curious sisters:
fragments of memory & Wonder
Judy stabile & wendy aikin
First Friday, August 7, 5-8pm
Showing through August
As sisters, we have spent our lives collecting things—objects, stories, memories, fragments of the ordinary and the extraordinary. While our artistic paths have taken different forms, we share a fascination with making connections and finding meaning in unexpected places.
In this exhibition, textiles, assemblage, found objects, and artifacts become vehicles for exploration. Familiar materials are transformed through stitching, layering, arranging, and reimagining. A discarded object becomes a relic. An eye chart becomes a chair. A faded photograph becomes the beginning of a story.
Neither of us is interested in providing answers. Instead, we are drawn to questions: What stories do objects carry? What do we choose to remember? What do we overlook? How does meaning change when something is removed from its original purpose and given a new life?
Curious Sisters celebrates wonder, discovery, and the pleasure of seeing the world through a lens of possibility. It is an invitation to slow down, look closer, and follow your own sense of curiosity wherever it may lead
About Judy & Wendy:
Judy Stabile has never met a piece of fabric, an old eye chart, or an intriguing object she couldn't imagine becoming something else.
Originally trained as a sculptor, she now works primarily with textiles, printmaking, and surface design, creating one-of-a-kind garments, furnishings, and mixed-media pieces that blur the line between art, clothing, and storytelling. She is fascinated by pattern, repetition, stitching, printing, and the endless possibilities hidden inside ordinary materials.
Judy approaches her studio like a laboratory for curiosity. A medical diagram might become a chair. An eye exam might become a coat. A scrap of cloth might spark an entirely new narrative. Her work is playful, thoughtful, and driven by a belief that the most interesting discoveries often begin with the simple question: "What would happen if...?"
As one of the Curious Sisters, Judy shares with her sister Wendy a lifelong habit of following unlikely ideas and seeing possibilities where others see leftovers.
Wendy Aikin has spent years rescuing objects that most sensible people would have thrown away.
A mixed-media artist working in assemblage, collage, encaustic, and installation, she is drawn to forgotten photographs, mysterious boxes, old maps, handwritten notes, broken toys, and anything with a hint of history.
Her work combines fact, fiction, memory, and imagination into small worlds filled with curious characters and untold stories. Influenced by curiosity cabinets and the thrill of discovery, she creates pieces that feel like artifacts from a place that never quite existed.
Wendy believes every object deserves another chance and every mystery deserves a story. Together with her sister Judy, she forms one half of Curious Sisters—a title that is both an exhibition and a lifelong condition.
quiet revolution
Fashion sketches of the 1950’s
by barb bartels
Reception Saturday, August 8, 3-5PM
Barb Bartels began studying fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York at the age of eighteen during a transformative period in American fashion. There she developed her skills in garment design, fashion illustration, and pattern making while receiving critiques and mentorship from pioneering American designer Claire McCardell. Often called “The Designer Who Set Women Free,” McCardell championed clothing that emphasized comfort, movement, softer silhouettes, practical details such as pockets, and fabrics designed for the lives women actually lived. Her philosophy left a lasting impression on Barb’s early work.
The watercolor fashion sketches featured in Quiet Revolution were created during Barb’s years at Parsons and reflect the influence of that remarkable period in American design. Their graceful lines and expressive silhouettes capture a moment when fashion was embracing simplicity, elegance, and ease.
After completing her second year at Parsons, Barb chose to marry and raise a family, placing her professional career on hold. She returned to the fashion industry in San Francisco during the 1970s, designing and creating patterns for Esprit and Gunne Sax before establishing a successful freelance career in design and pattern making in Los Angeles.
These sketches, together with her career in fashion, remain a lasting record of Barb’s early artistic vision, creativity, and lifelong love of design.
These sketches were created during a remarkable moment in fashion history. Claire McCardell believed clothing should move with the body, embrace simplicity, and support the lives of the women who wore it. Her ideas transformed American fashion in ways that were both practical and profound.
Each watercolor begins with a single line, exploring silhouette, movement, fabric, and form. Looking back, these sketches capture not only my early years as a designer, but also the spirit of a quiet revolution—one that changed the way women dressed with grace, comfort, and confidence.
About Claire McCardell
Claire McCardell (1905–1958) transformed American fashion by replacing rigid, formal styles with clothing that celebrated comfort, movement, and practicality. Often called “The Designer Who Set Women Free,” her innovative use of softer silhouettes, functional pockets, separates, and natural fabrics helped define modern American sportswear and influenced generations of designers.
More Than Paper:
Mixed Media Collage & Storytelling
with Wendy Aikin
Sunday, August 9, 10-4 FULL
Sunday, August 23, 10-4 FULL
More Than Paper is a mixed-media collage workshop that uses layers, texture, and composition to tell stories, preserve memories, and explore themes. Using paper as a starting point, participants will combine photographs, text, fabric, stitching, drawing, paint, stamps, stencils, and found materials to create expressive work on wood panels or other sturdy surfaces.
