Jennifer Daggs, foreground, guides class members during one of her marbling techniques classes. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Daggs/Kerensamere Studio)
Having grown up in Cambridge and later lived in Easton, Jennifer Daggs loves coming back to the Eastern Shore.
Her next opportunity to do so will happen during this month’s Martin Luther King weekend, when she’ll be teaching marbling classes during the Delmarva Art Expo, which will be held at the Ocean City Convention Center.
Daggs has been engaged in the arts, including the fiber arts, since childhood; and, she remembers taking all sorts of classes through the Dorchester Arts League.
Her experiences with marbling techniques go back to a summer class she took while she was still in college.
She said she fell in love with the technique and whenever had the chance she said she “would marble anything that wasn’t nailed down.”
Daggs would then sell the marbled items both at home and back at college in Pennsylvania, where she majored in English and minored in art.
“It would pay for my textbooks,” said Daggs.
Daggs ended up staying in Pennsylvania when she met her husband while they were both working as improvisational actors at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, and currently lives just south Harrisburg, Pa.
Despite her relocation north, her love of the arts continued, including her continued interest in marbling techniques.
“I started marbling paper,” said Daggs, “and then I had a friend who was living in Baltimore ask me to teach her how to do marbling.” Daggs not only taught her friend but also ended up teaching a couple workshops of her friend’s friends.
In the years between that experience with her friend in Baltimore and present day, Daggs moved on from working primarily in the fiber arts to work in glass.
Then, “recently, I had an opportunity to open a small gallery at a friend’s yoga and wellness center,” said Daggs.
When that friend talked about Daggs teaching a small monthly workshop, Daggs immediately thought of doing a workshop on the marbling technique.
The resulting workshop was “so successful, we had to hold it three more times,” said Daggs.
Daggs has since formalized the marbling workshop and this month will take it on the road to teach two sessions of it — one Saturday and one Sunday — at the Delmarva Art Expo. “It’s not a difficult process,” explained Daggs, “but it can be a bit of a messy process and it takes room to do the (two 14-inch-by-72-inch silk) scarves” — the class project.
“It’s also a great process,” Daggs added, “because you don’t need serious artistic skills to do it.” Yet, for Daggs, “any opportunity I have to come back [to the Shore] and do fiber art, I’ll take it.”
