light
Saturday, December 21, 2024, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Winter Solstice is a powerful moment of balance, a moment when we celebrate the return of the light. Whatever your belief system, taking an hour to pause, share in poetry, conversation, and writing on this most potent day will gird you through the darkness of winter as we anticipate the return of spring.
Investment: Donate what you are able to Planned Parenthood. Register using the link above, and send your donation receipt to creativepatina@gmail.com.
Guiding Word
Monday, December 30, 2024, 5-6:30 p.m.
Selecting a Guiding Word for 2025 provides a touchstone you can return to throughout the year. In this 90 minute session, we’ll take you through freewriting exercises designed to help you determine a word that will serve as your guide for goal setting and achievement, greater focus, and looking forward towards the person you want to be by next December. We’ll demonstrate three ways to keep your word present in your life. A supply list will be sent prior to the session.
Investment: $25.00
Reveling in Uncertainty: Embodying Negative Capability
Monday, January 13, 2025, 5-6:30 p.m.
The influence of John Keats on Emily Dickinson (a beloved Creative Patina muse) is well remarked on. One of the more interesting influences is through the concept of negative capability, which he identified as “...when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” A complex, slippery concept, negative capability opens up creative thinking in a productive way for writers and artists of all level, whether by helping them to trust the mysterious in their writing, to find surprising connections, or to live comfortably in the “gray” areas of life
This hands-on workshop will navigate the concept of negative capability by looking at examples from Keats, Blake, Dickinson, Nick Cave, GennaRose Nethercott, Diana Koi Ngyuen, Tracy Smith, Jane Hirshfield, and others. We’ll provide writing prompts designed to enable participants to explore negative capability in their own work and lives, exercises to help cultivate it, and the opportunity to write an early draft of a poem that embodies the concept.
Both Joyce and Beverly have integrated negative capability into their own writing as well as into their teaching. Although the concept is complex, it provides a fruitful approach to any artistic endeavor and way of life, aiding writers in allowing for other possibilities. As practitioners of mindfulness and meditation, both facilitators are experienced in guiding students to be open to noticing, letting go of expectations, gathering in all ideas before judging them, and trusting that writing impasses may be resolved by resisting a forced or fixed solution.
Investment: $25.00
Zine Poetry and Art
Monday, January 20, 2025, 5-6:30 p.m.
Zines, small circulation self published works, offer writers and artists the opportunity to put their work into the world. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn to create a zine from a single sheet of paper, and how to settle on a theme for it. We’ll provide prompts for writing poetry or prose and for creating artwork to use in your zine. We’ll also talk about how you might distribute your zine.
Investment: $25.00
The Power of Three: Triptychs as Portals
Monday, January 27, 2025, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
The number “3” has always held a strong sense of symbolism: from body/mind/spirit to birth/life/death. Stories themselves are recounted in three stages: beginning/middle/end or Inciting incident/turning point/denouement. The manifestation of triptychs began in the Middle Ages with altar art, a three section piece that visually told three parts of a story. The modern and contemporary use of the triptych form in both art and writing can be seen in work by painters Francis Bacon and Kara Walker, who uses the form to create entwined narratives of The Middle Passage and current US racial conflicts. Similarly, poets Reginal Dwayne and Diana Khoi Ngyuen have used the triptych form to address issues of loss and societal injustices. This generative ekphrastic workshop will discuss the power of three in terms of triptychs in both contemporary poetry and modern art. Participants will have the opportunity to see the varied forms a triptych can take as well as the perspectives and thematic layers the form allows. We will view art and poems of the triptych genre, and then participants will have time to generate and produce their own triptych poems in response to triptych paintings. The practice of writing triptychs allows for “collaboration” due to the response to previously created art. In sharing pieces aloud toward the end of the workshop, participants create community by listening and sharing their writing and responses with others. Sample triptych poems we will discuss include work by Diana Ngyuen, Linda Pastan, Rachel Mannheimer, and Samuel Menashe.
Investment $25.00
Note: You may purchase “Reveling in Uncertainty: Embodying Negative Capability”, “Zine Poetry and Art”, “The Power of Three: Triptychs as Portals” as a series for $60, saving $15 off the individual price of the workshops.
Brave Telling
Mondays, February 17, 24, and March 3, 2025, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Before we can structure our stories and poems into pieces that are ready to be shared with others, we must have the courage to get our words on the page, raw and messy as that might be. In this workshop, facilitators will guide participants through a step by step process that will assist writers in recognizing the stories they would like to tell and taking the initiating steps to begin their pieces. As we create a safe environment to write and share, we will discuss self care, vulnerability and our own personal limits. In addition, the three week session will cover: discovering the story participants want to tell; story structure and hybrid writing techniques; in-class writing exercises that will lead to the foundation of a full rough draft of a difficult story.
Investment $60.
Learning from the Women of the Ancient World
Mondays March 31 through May 12, 2025, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Women of the Ancient World have been worshiped, sacrificed, vilified, silenced, victimized, and ignored. While themes of infanticide and prophecy, fidelity and vengeance fuel their histories, these women were also mothers, sisters, daughters, and lovers. In this course, we will look at the conventional view of these female legends and, more importantly, explore a contemporary perspective of who they were, what shaped their lives, and how their stories can guide, alter, and embolden us as we move forward in our own legendary lives. No prior knowledge of these figures from Classical Literature is necessary to be inspired by these workshops. Readings will be provided prior to each session. Prompts to engender prose and/or poetry writing as well as visual explorations (collage, drawings, etc.) will be shared, with ample time for creative work. Be empowered by the Women of the Ancient World!
March 31 Helen
April 7 Iphigenia
April 21 Cassandra
April 28 Medea
May 5 Penelope
May 12 Clytemnestra
Investment: $25/session or all six for $125, a savings of $25 from the individual cost.
Embroidery Classes at Hartford Stitch
Embroidery Basics
Using basic tools–a needle and thread–you can create simple or complex patterns with a handful of stitches. Whether you want to add something extra to your favorite clothes or enjoy the meditative quality of embroidery, this workshop will teach you eleven stitches to get you started. The workshop will cover beginner basics to get started: how to thread a needle, discussion of whether or not to use knots in your embroidery, how to transfer designs, and how to hoop your fabric (or not!). We’ll create an embroidery sampler with eight different stitches that are the building blocks for all other stitches. Class kit is $20 and includes a 5” hoop, 3 pieces of fabric, a marking pen, embroidery floss, needles, instructions, and a resource list.
Investment: $75
Beyond Basics: Embroidery
Have embroidery basics well in hand? Ready to learn some fancier stitches? In embroidery 2, we'll practice 10 fun to make stitches that can have a big impact on your projects, including the woven wheel, detached woven picot, the chevron stitch, blanket stitch, sprat stitch and others. Bring your supplies, or purchase a class kit, which includes a 6" hoop, a variety of needles and threads, an instruction guide, a marking pen, and three pieces of fabric. Cost of kit is $20.
Investment: $75
I hope to see you at a workshop…and I hope you have a beautiful holiday season. Thanks for sharing your time with me!
xx,
Beverly