Making a Life: The Holiday Gathering
For this special December event, artists Kaffe Fassett and Erin Lee Gafill will join host Melanie Falick for a holiday gathering Zoom-style. We’ll do some fun crafting. Kaffe and Erin (his niece) will regale and inspire us with stories about their family’s handmade holiday traditions. And Melanie, Kaffe, and Erin will discuss creativity as a pathway to joy, competence, connection, and resilience. In addition, please be prepared for some festive surprises! We will begin at 1PM EST.
ABOUT OUR HOLIDAY CRAFT
Inspired by their childhoods in Big Sur, California, Erin and Kaffe will get everyone started making easy, fun holiday cards to work on while listening to the conversation. If you'd like to take part, please bring scissors, colorful papers, a sturdy paper base, and glue.
ABOUT THE GUESTS
KAFFE FASSETT is a renowned artist, lecturer, and teacher who has inspired people around the world with his color- and pattern-filled work in fabric, knitting, needlepoint, patchwork, painting, and mosaic. His artworks have been featured in museum and galleries internationally, and he was the first living textile designer to have a one-person show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He is the author of many books, including his autobiography Dreaming in Color and, most recently, Color Duets (with Erin Lee Gafill) and Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Burano.. Instagram: @kaffefassettstudio Website: kaffefassett.com
ERIN LEE GAFILL is an award-winning artist, teacher, and author. Her first art teacher was her uncle Kaffe Fassett. Her work is collected internationally and exhibited around the United States. Erin has been leading creativity and painting workshops for the past two decades—she is a regular teacher at the Esalen Institute, California; Rancho La Puerta, Mexico; and Tenuta Spannocchia, Italy—and recently began offering online classes on her YouTube channel Awaken the Art Within.
She is the author of Color Duets (with Kaffe Fassett) and Drinking from a Cold Spring. Instagram: @erinleegafill Website: eringafill.com
ABOUT THE HOST
MELANIE FALICK is an independent writer, editor, and creative director—and a lifelong maker. She is the author, most recently, of Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live, named one of the best books of 2019 by Publishers Weekly magazine. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley. Instagram: @melaniefalick Website: melaniefalick.com
ABOUT OUR BOOKSELLING PARTNER
For this special event, Color Duets, Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Burano, My Nepenthe (by Romney Steele, also Kaffe's niece), and Making a Life will all be available through The Phoenix Shop at Nepenthe, our bookselling partner. Color Duets will be signed by Erin. Making a Life will be accompanied by a handmade card from Melanie (while supplies last).
ABOUT MAKING A LIFE: THE CONVERSATION
This holiday gathering is No. 5 of Making a Life: The Conversation, a new online event series developed by Melanie Falick. The goal is to bring together friends, old and new, to generate meaningful, thought- and action-provoking discussions about why making by hand and making the ordinary extraordinary are vital to our personal, community, and environmental wellness.
NOTES
-If you would like to support this programming by making a voluntary donation, you can do so by clicking the Tip the Host button above.
-All registered guests will receive a link to a recording of the event a few days after it airs live (assuming the technology works as it should).