Gathering…bringing or coming together; harvesting or collecting; growing or increasing by degrees; concluding; inferring and understanding. All these definitions captured the last full week of October when 22 willow basketmakers and enthusiasts from across the US and Canada attended the 2024 Willow Gathering held in the Sievers studios. Harvesting the willow patch, taking time to work on projects, experimenting with new techniques and, simply and best, coming together with others who understand and share the same interests. Strengthing and growing the willow community is part of the Willow Gathering’s purpose. Many hands make light work! The entire patch was harvested and sorting began in just over an hour! Then, time to put the materials (harvested or brought) to use. The […]
Last of season pop-up shop
With our regular, daily hours coming to a close in the next couple of days, we wanted to offer a last of season pop-up shop. It has been a great year and many thanks go out to the 60+ artists, students and teachers who have sent us their work. We receive so many nice comments about the quality of the items and the uniqueness of the shop, all of which we attribute to our fiber artist partners. From jewelry and wearables, to home goods and decor, to holiday ornaments and gifts, to kits for makers, we’re offering this sampling from the shop. We have several options of additional styles and colors for most of the items shown, so if you’re […]
The finishing touches
It came before we knew it…the last class of 2024, Boundweave Rugs with Lynn Stracka Schuster. What a wonderful way to put the finishing touches on this season. The week was a combination of beautifully woven rugs, meeting new-to-Sievers students, welcoming back those returning for another class, outstanding instruction and continued gorgeous fall weather. Lynn brings many of her own rugs as inspiration and displays them in the studio as students arrive. Using that inspiration, students design their own rugs, choosing from a colorful array of rug wool and a range of motifs. So many possibilities! You might think the thickness of the wool makes the shuttles fly fast, but the thoughtful color changes create a different pace of weaving, […]
A perfect fit
October and knitting seem made for each other. The first reach for a warm sweater, hat or scarf tends to happen at the same time the leaves change color and sunsets come earlier. Maybe that’s one reason the Creative Knitting Retreat with Mary Germain and the companion Open Knit Studio take place in October…it’s a perfect fit (and you can wear your handknits as you create more)! The garments and accessories worn in class set the tone for the week, along with the projects students plan to work on. The range of expertise Mary Germain brings, and has at the ready to assist with each knitted piece, takes everything to the next level. How wonderful to have Mary as a […]
Willow when summer is over
Willow is a favorite at Sievers, in many ways. This past weekend, it was used by students to make Bent Willow Chairs with instructor, John Rezachek. Although this furniture-type willow was sourced elsewhere in Wisconsin for the class, Sievers has several varieties of basketmaking willow planted and growing behind the Walter Studio, for use in Jo Campbell-Amsler’s willow basketry classes and by other weavers. Incidentally, the very first basket making class at Sievers was Willow Basketry with Char TerBeest-Kudla, held in 1980, our second year of classes. We love our history with willow! This past weekend’s class joins others already in the willow history books. Led by John, students had the chair frames together only a few hours after class […]
Farewell September
It’s hard to say goodbye to this September. Warm and sunny weather throughout, lots of weaving happening in the studio, and many visitors, including quite a number of Sievers Alumni. (Did you know we keep a calendar in the office to write down those who aren’t here for class, but stop in while on the Island? In the last 10 days, we’ve recorded 18 names. How fun!) We continued weaving in September, first with Betty Glynn Carlson and her Navajo Weaving Techniques class. Several students were new to weaving in general, or to Navajo weaving, and a few returned with either a work in progress from a previous class or worked on a piece which needed the last few rows […]
September days are here
From a poem recited by our teacher in grade school days, we hold in our memories the words, “…September days are here, with summer’s best of weather and autumn’s best of cheer.” So far, this September has been exactly that. With one class in session each week this month, we’ll be sharing September studio and island views in two blogs. We begin by featuring the classes Metalwork Jewelry Boot Camp with Kay Rashka and Double Weave with Judith Yamamoto, assisted by Lynn Novotnak. From creating etched designs on metal with stamps or by hand, to cutting, forming, piercing and more, students in the Metalwork Jewelry Boot Camp made personalized textured art jewelry in this busy four-day class. Kay brings a […]
Making rainbows
Many classes use all the colors of the rainbow (and more!), but in the Spinners’ Color Lab with Deb Jones, students made rainbows of their own, in roving and yarn. Mixing a certain number of “starter colors” into hundreds of other colors kept the rainbows coming. Deb reported 200 skeins of yarn (more than 5,000 grams) and 1,300 grams of roving were dyed in two days. Students worked as partners dyeing solids, gradients, speckles and more. After the dyeing and drying, students spun the singles into one-of-a-kind yarns that might look like keepsakes, but are sure to be used in other fiber works. We hope to see those on a return visit! Happiness is being surrounded by color! Although there […]
