METAL QUILTS - AMISH MODERN WITH ARUNAS OSLAPAS
July 18-20, 2025, Port Orchard, WA
To all our fellow metal lovers, this workshop is for you! Join Bellingham artist Arunas Oslapas of Red Rivet Studios for a weekend of creating metal quilts. Formerly a Professor of Industrial Design at Western Washington University, Oslapas has experience creating and selling his work through his studio and art shows throughout the U.S.
In this three-day workshop, you will learn how to cut, paint, distress, and rivet metal to a cradled board. The pieced metal panels can be embellished with found objects, ephemera, and transferred images or text onto metal.
Here are some of the pieces that the artists created in Arunas’s Bellissima Art Escape.
“PHILOSOPHY
Create daily.
Never settle; compromise weakens the spirit.
Balance technology and the primitive.
Invest absolute faith.
Fear not.
Embrace the chaos.
Be teachable.
Overbuild.
Craftsmanship, craftsmanship, craftsmanship.
Relish the challenge.
Taste life.
Find the magic.
Nurture your spirit.
Daydream often.
Persist eternally.
Ultimately, it’s all about people.”
This Escape Includes
three days instruction
assorted metal scrap pieces
banding
spray paints
paint pens
rivets
three lunches, one dinner
new art tribe
This workshop will be held at Bellissima Art Escapes studio in Port Orchard, WA.
The price for this workshop is $800
A $400 non refundable deposit is due at registration with the remaining $400 due April 18.
The workshop is limited to 12
STUDENT SUPPLY LIST
Two 12’x12” x 1-5/8” cradled birch panels
organic vapor respirator
safety glasses
gloves (knit garden gloves with vinyl coated palms
ephemera to attach to your boards
Laura Herrera with one of her boards and Arunas holding the board that Laura bought from him.
Our artists love what they do!
Itinerary
Day One, Friday July 18. We will meet in the studio at 9:30 a.m. for introductions and to go over the workshop schedule. Lunch will be provided.
Day Two, Saturday July 19, It’s a whole day in the studio working on cutting and assembling our metal strips. Arunas will also address how to patina our metal strips. Lunch and dinner will be provided.
Day Three, Sunday July 20, We will meet in the studio at 9:30 a.m. to finish up our pieces. We will stop for lunch, then finish any last minutes details before we clean up and have our Show ‘N Tell. Class will be over at 3:30 p.m.
Arunas taught Industrial Design at Western Washington University for 33 years, having recently retired. He weaves metal baskets and metal quilts and sells his art in festivals throughout the west. When things get too rainy they pack up the family and head south of the border to dry out. Educationally, he got a few degrees from Montana State University and the University of Illinois. Prior to teaching, Arunas worked for Haworth designing office furniture, a Chicago architectural firm, and has consulted on many products from carbon fiber snowshoes to hog feeders.
Kathie Vezzani, who is hosting the workshop, also is an artist who paints, rusts and waxes. She organizes trips for other artists and in a former life was a caterer. She has 30 years of experience organizing trips for foodies and artists.