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**Please note: there are two sessions available for this workshop, a morning session OR an afternoon session. Please select only ONE on the sign-up form**

Looking for a meditative, hands-on creative practice to start 2025 in a state of calm? Want to make something beautiful and useful with a lovely group of people led by an incredible local artist? Look no further!

In this workshop taught by Bay Area artist Lena Wolff, participants learn the techniques, materials, methods and possibilities of Sashiko, a meditative form of folk embroidery that developed in Japan in the mid-1600’s.

Sashiko encompasses a vast lexicon of lyrical and geometric patterns made with a simple running stitch. During the class, Lena will teach everyone how to draft and stitch these patterns onto fabric with ease.

Open to absolute beginners or participants who have taken this workshop before, together we’ll work to create a set of embroidered coasters, with the option of tackling a new project of your choice if you have some experience: for example a visible mending project, home linens, a stitch journal, etc.

All materials and tools will be provided to make hand-stitched coasters but please bring the materials you’ll need if you’d like to work on an independent project. (Feel free to email Lena in advance to discuss).

This workshop is open to participants ages 16 and up of all genders!

Cancellation policy: Full refunds available before May 15, 2025. After May 15, we can only provide a refund if we are able to fill your spot off of our wait list (if there is a wait list). Thank you for understanding!


Lena Wolff is an artist, craftswoman, and activist for democracy in equal parts. Her work extends out of American quiltmaking traditions while at the same time being rooted in minimalism, geometric abstraction, Op art, social practice, feminist and political art. Wolff’s interconnected artistic output includes drawing, collage, sculpture, frequent collaboration, and public projects. Her work is in the permanent collections of ONE National Lesbian and Gay Archives, the Berkeley Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Oakland Museum of California, among others. She lives with her wife, artist Miriam Klein Stahl and their daughter in Berkeley, California.