Please enjoy a sneak peek at Opulent Mobility at the Makery!

The opening is Sunday, January 7th from 1-4 PM at the Los Angeles Makery  (260 S. Los Angeles St, LA CA 90012). There will be live music from GRAMMY© nominated composer Tom Peters and ASL interpreting for our Deaf audience members.

We're doing a panel talk on neurodivergence and art  on the 21st and another on chronic illness and art on January 28th. Check the teaser page for details and pretty pictures.

And many thanks to all those who have helped keep Opulent Mobility alive and well. Can you believe that next year will be the tenth anniversary!? I sincerely hope to have the book I'm writing on this magical, frustrating, and rewarding experience ready by then.

You are awesome.
XO Laura

  James Baldwin says this so much better than I can.

“The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people. Otherwise of course you can despair. Walk down any street in any city, any afternoon, and look around you. What you've got to remember it that everyone you look at is also you... You could be that monster, and you have to decide, in yourself, not to be.”

Let's not give in to that inner monster.
Sending so much love,
Laura

We're making and mending at my downtown studio this fall! Learn fun, simple, and fabulous ways to mend your much loved clothes, create fancy fabric portraits, and make your own rag rugs from scrap.
You are most welcome.

Visible Mending at the Makery is Sunday, September 10 from 1-3 PM PST. $95.
Let’s mend the world instead of trashing it.
Visible mending makes repair fun, meditative, and beautiful. We’ll use techniques inspired by classic Japanese Boro and Sashiko hand sewing and turn your worn out clothing into wearable art. This is a great way to keep old clothes out of the landfill, save their memories, and to sew in good company.
Bring items you love that need mending!

Supply your own materials or purchase on site: embroidery floss and needle, patching material, and pins. Instructor provides pins, scissors, and thread conditioner.

Textile Portraits at the Makery is Sunday, September 17 from 1-3 PM PST. $95.Our inspiration for this workshop is the artist Faith Ringgold! She is a painter, sculptor, teacher, performance artist, and writer best known for her painted story quilts. Her work covers personal, political, and social issues and is often a combination of images and text using both fabric and paint.

Bring in a picture of loved ones (or a favorite scene) that you want to create in fabric, and we'll break it down into parts and create your own work of art.
Supply your own materials or purchase on site: packets of fabric, embroidery thread and needles, and marking wax. Instructor provides scissors, pins, tracing paper and pencils, and fabric glue.

Image by artist Kim Kyne.


Rag Rug Making at the Makery is Sunday, September 24 from 1-3 PM PST. $95.
Turn your old clothes and fabric scraps into beautiful rag rugs! Rag rug making is fun, meditative, and a great way to keep worn out clothing and materials from going to the landfill. We'll cover basic twisted and braided rag twine and use it to start building a rug of your own.
Supply your own materials or purchase on site: scraps of material or old clothes in colors you like and a hand sewing needle and thread. Instructor provides safety pins, scissors, and thread conditioner.

Many thanks to Kristine Schomaker of Art and Cake for inviting me to participate in Reflections on Success! I am in such great company. Camilla Taylor and Amanda Maciel Antunes are amazing.

 My portion of the article:
"Success is such a loaded word. For a long time I felt that it was unachievable, meant for others and not me. I didn’t believe it was possible to get there no matter how hard I worked or how much I tried. That came from a conventional idea of success, that notion of being rich and famous and perfectly satisfied with life. That didn’t seem real, and it still doesn’t. Who is ever perfectly satisfied with their life? I also thought I would know what success looked like if I got there. Later on I realized that in some ways I had already achieved success and didn’t recognize it. That didn’t matter when the success took forms that fit other people’s standards. Success is a shape shifter and is inherently personal, and human nature means that if we have desires we are rarely satisfied for long, no matter what level we reach.

In some ways I am dramatically unsuccessful and vastly under-prepared for adult life, at least in terms of retirement savings and financial security. In other ways I am successful beyond my wildest imaginings. My 20, 30, or even 40 year old self could not have fathomed the directions I would take or how far I’ve come. The past dozen years have taken such a dramatic turn away from the career trajectory I expected, and those shifts have come with achievements that I had no idea I wanted. And there is still more that I want to build and create and develop with others. I stumble my way through new technologies and pathways and creative growth and somehow find wondrously kind, supportive, and generous people who teach me to grow further.

If that’s not success, I don’t know what is."

Thanks for joining me on this road, wherever that leads.
XO Laura