Poetic Landscapes with Found Fabric & Thread with Sandrine Torredemer
April 10 - 12, 2026
Black Cat Farm | Boulder, Colorado
10 Students
No Experience Necessary
The heart of this retreat is experimentation – joyously creating embroidered landscapes from different source materials, textures and colors.
Spend playful days at Black Cat Farm with Sandrine Torredemer, aka La Filature, learning how to translate images into textile collages. Her approach is more artistic than technical, requiring no particular knowledge of sewing or embroidery, and giving free reign to imagination. We’ll learn how to embroider the details of a photograph to bring the characters to life; create mini landscapes with tiny scraps of fabric saved (just like the artist who never throws anything away) during our time together; and devote time for personal interpretation of a photograph brought in by each participant. The originality of Sandrine’s work lies in the recycling of fabrics and the use of every last bit of material, enabling a deep appreciation for the ritual and richness of repurposing textiles.
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The opportunity to use your own image (pre-approved by Sandrine) to create a textile interpretation
Use of recycled fabric from the artist's personal collection, sourced for years from worn-out clothing or found in thrift shops and flea markets in Perpignan, Sandrine's home town in the south of France
Use of recycled embroidery threads, some having belonged to the artist's grandmother, who was herself an embroiderer
Sandrine's favorite embroidery needle and special Japanese scissors included in the workshop kit
Fresh farm-to-table organic meals
Handcrafted tea blends each day
The energy of growth and renewal of being on a working farm
Gentle body movement session
About the Artist | Sandrine Torredemer
Introduced to embroidery at an early age by her grandmother, Sandrine Torredemer has never stopped embroidering, a passion that became almost a necessity when her life was turbulent. Over this long period, her artistic approach gradually freed itself from all the technical constraints of traditional embroidery, becoming less academic, less perfect, more personal and more sensitive.
She draws most of her material from her family's heritage, embroidering on discarded and patched sheets, with old canvas threads, which she supplements with mini-stitches of clothing she's found at thrift shops, bits of nothing gleaned to give them a new lease of life. This recycling gives the embroidered works their unique character, which resonates with our environmental concerns. Beyond recycling, embroidery responds to today's aspirations for an art form that takes the long view, at odds with instantaneity and super-production, a form of luxury in the slow pace of creation. This second life given to materials is also her own, since she gave up her first professional activity to devote herself exclusively to embroidery. From her background in urban planning, she has retained a certain eye for urban forms and architecture, which she reproduces in small touches, sometimes insisting on attention-grabbing details.
Sandrine TORREDEMER embroiders scenes from everyday life, inspired by press photos, art photographs or her own clichés, particularly the seashore during “summer vacations”, when everything seems suspended and lighter.
“For me, these assemblages of “bits of nothing” bear witness to our fragile lives, and to the possibility of reconstruction, against the backdrop of unbridled consumerism,” confides the artist.
About the Venue: Black Cat Organic Farm
Black Cat Farm ~ a place where all are welcome and the seeds of hope surround you. Nestled among the rolling fields just outside Boulder, Colorado, this rustic working farm is home to our Black Cat Makerie retreats. Tucked away from the rush of the world, time stands still. The beauty here isn’t curated, but rather defined by the ever-changing seasons and the pulse of growth and possibility at every turn. No matter where you are coming from or which season of life you find yourself in, you’ll feel the embrace of something so grounding and deeply authentic you might not ever forget it.
Using Black Cat’s Certified Organic farm as a source of creativity, Chef Eric Skokan creates an award-winning cuisine vibrant with seasonality. The kitchen draws heavily from the farm’s more than 250 varieties of organic vegetables, legumes, grains, herbs and flowers, as well as its large flock of heritage sheep and its robust population of heritage pigs, paving the way for a limitless palette of flavors, colors, and textures from which to build each food experience. The farm team devotes hours every day to harvesting ingredients, and then crafting them into outstanding dishes that mirror what is thriving in the fields. We can’t wait for you to experience it all for yourself!
Retreat Schedule
Friday, April 10th
8:30am to 4pm
Saturday, April 11th
9am to 4pm
6pm to 9pm (Optional Black Cat Farmstead Dinner)
Sunday, April 12th
9am to 3:30pm
Retreat Experience Pricing
$2,595
includes
3 full creative workshop days
(18 hours of instruction)
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all workshop materials
including a handmade flower press
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handcrafted herbal tea
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three morning snacks
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three farm-to-table lunches
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three afternoon snacks
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online class page with all the details and inspiration about this retreat
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access to flower press studio’s online class (valued at $150)
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special gift
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* optional Black Cat Farmstead dinner + $200
Questions? See our FAQs. We’re happy to work with you on a custom payment plan; email ali@themakerie.com.