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What is Creating with Courage?

Filmed on location in Washington State, USA  Creating with Courage is an online course based on creativity and exploration. Centered around transforming recycled textiles through many techniques including eco and rust dyeing you’ll create fabric forms that are pieced together to make your own fibre art sculptures.

Whether they be abstract, organic or representational, the choice is yours and the variety of fibre artwork that will emerge as a result of this online experience will be extraordinary!

Delving deep into Clarissa’s philosophies around creativity, which have sustained her professional creative practice for over 30 years, it will feel like Clarissa is right there with you supporting you as a creative coach.

Many students have found their creative spark as they find freedom in letting go of the rules and recipes that often hold us back.

All course materials, including self-paced beautifully filmed videos and comprehensive resource guides, are within an easy to use member portal and yours to revisit anytime.

Creating with Courage – Adventures in Fibre Art is an extensive resource to support your creativity for life. It’s a worldwide community for enrolled students to connect in a private online forum and share your textile adventures directly with Clarissa, ask questions, bounce ideas, and gain the skills and confidence needed to create your own authentic fibre sculptures.

Enrolments are limited.

Student explorations with rust and eco dyeing
Clarissa Callesen

What's Included?

Over 10 modules with 7 hours of footage and 8 weeks of ongoing guidance and comprehensive downloadable resources guides, Clarissa has created an in-depth experience that covers the techniques and philosophies she has developed over her lifetime as a professional artist.

It begins with an urban prospecting adventure where you’ll learn to see beyond what most others can. A master of transformation Clarissa shares practical ways to modify different materials with rust, eco-dyes, paints, stitches and further methods to distress your finds before translating your inspiration and ideas into 3D fibre forms. You’ll look at composition in a refreshing way, investigate armatures and how to successfully incorporate found objects into your artwork.

Your confidence will grow as you embellish your textiles from traditional embroidery to contemporary mark-making, burning and melting. You’ll be amazed at the creative freedom that is unleashed as you let go of the rules and recipes that often hold us back as creatives.

Most importantly, you’re going to conquer the hard part of finishing a piece both in it’s physical and emotional ways, coming to a place of completion feeling satisfied with your creation.

About This Course

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Empowering

“Doing an online course with Clarissa has been one of the best things I’ve done for my artwork.

She is fun, personable, easy to follow, and super encouraging.

Best of all her processes are very freeing and empowering – you don’t need to go out and buy special materials or tools, you don’t need lots of practice to master a technique, you just go for it!

I loved it and can’t wait for this new workshop to begin.”

Deirdre Bruen

You're Not Alone

There’s nothing worse than purchasing an online course only to be left in the dark.

That’s why we have created a worldwide community to further support your learning where you’ll be able to ask questions, get feedback and connect not only with Clarissa but a close-knit network of fellow Creating with Courage students in a members-only online Facebook group.

Here you’ll receive invaluable support, engage with live Q&A sessions with Clarissa and it is also yours to access for life.

You are further supported by the team at Fibre Arts Take Two with the personal and attentive customer service that we have

Clarissa Callesen

10 Modules, 7 Hours of Footage and 8 Weeks Ongoing Tuition!

Clarissa will guide you through the following modules opening up your world to endless fibre sculpture possibilities.

Module 1
An Introduction to Creativity

Clarissa will introduce you to the creative benefits of non-traditional journaling and passive and active alter building as tools to visually support yourself through this experience. Take an in-depth look into her fibre sculptures and installation artwork and how they relate to what you’ll be exploring in this course.

Module 2
The Art of Seeing

Artists see what others don’t. Discover the difference between functional and artistic seeing by looking at texture, shape, colour, depth and value. Take a mindful mediation as you walk through nature letting go of judgments as you learn and practice the practical skill of seeing without identifying.

Module 3
Prospecting

Feeling bad for collecting stuff? Relax knowing that collecting and gathering is an important part of your creativity. Clarissa invites you on a prospecting adventure in a rusty forest and recycled textile outlet! Looking at our judgements, as a source to begin creating from a place of authenticity you’ll investigate and sit with the discomfort of what you may think of as ugly or gross.

Module 4
Altering and Alchemy

One of the ways you can find originality in your own work is by altering your own materials. In this module, you are going to be embracing mistakes and experimentation as you transform your materials with rust, plants, spices and household materials. You’ll start to loosen up as you explore non-traditional ways to alter the fabric and marvel at the results!

Module 5
Inspired Movement

In this module, Clarissa invites you to try some creative exercises for what she calls inspired movement to further develop your originality. You’ll begin to understand inspiration doesn’t come out of anywhere finding inspiration is also a skill, based on curiosity and it takes some work. Enjoy learning these simple exercises to get your inspiration flowing.

Module 6
Building your Palette

It’s time to begin building your palette, with shapes. Take the inspiration and information from previous modules to let go and do your own thing. Clarissa will guide you through making basic and outside of the box forms, introducing you to the different stitches and threads needed for needle sculpting. It’s time to embrace making mistakes and play without a plan.

Module 7
Embellishment

Combining decorative and sculptural elements, imagine taking all of this junk fabric and transforming it into textural objects that can imitate nature with all of its textures, colours and glory. Clarissa shares her most used surface design techniques and tells you about some others..You’ll explore drawing and sketching with stitch including seed and running stitch, french knots, and couching. You’ll melt, burn, wrap and dye as you build textures and layers to create

Module 8
Putting Things in Their Place

In this module Clarissa takes you on a journey to the wild urban side of her home town in a rusty rail yard, deconstructing the collage art degree subject of composition. In a simple and down to earth manner Clarissa shares with you the basics of composition and what to look for when you’re out exploring. Back in the studio, you’ll be eager to take your forms and play with some compositions of your own, taking notice of what speaks to you and your forms.

Module 9
Substrates and Foundations

Bases, skeletons, armature, substrates or whatever you call them are the support for your fibre forms. Your support may be strong and sturdy or loose and flexible, depending on your intention. Amorphic or geometric shapes are covered so you can move forward with confidence learning the skills to support your creativity where ever it may take you!

Module 10
The Last Miles - Finishing

You are entering the last few miles of the marathon, the hard part, a place where we often learn some of the most important lessons. In this module, you’re thinking about details and making some tough decisions. It’s time to be gentle with yourself and let things marinate. This is the place where you may start to really doubt yourself. Let Clarissa support you through this process so you pull all the pieces together both physically and mentally can create a piece of finished artwork that you will be proud of.

View Past Students Work Here

Click the image below to flip through an online exhibition by Transformation: Creating with Courage Alumni.

Register now to be notified when this course becomes available