Imagination Fabrication Marries Fabric, Word Art

Originally printed in The Ithaca Journal by Cathy Wakeman on March 26, 2008

What do you get when you combine a creative poet, a fabric artist and a love of children? Add to that mix more than 50 years of literacy and gifted education and the flexible resource of retirement, and Imagination Fabrication is born.

Imagination Fabrication is the venture of former Dryden educators Barbara Florance and Paula Thoma. For 29 years, Barbara worked with enrichment programs and then Title I reading remediation at Dryden Elementary School. Paula worked in primary remedial education and finished her educational career as principal of Freeville and Cassavant schools.

During her retirement, Barbara was looking forward to using her time visiting fabric shops and nurturing her love of quilting. Paula, who enjoys writing poetry and children's stories, took up yoga with Barbara during retirement and joined her on some of her quilt-store excursions. During these visits, she began seeing some of the characters of her stories in the fabric bolts.

Mutual encouragement found Barbara and Paula illustrating one of Paula's stories with fabric creations and creatures. Each creature and key feature in the story "Lester's Special Gifts" are identified by their own unique, personally descriptive fabric.

In this inaugural publication of Imagination Fabrication, we watch a young anteater as he grows through the often painful process of discovering his innate gifts and talents.

Imagination Fabrication takes this story as a springboard to encourage elementary-age children with creativity in writing. Using a quilt as a design board, Barbara and Paula lead a group study of character design and story creation. Older students interact with the story, using the fabrics as puzzle pieces to change and create new stories using the group's work as a catalyst for creativity.

For instance, at Cassavant Elementary School, whose rainforest unit was a source of inspiration for Paula's first book, the students were introduced to the story of Lester. The students created their own rainforest poems, and Barbara unified the students' work with a story quilt to illustrate the poems. Barbara and Paula offer group or classroom presentations, workshops, custom quilt design for group imaging activities, and other variations of their unique learning opportunities. They also have their next book, "Marla Tries Bling" in the prototype phase and have several titles in the works.

For this creative dynamic duo, their love for their community is also a driving force. They support local businesses and artists throughout their creative process.

 

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