Gallery offers classes for crafts

With the recent snow drifting onto Pittsburgh sidewalks, many people are bundling up in thick wool scarves and funky knitted headbands. On their way to class, they tote stylish handbags. The Society for Contemporary Craft

2100 Smallman St., Pittsburgh, PA 15222

412-261-7003

www.contemporarycraft.org

Classes Mentioned:

Knitting from the Hip

Saturday Feb. 5, 12

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (students should bring lunch)

Instructor: Casey Droege

Tuition: $125

Scholarships available for students with valid college ID.

Felted Handbags

Saturday, March 19

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (students should bring lunch)

Instructor: Annie Lawrence

Tuition: $75

Materials Fee: $20

Scholarships available for students with valid college ID.

With the recent snow drifting onto Pittsburgh sidewalks, many people are bundling up in thick wool scarves and funky knitted headbands. On their way to class, they tote stylish handbags.

But many of these items, especially when they’re quality, cost quite a bit of money. Increasingly, people are making these trendy items themselves.

The Society for Contemporary Craft, a gallery in the Strip District, offers classes throughout the year in its Drop-in Studio. The various classes teach students the skills for different do-it-yourself projects .

Offering classes from making recycled art to crafting a spring flower necklace, the gallery’s class schedule through the winter and spring provides instruction on a variety of DIY projects.

Casey Droege is one of the instructors at the Society for Contemporary Craft. A faculty member at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, she has a degree in fibers and textiles but currently does interdisciplinary artwork, she said.

Droege, who is a self-employed artist, is very familiar with DIY crafts.She has knitted on and off for years and learned when she was young. Both her parents were artists, so art was always natural for her.

“I feel the need to create,” she said.

Next month, Droege will teach a class at the gallery called “Knitting from the Hip,” which will help knitters of all levels. The class focuses on the basic elements of knitting, she said, and will teach students to create different shapes through the stitches.

“The main goal is just to get everybody comfortable with the ideas of knitting and comfortable with the act of knitting,” Droege said.

“Knitting from the Hip” consists of two Saturday classes. The first class teaches students the basic skills of knitting, where the second introduces more complex skills. Students will learn how to incorporate different colors into the patterns and develop a structured shape with the stitches.

By the end of the two lessons, Droege hopes the students will feel comfortable following their own “intuition, mind and imagination” without using a pattern.

Annie Lawrence also teaches a class at SCC called “Felted Handbags.” It will be a one-day class held on March 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will teach students to make their own felt handbag through a complex and artistic process, Lawrence said.

“The goal is to have the handbag made by the end of the day,” she said. “I’d like them to go home with a finished project.”

But the process will not be quick. Lawrence explained the “Felted Handbags” class teaches how to produce the felt. Students work with merino wool roving to make the felt they use for the handbag.

“It’s not difficult, but it’s labor intensive. It’s not a fast process,” Lawrence said.

The finished product will be a small, felt handbag without seams. The handbags will consist of six or eight layers of the merino wool roving, which holds together but still remains soft, she said.

Lawrence has been felting — the process of making felt — for almost seven years and is a member of the Fiber Arts Guild of Pittsburgh, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting fiber arts. Felting acts as a sort of release for her, she said, and she enjoys experimenting with the different types of wool.

“You run out to the fabric stores, and they all have the same sort of things,” she said. “With felting, you get to create your own types of fabric, which then gets used in garment making or accessories.”

Though both classes are open to all, they are a little pricey for most college students. “Knitting from the Hip” costs $125 for the two classes and “Felted Handbags” costs $75 plus an additional $20 materials fee.

Luckily, there are scholarship options available for college students. Laura Rundell, the director of education at SCC, works to provide interested students with the opportunity to participate in the classes.

The scholarships are open to students who applie, but they are limited to the amount of funding available. Students interested in scholarships can call the society. They must be able to provide a student ID.

The mission of SCC is to engage the public, she said, and the classes and scholarship opportunities stick by that mission. Classes that would otherwise be too expensive for some students become quickly accessible.

With these and other DIY options available, there is no need to solely rely on purchasing trendy accessories.

“We really feel committed to making [the scholarships] available to a broad base of people, people from all different groups,” Rundell said.

A full day of crafts is up ahead in the class spaces of the Society for Contemporary Craft:

Monday, Jan. 17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All classes are $140 and include a boxed lunch.

An undetermined number of scholarships are available for college students with valid ID.

Splashes of Color

Instructor: Lily Hoy

Craft a bound journal that includes hand-decorated pages using watercolor.

Needle Felting as an Art Medium

Instructor: Briony Jean Foy

Learn to use the technique of felting to create a painting-like image.

Glass Beadmaking

Instructor: Darlene Durrwachter-Rushing

Make glass beads using portable, inexpensive torches.

Fundamentals for Recycled Plastic Crafting

Instructor: David Edgars

Learn to use plastics to make bright and inexpensive artwork.