Sewetry: Embroidered Poems (This class will only be offered once a year)
Adult Multi-Week | Available
Learn to write an image based poem and bring it to life by embroidering an image from your work. We’ll explore imagery in poetry and then each student will craft their own image driven poem with prompts and help from poet Emily Okamoto-Green. Poems will be workshopped in class and then students will choose one image from their own poem to embroider. Then you’ll learn a running stitch, backstitch, chain stitch and french knots to achieve your design. Your design will be transferred, stitched and framed in an embroidery hoop. You will leave class with an original poem and a beautiful hand stitched image, ready to display!
- Classes are confirmed one week prior to the start date. In order to help us confirm classes, please register as early as possible.
Due to a set of stairs, this classroom is not wheelchair accessible.
On-site courses do not come with studio access outside of class time. Paid open studio access is available through our Studio Access Program. Please visit visarts.org for more information.
Instructor speaks Japanese, but class will be held in English.
Lisa Hutchinson
Lisa Hutchinson started Top Stitch Mending five years ago, to help keep clothing out of landfills and keep family heirlooms in circulation. Top Stitch offers clothing repair services, including visible mending and sewing lessons to spread sustainability. With a goal of zero waste, all scraps from past projects are used for future repairs. Lisa is personally driven by reuse, sustainable practices and low impact living. These ideas are explored in the classes she teaches both at her studio and The Visual Arts Center. She has been sewing for 27 years and received her bachelor's degree in fashion design from Drexel University.
Website: topstitchmending.com
Instagram: @topstitchmending
Emily Okamoto-Green
Emily Okamoto-Green is a half-Japanese essayist, poet, and animal lover. Originally from Shizuoka-ken, Japan's green tea capital, her family relocated to Richmond, VA in 1998. A 2018 Graduate of George Mason University’s Honors and English Honors College, she graduated from GMU again in 2021 with her MFA in Poetry. Her accolades include the Virginia Downs Poetry Award, the Joseph Lohman III Poetry Prize, The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center 2020 fellowship, YesPoetry Magazine’s Poet of the Month, and inaugural winner of the Berkey Essay Contest. Her life highlights include Arthur Sze once saying her poem had a sense of wonder, bowing on stage at Carnegie Hall as a teenaged poet, and any time a cat or dog has come up to her without her first initiating the interaction. Emily tries to spend as much time as possible with her feet in the Atlantic or dreaming of them in the Pacific once more. She currently serves as the Writer in Residence for the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.
Instagram: @emi.dori