COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
ISLAND WORKSHOP DAY
May 4, 2024
Haystack opens each season with Island Workshop Day, a special program for residents of Deer Isle, Stonington, and the greater Blue Hill Peninsula, and is designed for individuals 18 and over, of all skill levels and backgrounds. Presented in partnership with the Healthy Island Project.
Island Workshop Day is traditionally held on the first Saturday in May and provides an opportunity for friends and neighbors to reconnect and learn alongside one another. Given the interest in this program, Haystack accepts people based on a lottery system. We reserve slots for those who have not previously had the opportunity to participate in our other programs.
All skill levels - from beginner to professional - are welcome.
All participants must be at least 18 years old and a resident for more than 9 months of the year of one of the following: Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Castine, Deer Isle, Little Deer, Isle au Haut, Orland, Penobscot, Sargentville, Sedgwick, Stonington, and Surry.
Application Deadline: Friday, April 5
Notification to Applicants: Friday, April 12
Confirmation Deadline: Friday, April 19
Program Cost: $75
The 2024 application for Island Workshop Day has closed.
Island Workshop Day is supported in part by Haystack’s Program Endowment with additional funding provided by individual donors and granting agencies.
2024 Workshops
BLACKSMITHING | Blacksmithing & Metalworking Adventures
Eric Ziner
Welcome to a workshop in which we will create a decorative candelabra to brighten your entertaining opportunities. All projects will be discussed together and we will guide your efforts. Come prepared to try the art of metalwork—sparks, fire, and light—it should be a fun time!
Eric Ziner has lived on Deer Isle for thirty-three years, making functional and artistic metalwork, as well as farming, and community involvement. Check out his website to give you an idea of what he does, has done, even though it's a decade old. Ziner found metal to be his passion and has been using artistic skills and ironic purposefulness to entertain his journey. Sharing lessons and learning from others, creates good energy.
FIBER | Alternative Processes: Creating with Shadows & Pigments
Katama Murray
Experiment with pattern, color, and material! In this workshop, we will explore techniques within cyanotype printing, natural dyeing, and book arts. Utilizing a variety of organic materials and collected objects, participants will work with paper and fabric to capture photographic imagery through cyanotype, and layer color by coaxing pigments from natural dyes. Using stitched and folded methods, we will transform our prints into book forms, and integrate written elements of our experience on campus.
Katama Murray is an eco-artist, educator, naturalist, and business owner from the Blue Hill peninsula in Maine. Her mixed media work and company, Teach Peace Prints, are inspired by place-based making and our interconnectedness to the environment. With a passion for multidisciplinary making, she enjoys learning and teaching together with people of all ages, hoping to inspire others to become more connected to the earth through the power of art and community.
GRAPHICS | The Screenprinted Monoprint
Pilar Nadal
Drawing, painting, and screenprinting, oh my! We will explore the monoprinting process with water based media through multiple screenprinting techniques. This workshop will be jam packed with experimentation and students will end up with a plentiful pile of prints as well as the know how to recreate this accessible process at home.
Pilar Nadal is a printmaker, educator, and the director and established printmaker of Pickwick Independent Press, a community print shop in Portland, ME.
METALS | Introduction to Micro Mosaic Jewelry
Amanda Edwards
Come learn the art of micro mosaics! In this workshop, you will learn modern techniques to create this beautiful art form, originally produced in the 16th century by the Vatican School in Italy. Instruction will include how to safely cut and use filati, stained glass, and millefiori, how to design micro mosaic jewelry, as well as use of proper adhesives and puddies. You will leave with a number of completed micro mosaic jewelry masterpieces!
Amanda Edwards is a glass mosaic artist living on the coast of Maine. She has done a number of public art installations, including a five-story mosaic mural for the Boston Children’s Hospital, murals for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, Allagash Beer, and numerous additional schools and public spaces. In addition, Edwards teaches mosaic classes quite often and is lucky to host international art retreats each year. She adores glass, and loves sharing the joy of this medium every chance she gets!
STYLING | Photo Styling for Craftspeople & Makers
Basha Burwell
Join Stylist + Art Director, Basha Burwell, for this one-of-a-kind styling workshop. She will introduce you to her line work, and teach you some tips and tricks to create interesting images containing your work. This unique workshop is for craftspeople and makers wanting to improve the skills necessary to present their craft through photographic imagery. This workshop will help you with the tools needed to successfully conceptualize, plan, produce, and even shoot creative and memorable still-life images featuring your craft objects. The primary focus will be on composition, lighting with available light, and the use of editing tools and props.
Basha Burwell works as an art director and commercial photo stylist with a focus on clothing brands. Her clients include Garnet Hill, Amazon, Talbots, New Balance, and L.L.Bean. Burwell also designs, fabricates, and photographs her own line of silver and gold Jewelry. As a co-author of The Maine House books, she is an aficionado of the authentic. A native Mainer, Burwell prides herself on her scrappy, resourceful, and adventurous spirit. She splits her time between Brooklin, ME, and Cambridge, MA.
bashaburwell.com; bashabcreative.com
@Basha_oog; @bashaburwelljewelry; @Themainehouse_thebook
WRITING + MOVEMENT | Occupy Poetry
Kate Russell
All the threads of a good story are right where we are. In this workshop, we will use poetry and play to make a piece of theatre from scratch together. By embodying rhythm, imagery, and metaphor we can use ourselves to create something beautiful. Through movement, music, sound, and story we will become an ensemble and devise a piece of poetic storytelling through collective creation.
Kate Russell, a theatremaker and poet, believes storytelling is at the heart of who we are. She is inspired by theatre as a collaborative craft to celebrate community, deepen belonging, and rediscover place. As the Founding Artistic Director of Threadbare Theatre Workshop, Russell adapts, directs, and devises plays in rural places with local people—currently Downeast on unceded Wabanaki land in what we now call Maine.