Sashiko

Taught by River Takada

Community Workshop: Open to all Duke students, faculty, staff and professionals

Learn the fundamentals of the decorative art of Sashiko- Japanese Geometric Embroidery meant to strengthen and decorate your beloved textiles. We will cover the materials needed and demonstrations on how to create surface designs with stabilizing running stitches.

Sashiko (刺し子, meaning “little pokes” or “small piercing”) is a form of functional embroidery that originated in Japan.

Meet the Instructor

River Takada

River Takada is a Japanese American artist and craft teacher. River makes a variety of mixed media art focusing on material reuse, and sells locally at markets and online under …

More Info

About Duke Arts Create

Duke Arts Create is a series of free, hands-on arts workshops designed to help all Duke students, including graduate and professional students (including Duke Health), as well as Duke faculty and staff develop a variety of creative skills in the visual arts, dance and movement, creative writing and more. Workshops are open to all skill levels and backgrounds. Most workshops are held in the Duke Arts Annex, the Rubenstein Arts Center or the Duke Arts Office 2101 and are typically held weeknights from 6-8 p.m.

Registration for the following week’s Duke Arts Create workshops go live on Friday morning at 9 a.m. – sign up in advance to guarantee your spot. Didn’t get a spot? No problem! We always reserve space for walk-ins and waitlist registers. Email DukeCreate@duke.edu if you have any questions. Sign up for the monthly newsletter here, which includes the full list of classes offered during the following month.

Duke Arts Create is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts (Duke Arts).

This event is part of We the People: A Duke & Durham Initiative

Learn more about the initiative

We the People commemorates the 250th anniversary of the United States by exploring the nation’s evolving identity through art, scholarship, and civic dialogue. This fall, you can view a rare signed print of the Declaration of Independence at the Durham County Main Library from September 8–20 and the Nasher Museum from September 24, 2026–January 3, 2027. We invite you to visit this foundational document and explore how it was circulated and visually rendered in the nation’s early decades.

Visit nasher.duke.edu for more visitor details about the Declaration of Independence exhibition.

Learn more about the nasher exhibition