Bat-Fish Studio Creativity Workshops

All workshops use reclaimed, re-cycled and re-purposed materials

 Bat-Fish Studio offers a variety of Creativity Workshops; a line of classes that focus on using unconventional & re-purposed materials. Designed to be fun & user-friendly, they are a great way to experience hands-on creative re-cycling! Change is not always made through “big” changes but by the small focused efforts made at a local level, day-to-day.

Featured Workshop:

Singed Exquisite

Fascinating Fascinators Singed Exquisite

$60

These beautiful fabric roses were all the rage at the turn of the century and have quickly come back into fashion with the rise of the Steam Punk culture.

Designed to wear in the hair or hat, they also look just as lovely worn as a brooch. Using the gorgeous materials found in sample fabric books from the interior design industry, round swatches are singed & layered, sewn & beaded and then finished off using local foul feathers.

The completed pieces are stunning, and the bonus is that these use materials that otherwise would be sent to the landfill.

Other workshops offered by Bat-Fish Studio:

Spirit Dolls/Creating a Gaia Goddess

$95

The journey of creating a Spirit Doll is personal, from setting your intention, choosing a theme & recalling the qualities you want to bring into your life, this doll will hold that energy for you. As you make her you will be meditating on your objectives & listening for guidance.

Constructing a Spirit doll is a creative & empowering experience, it is a deeply personal ritual to bring to form a part of yourself that is emerging from your unconscious. You will be building a piece that has meaning only to you, but each will be unique & as special as you are.

Created by using reclaimed & up cycled materials, the act of constructing an art doll takes you through a process of imagination, recovery & growth, it invites & encourages you to explore a range of perceptions & emotions allowing you to reach a deeper level of understanding & acceptance of yourself.

1 day workshop

Embellished Clothing and Visible Mending

$85

Do you have a piece of clothing you love but it needs a little TLC? This workshop is for you, we can change, refashion, alter, embellish & reinvent your piece giving your garment a new lease on life. From repairs to visible mending, patches to innovative reconstruction, we can revive your pieces giving them personality & a fresh new style to go with it. Using lace, trim, fabric paint and other mediums, you will leave with a item that has made it's way back into your life again!

1 day workshop

 


Personal Shrines/Spirit Houses

$110

Personal shrines or Spirit Houses are a way to acknowledge and affirm the sacred in our lives. They are created as a personal spaces for reflection, meditation or other specific spiritual & personal pursuits. They can help us remember who we really are & give us a safe place to focus our minds & serve as a daily reminder to our connection to spirit.

Shires can serve as places for solitude, reflection & remembering, but they can also be whimsical & celebratory like the brightly coloured Day of the Dead shrines found in Mexico’s annual festivities. They are “external representations of interior mysteries”, they are a tangible form off showing what might be happening in our hearts & spirits.

Because of the personal nature of these, please feel free to bring photos or personal mementos that can be incorporated into your finished piece. Additional supplies will also be available.

2 day workshop

Tube*Bella Found Object Jewelry

$65

Jewelry that has "been around the block"....literally! Tube*Bella is a unique , sustainable, vegan, up-cycled line of jewelry all made from bicycle inner tubes & found objects. In this workshop you can experiment making jewelry with bicycle inner tubes, this innovative & unconventional material is lovely to work with akin to working with a soft leather.

Found objects can be anything ranging from antique coins to bits of hardware, sea shells, silver spoons or any other natural or man made item that is already in existence for another purpose. When brought together with bicycle inner tube , the magic happens!

Come explore creating with this unique medium producing one of a kind, earrings or pendant. Jewelry with "inner" style!

1 day workshop


Fun with Fabrics

$95

Want to try your hand at silk screening on fabric? It’s a great medium to up-cycle or add excitement to your wardrobe! How about drawing, stamping or stencilling on fabric? Or experimenting with reverse bleaching? This will be your opportunity to try several techniques on different fabrics. These can be used to hid all manners of stains on a favorite garment or just bring a fun graphic element to an existing piece. You can bring in your clothing or items (tote bags, tea towels, pillow cases etc.) you want to transform & we will give them a whole new look!

