San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery
with Adrienne Garbini and Trent Segura

Colcha embroidery is a textile practice that came to Colorado's San Luis Valley from Northern New Mexico in the 19th Century and has been shaped by revival movements into a pictorial art that often illustrates local architecture, landscapes, community traditions, personal narratives, and folklore. 

Colcha embroidery in the Valley is most often made with commercially produced 3 ply persian yarn. Students will learn the history and techniques of colcha embroidery as they are practiced within the San Luis Valley and leave the class with the skills and materials to make their own colcha embroidery artworks.

All Materials provided with instructor material fee: Fabric, colonial 3-Ply persian yarn, needles, needle threader, embroidery scissors, embroidery hoop, drawing materials. Additional yarn will be available for purchase if you would like to make a more elaborate piece. 

About the Instructors: Adrienne Garbini and Trent Segura coordinate the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project, which supports exhibitions, workshops, and scholarship for the regional practice of pictorial embroidery in Southern Colorado. 

Adrienne Garbini is an artist, writer, and curator living in Saguache, Colorado. She is the Program Manager for HEART of Saguache and an organizer of The Range art space. She is a lifelong embroiderer who has worked in colcha since 2019. She learned the colcha stitch from Donna Madrid Hernandez of San Luis, Colorado and Aurora Martinez of Monte Vista, Colorado. 

Trent Segura is an artist, researcher, and writer based in Denver and Saguache, Colorado. He is a member of the contemporary art collective M12 Studio and is the Communications and Marketing Manager for HEART of Saguache. Trent learned colcha embroidery from La Costura de Saguache artist Delores Worley. La Costura de Saguache was a stitching circle in Saguache in the 1970s and 80s that included Trent’s great aunt Tiva Trujillo. Trent has also received instruction from NEA Heritage Fellow Josephine Lobato from San Luis, Colorado.