Students will use layering, obscuring, repetition, and juxtaposition to explore how materials create meaning. The class also emphasizes cohesive composition and the development of a personal visual language through recurring shapes, symbols, colors, and imagery.
Techniques Explored
• Collage composition and storytelling
• Using vintage photos, text, maps, and ephemera
• Sewing into paper and cloth
• Layering tissue and translucent materials
• Drawing,mark-making, and paint
• Adding dimension with nails, tacks, thread, and stitching
• Adhesives and basic archival practices
This class encourages experimentation and discovery while helping participants bring ideas and narratives to life through mixed-media techniques.
About Wendy
Wendy Aikin is a Watsonville, California-based artist whose encaustic, collage and assemblage works weave stories from wax, found objects, and memory. A co-founder of Wax Works West, she helped share the magic of encaustic with over 1,000 students worldwide. Largely self-taught but endlessly curious, she continues to explore and experiment in her Corralitos studio, where most days she’s happily elbow-deep in wax and glue.
Registration
Space is limited
$125 per person, non-refundable
For questions or to reserve your space, please contact Dana at Tumbleweed Found. (831) 419-3130
The language of collage
with gina gaiser
Saturday, August 15, 11-2
The Language of Collage:
Finding Shape, Color & Composition in Everyday Materials
Collage begins with learning to see. In this introductory, hands-on workshop, participants will explore the elements of design and principles of composition using found papers, photographs, maps, botanical imagery, magazines, and printed ephemera. Through demonstrations and guided exercises, you'll learn how framing, cropping, layering, repetition, and thoughtful composition can transform ordinary materials into dynamic works of art. We'll explore visual concepts, including the Rule of Thirds, the Fibonacci Sequence (Golden Spiral), balance, rhythm, contrast, and focal point, as we create several collage studies and one finished piece. Participants will mat and frame one completed collage to take home, ready to display.
Techniques Explored
● Elements of design: shape, line, color, texture, pattern, and negative space
● Framing and cropping to discover strong compositions
● Layering, repetition, and abstraction using found papers and photographs
● Creating balance, rhythm, movement, and focal points
● Editing and refining compositions through scale, contrast, and placement
Materials
A wide selection of found papers, magazines, photographs, vintage ephemera, maps, botanical imagery, and collage tools will be provided. Participants are also encouraged to bring personal photographs, paper scraps, or printed materials they'd like to incorporate into their work.
About Gina
Gina Gaiser is an Oakland-based artist working in photography, collage, and digital media. Her work begins with photographs of the built environment and the natural world, where she is drawn to overlooked patterns, textures, and structures. She cuts apart and reassembles these images into layered compositions that explore repetition, abstraction, and transformation.
She earned a BA in Studio Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz, studied printmaking and art history at Il Bisonte in Florence, Italy, and received an MFA in Digital Media, Video, and Sculpture from Mills College. Gina co-founded the artist collective Ben Dunne Presents, was a Member Artist at GearBox Gallery, and currently works at Compound Studios in Emeryville while serving as a partner at Manna Gallery in Oakland. Her teaching encourages curiosity, close observation, and experimentation, helping participants discover creative possibilities in the everyday materials that surround them.
Registration
Space is limited
$45 per person, non-refundable
For questions or to reserve your space, please contact Dana at Tumbleweed Found. (831) 419-3130
Collage by Clare Youngs
Maps of elsewhere:
A collage workshop
with iris weaver
Thursday, September 17, 6:30-8:30PM
Maps of Elsewhere:
A Collage Workshop about Place, Memory & Imagination
What if a map didn’t just tell us where to go?
What if maps could show where we’ve been, where we long to go, and the landscapes we carry inside ourselves?
In this collage workshop, we’ll explore the idea of mapping as a way to explore memory, imagination, longing, and personal experience. Using found images, vintage photographs, maps, textures, symbols, and fragments of language, we’ll create three unique visual maps.
Some maps may be recognizable. Others may be imagined, emotional, dreamlike, or entirely invented.
This is an invitation to move beyond geography and explore the places that shape us, the places we imagine, and the landscapes we carry
within.
Iris Weaver studied art on weekends at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam while living and teaching in the Netherlands. Her work has recently been exhibited at Gallery 881 with Broad Magazine in Vancouver, British Columbia (2024) and Postales desde el Limbo in Zaragoza, Spain (2025). Her work has also been featured in Contemporary Collage Magazine, Kolaj Magazine, and Why Collage? Magazine.
Registration
Space is limited
$45 per person, non-refundable
For questions or to reserve your space, please contact Dana at Tumbleweed Found. (831) 419-3130
Gaza bowen: remembrance
Worn Histories & Transformative objects
Alongside a Historic Footwear Collection (private estate)
Gaza Bowen (1944–2005) was an internationally recognized sculptor and fine artist whose work is held in museum and institutional collections including The Getty Center, LACMA, Oakland Museum, the de Young Museum, Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, and the Deutsches Schuhmuseum in Offenbach am Main, Germany. As a pioneer in the wearable art movement of the 1970s and ’80s, Bowen used the motif of women’s shoes to examine femininity, gender norms, consumerism, and personal history. Often incorporating found objects and repurposed materials, her work invites viewers to consider the objects we live with, the marks we leave behind, and the marks they leave on us.