Liven up a plain skirt or shirt, make screened blocks for a quilt, brighten up a jean jacket, create some patches to use on other clothing pieces, the possibilities are endless! Working with different techniques is inspiring & limited only by your imagination!

1 day workshop


Fascinating Fascinators Singed Exquisite

$60

These beautiful fabric roses were all the rage at the turn of the century and have quickly come back into fashion with the rise of the Steam Punk culture.

Designed to wear in the hair or hat, they also look just as lovely worn as a brooch. Using the gorgeous materials found in sample fabric books from the interior design industry, round swatches are singed & layered, sewn & beaded and then finished off using local foul feathers.

The completed pieces are stunning, and the bonus is that these use materials that otherwise would be sent to the landfill.

1 day workshop

 

Create a Vision Board

A vision board is a concrete representation of your desires and aspirations for a compelling life. They are fun to create & can serve as an invaluable tool to motivate, uplift & inspire you towards tangible daily action in pursuit of your important life goals. It is a powerful tool to help you achieve your goals.

The major rule of creating a vision board is that there are no rules. It is a collection of images that represent the things you want in your life both physically & spiritually. By creating a vision board you are organizing & visualizing your dreams & using it to keep your goals in mind.

Even though we have been through a tough two years with a global pandemic doesn’t mean we should put aside our dreams & objectives for the future. Especially in this time of uncertainty having a vision board containing your intentions & aspirations to refer to, can really help keep you on track & help you work towards your goals during these trying times. With a vision board in hand, you will be moving toward growth in the most important areas of your life!

1 day workshop


Story Scarves

What is a story scarf?

A story scarf is a personal piece of neck wear that has been created using pieces of materials or textiles that come from you or a member of your family’s life. Created along the lines of a family quilt that uses scrap materials, it can use any textiles that contains a story to you. It up-cycles those textiles & creates a whole new piece that can be worn telling your story that is unique only to you.

These pieces can be made as a keepsake, anything kept or given, a token of friendship, affection or remembrance can be used as long as it is a textile. These pieces are made to keep the memory of a loved one close at hand or just an original creation that means a lot to you because of the history of the textiles used.

1 day workshop

 

Fun Funky Handbags

Using reclaimed, re-purposed textiles & materials this course will show you how to create a handbag as unique as you!

I will teach you how to pair beautiful fabrics &/or unconventional materials with delicious designs to create the most amazing bags. Or do you have an existing bag that needs TLC? Lets give it some love & up-cycle that baby! Embellished techniques can also be used to wake up the most frumpy old bag.

A purse is a pretty basic concept: it needs to hold things, a handbag can be as basic or as complicated as you like, limited only by your imagination, the sky is the limits, especially when you bring in the component of reclaimed textiles & materials!

These workshops are meant to be fun, this is the most important consideration while you’re creating your handmade, one of a kind bag, so enjoy yourself!

1 day workshop


Adventures with Mixed Media

Using ordinary objects to create extraordinary art!

Creating a piece using mixed media is not to define it & nail it down once & for all, but rather a open-ended concept that sets you free to express your ideas. In other words “mixed media’ embraces a wide variety of materials, techniques & formats for artist expression.

This leaves it wide open for using unconventional, reclaimed, & repurposed materials. Mixed media is rather a jack of all trades/master of none way of approaching art, rather than a set of particular materials & techniques.

It gives a wide range to explore different media providing endless possibles, mainly in putting things together to effectively express ideas or make beautiful objects.

1 day workshop

 
 
 
 

Class sizes are limited and fill up fast

Please make payment to reserve your spot. E-transfer or
the Square are also available for payment.

 
 

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will”

— George Bernard Shaw