Carving & Collaging

We had two exciting events in September - stamp carving and “collage your own deck of cards”!

Let me start with this…can you guess how much a magazine costs these days?!

Collage Your Own Deck of Cards

This was our colorful set-up for our “Collage Your Own Deck of Cards” event!

If you guessed $4 or anything under $10 - nope, you’re still living in the early 2000s! I was so surprised to find out that a magazine, just a regular old magazine from the grocery store, costs anywhere from $12-18 dollars. How wild is that! In a way, I think that’s a good thing - to prevent over-consumption and waste of paper. But for my collaging class, it meant I had to get creative with solutions - searching around town for magazines, ordering some collaging supplies online, and even biting the bullet and buying some new magazines from the store. During the workshop, someone pointed out that this made collaging really hard to do on your own - it’s cost-prohibitive. She really appreciated the group-setting not only because it was more fun, but also possible.

It was fun to see everyone’s different collaging styles - some people planned their decks out in advance, some people piled up all the materials they planned to use before they started, and some people just went card by card, collaging as they went! In the future, I’m planning to host a “Collage Your 2026 Vision Board” event before the New Year’s - so stay tuned for that one!

This month, we also hosted our Stamp Carving Workshop at Ground Coffee Shop!

Do you want to know the secret about stamp carving?!

Keep scrolling!

In my opinion, the big secret about stamp carving or linocut artwork is that you don’t have to be good at drawing. The drawing part is totally optional! I personally enjoy drawing, but if it’s not your thing, that’s completely fine. In stamp carving or printmaking, you start with an original drawing (or an image) and use tracing paper to go over it. That way, you can easily transfer your design to your carving block, which leaves the graphite from the pencil. Of course you can draw directly on the block if you prefer, but it’s less forgiving if you need to erase anything.

Stamp Carving

Ground Coffee Shop, Hood River, Oregon

That said, carving itself is very much an art form. It takes focus, technique and an artistic eye to decide what to carve away and what to leave - which will greatly affect the final print! Sometimes, makers will intentionally leave “noise” on their block. Noise is created when the background or parts of a block have not been completely carved away, leaving marks from the carving strokes. I think a bit of noise shows the handmade quality, texture of the subject, and motion (for example, imagine if you drew some quotation marks behind a runner’s shoe to show motion).

From feedback I’ve received, most people want to leave class with something that is usable or that they’re proud of and can display - not something they are just going to throw away or something that’s going to end up in the junk drawer or bin. All I can say is, I thought everyone’s stamps were very impressive.

If you’ve read this far, I just want to say thanks for being here! I am overwhelmed with gratitude at how much support and interest there are in craft nights in the community. I am working on building my schedule for the next couple months. If you’re not already subscribed to our newsletter, you can sign up here. Hope to see you at one of our events soon!!

P.S. If you have any magazines or newspapers lying around that you don’t want anymore and you’re looking for a place to donate them - I would be happy to come collect them or I’d recommend donating to the Hood River Library (where there is a “free” book shelf on the lower floor)!

The Start of Something Handmade

We kicked off Cozi Craft Studio with our first official event, a bead embroidery workshop in July. I want to start with a big thank you to Carin, who took a chance on me and allowed me to host my event at her coffee shop, Ground, to my friend Natalie, who co-hosted the event, my friends Olivia and Jenny who came down all the way from Seattle to support, and to everyone who attended and made it such a big success!! It was really encouraging and inspiring to see so many of you turn out - I had no idea what to expect, and couldn’t have imagined 30+ people signing up for Cozi’s first craft night.

Crafters getting crafty and in the zone!!

At the beginning of the evening, everyone got their tote bag ready for stitching by placing the embroidery hoop and threading their needle. I taught two of essential stitches - the couching stitch and the backstitch. The couching stitch is great for outlining and longer stretches. I like using the backstitch to fill in patterns (you can think of it like “coloring in” a design). As I walked around the room, it was great to see everyone so engaged in their work and to see everyone come up with such unique and fun designs. More than that, the room was abuzz with chatter all evening - people getting to know each other or catching up with friends.

Bead embroidery isn’t a quick project - at the end of class, everyone took home some supplies to finish their projects!

During craft nights, my goal is to get you started with a new craft, provide support and guidance throughout the evening, and foster community and creativity. I think there is something so rewarding about making things yourself! I hope to see you guys at more craft nights in the future - and don’t forget to tell your friends about it too :)