Connie Stuart Connie Stuart of the CAVA Art Gallery will be teaching a class on the art of Batik, a method of decorating fabric, on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 10 a.m. at the CAVA Gallery, 301 N. Limestone St.

Batiking is a method of decorating fabrics practiced for centuries by the natives of Indonesia. It consists of applying a design to the surface of the cloth by using melted wax. The material is then dipped in cool vegetable dye; the portions protected by the wax do not receive the dye, and when the wax is removed in hot water the previously covered areas display a light pattern on the colored ground. Cotton cloth is generally used and some silk.

Cost of the class is $15 ($10 for CAVA members), which includes materials. If you are only interested in watching the demonstration, you are welcome to attend.

Lasting approximately two hours, the class is limited to 10 people. The class fee must paid before Oct. 16 to ensure a spot. The only requirement is that you have a pattern drawn for the design you would like on your fabric.

A multi-talented woman, Stuart was born and raised in southern Arizona but moved to South Carolina after visiting an aunt who in the Upstate. She fell in love both with the area and the man who would become her husband. As a stay at home, homeschooling mom, she tinkered with art until she found her calling in clay. Again her heart was captured and another passion began. She has been playing in the 'mud' since 2005 and loves every minute of it.

Since her girls have gotten older and been put into school, she decided it was time to fulfill her lifelong dream of being an art teacher. As of Fall 2009, she has only three semesters to go.

Stuart is also the Cherokee County Alliance of Visual Artists’ Member of the Month for October and has her many artistic talents displayed in the window of the CAVA Art Gallery.