My final Brooklyn Love Exchange piece

An homage to some friends in Sunset Park. This is how they met.

Caroline Mak: Scabs, Bandages and Skeletons

Last night, I visited Newark, NJ for the Newark Out of Doors art walk and festival. I stopped by Gallery Aferro, where I fell in love with the stitched orange peels and distressed and reconstituted paper towel roll in Caroline Mak's installation, "Scabs, Bandages and Skeletons." I recommend a quick trip on the Path train to see this work.

If you live in Brooklyn, check out Caroline's site specific installation at the Brooklyn Arts Council.

Williamsburg hug by way of Greenpoint and Brooklyn Heights

I call this piece "Williamsburg hug." I know the couple, and they're lovely, and still very happy together. It was a pleasure working on this piece.

Day one at the Dumbo Arts Festival

Today was a blast - sharing my work from the Brooklyn Love Exchange with visitors to the Dumbo Arts Festival. I collected a fair number of love stories from current and former Brooklynites. I'm posting some photos from the event.

My heart goes out to one man who told me, "We started in Fort Greene and moved in together in Crown Heights. I wish her visa hadn't expired." I really hope it works out for this couple, now separated geographically. I am adding these sentences to my love map.

Thanks to the sponsors of the Dumbo Arts Festival for including my project, and to the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council, the organizations responsible for helping support my Brooklyn Love Exchange project.

Brooklyn Heights love -- the latest from the Brooklyn Love Exchange

I'm quite fond of my latest piece for The Brooklyn Love Exchange:

"He told me that when he met me for the first time, he thought, "In another life, this is the type of woman I should marry."

This couple IS now happily married.

If you're in the New York area, I'm previewing my work from The Brooklyn Love Exchange at the Dumbo Arts Festival, taking place tonight, Friday 9/23 from 6-9, as well as tomorrow and Sunday. I will be on site Saturday and Sunday from 1-4pm at 81 Front Street.

Drop by to see my work and to participate in my improvised embroidery process: I will interview guests and add your stories to my Brooklyn love map, and begin creating new pieces for The Brooklyn Love Exchange. I can't wait to see you there!

Hens Rene, the latest from FiberGraf

Stitch with me this September (and October and November)

Hi fellow artists, craftspeople, creatives, designers, lovers of fun and Brooklyn.

Let's embroider together this fall. Upcoming workshops include:

FOR BEGINNERS ~

1. Embroidery 101 @ 61 Local

61 Bergen Street, Brooklyn (near Smith Street and the F/G trains to Bergen Street)

Wednesday, 9/14, 7-8:30pm with instructor (me) available until 9pm
This is a total intro class where you will learn basic stitches. Within the first half hour, you will be able to stitch your name.

Cost is $35 including supplies. Sign up on skillshare:

http://www.skillshare.com/Embroidery-101/591490391

2. Classes at 3rd Ward in Bushwick, Brooklyn

Sunday, 9/18, 11am-2pm

Saturday, 10/15, 1:30-4:30pm

Saturday, 11/19, 1:30-4:30pm
$60 + $10 materials fee

You can sign up for one session; each session is 3 hours
Info covered: basic stitches + techniques for transferring images onto fabric and drawing and writing with thread.

Link for more info and registration:
http://www.3rdward.com/3rdwardclasses/extraordinary-embroidery.html

FOR BEGINNERS, EXPERTS AND EVERYONE IN BETWEEN:
3. Pratt CCPS, 144 West 14th Street, NYC, F/L/1/2/3 to 14th Street
The Embroidered Art Journal, Design and Craft Projects

This class is the most in depth, and allows you to develop a project from conception through technical trouble shooting with instructor and peer feedback and support.

PMDA-106-01
October 16 - November 20
Sunday mornings, 9:30am-12:30pm
$305

PMDA-106-02
September 16 - October 28
Fridays, 6:30-9:30pm
$305

http://my.pratt.edu to register or 212-647-7199