Working across sculpture, book arts, printmaking, and assemblage, Bowen created wearable shoe works, artist books, upcycled metal pieces, and lino and woodcut prints spanning different periods of her life and career.
Alongside Gaza Bowen’s works, Tumbleweed Found is presenting a rare private collection of historical women’s footwear dating from the 1830s through the 1920s. The collection includes Victorian bridal boots, Edwardian lace-up heels, early motor boots, Civil War–era riding boots, bathing shoes, boudoir slippers, and richly embroidered 19th-century court shoes from India. Together, these pieces trace changing ideas of fashion, mobility, ritual, and women’s lives across generations. Displayed in conversation with Bowen’s memory-filled assemblages and upcycled works, the collection offers a meditation on transformation, wear, beauty, and the stories objects continue to carry.
weekly collage
at tumbleweed Found
Limited to 8 participants per session.
Sliding Scale: $10–15 per session (cash preferred). Venmo and credit cards are accepted (3% processing fee). Please pay at the front counter before your session begins. Because space is limited, we ask that you only reserve a spot if you plan to attend—no-shows or late cancellations may be charged the session fee unless we are able to fill your spot.
At Tumbleweed Found, we work with families navigating estate transitions and are continually surrounded by the paper trails of everyday life—maps, postcards, photographs, letters, books, magazines, stamps, sheet music, and other ephemera that often risk being discarded.
Through collage, we give these materials a second life, transforming fragments of history, memory, and printed matter into new works of art.
Every session is different because our materials are continually replenished from the remarkable collections and paper ephemera that pass through Tumbleweed Found.
We provide everything—just bring yourself.
Materials include maps, stamps, postcards, vintage photographs, handmade papers, broken books, magazines, artist magazine clippings, scissors, glue sticks, 8×10 cardstock, and more.
Studio Guidelines
Create as much as you’d like during your session, but please leave all shared materials and supplies at Tumbleweed Found for others to enjoy.
Please return all shared tools, including scissors, glue sticks, X-Acto knives, rulers, and other supplies before you leave.
Due to our limited shared workspace, we ask that you keep your work paper-based and avoid dimensional (3D) materials.
Please do not use wet media, including liquid glue, Mod Podge, gel medium, paint, or other wet adhesives.
No food, please. Covered drinks are welcome.
To reserve your spot, text or call 831-419-3130.
Parking information is available on our Contact page.
Groups of 3, Pre-payment is required to reserve your space. Groups of 4 or more: Please schedule a private collage gathering. See information below.
Wednesdays in AUGUST- Just Announced!
August 5
● 11:00 AM–2:00 PM —FULL
● 2:00–5:00 PM —FULL
August 12
● 11:00 AM–2:00 PM — 2 spaces available
● 2:00–5:00 PM — 3 spaces available
August 19
● 11:00 AM–2:00 PM — 5 spaces available
● 2:00–5:00 PM — 3 spaces available
● 5:00-8:00 PM — 5 spaces available
August 26
● 11:00 AM–2:00 PM — 2 spaces available
● 2:00–5:00 PM — 3 spaces available
Private Collage Gatherings
Perfect for families, friends, coworkers, book clubs, and creative groups.
Reserve a private three-hour collage session at Tumbleweed Found for up to 8 participants. We provide the studio, setup, and all collage materials. These gatherings are self-guided and are not instructor-led.
Private Session Fee: $150 to reserve your three-hour session (non-refundable).
studio four
A quieter space for deeper creative practice.
Settle into four uninterrupted hours of creative exploration in a calm, contemplative setting.
Limited to four participants, Studio Four offers individual workspaces, thoughtfully curated collage materials, drawing supplies, and the option to journal throughout your session. Whether you collage, draw, write, or move between them, this is a space to slow down, follow your curiosity, and immerse yourself in the creative process.
We invite participants to keep conversation to a minimum, creating an atmosphere that supports focus, reflection, and unhurried making.
Studio space and materials. No Instructor.
Monthly • 4 hours • 4 participants • $25
Studio Guidelines
Create as much as you’d like during your session, but please leave all shared materials and supplies at Tumbleweed Found for others to enjoy.
Please return all shared tools before you leave.
Please do not use wet media, including liquid glue, Mod Podge, gel medium, paint, or other wet adhesives.
No food, please. Covered drinks are welcome.
To reserve your spot, text or call 831-419-3130.
Thursday, August 27
10:00 am-2:00pm
2:15-6:15pm
Thursday, September 10
10:00 am-2:00pm
2:15-6:15pm
estate clearance sale
at tumbleweed found
August Date To Be Announced
Estate Sales run Friday, Saturday and Sunday out of our garages on Chestnut St. (right by the back of @11thhourcoffee —look for the green garages and our pop up tent).
Books always 50% off. Sunday 50% off everything
(cash preferred, credit card and Venmo fees apply)
See parking options. Parking strictly enforced.