From Friday afternoon until 10:30 this morning, the students in Kay Normann and Drew Tibbetts’ Basket Weaving for Beginners class worked on at least three different styles of basket with an extra one or two if time allowed. The Washington Island Ferry Line crew will instantly recognize “Sievers” when a number of cars full of baskets pull onto the ferry heading home today. Woven through each basket, we hope, are good memories of their time here in class.
Painting Warp, Weaving Scarves
What do you get when you paint white silk or a silk/wool warp with dyes? Beautiful results! Especially if you’ve learned the technique from Heather Winslow. This has been a dual-studio class at Sievers since Monday with some of the students and their painted warps travelling from the Walter Studio to the Sophie Studio yesterday to weave them into scarves. Before the photos of the progression from painting to weaving that follow, I want to share that I’m aware that some of these posts have not come through to you via their email route as intended. Photos or text may have long spaces between them, etc. With the help of our favorite web wizards, 3W Media in Sister Bay, WI, I’ll be trying to fix […]
Making Your Mark, Symmetry in Design and Knitting Latvian Mittens
It’s been seven days of experimentation with all kinds of techniques, fibers and color in these three classes. Starting last Saturday, the students in Stephanie Robertson’s class, Making Your Mark, made their mark at Sievers by dyeing and printing fabrics. From ice dyeing to the indigo pot, silk screening to direct painting, potato dextrin to gel printing, the fabrics made in class adorned the clotheslines and the tables in the Walter Studio. In Ellen Graf’s Symmetry in Design quilting class, students brought ideas for quilts or quilts in […]
Coming Attractions
There will be plenty of photos to share from this week’s “Symmetry in Design” quilting class with Ellen Graf, Stephanie Robertson’s “Making Your Mark” class in fabric printing and dyeing and Sandy De Master and Mary Germain’s “Latvian Mittens” class, but for now, we’ll show some previews of upcoming classes in September and October via a slide show. (If you have trouble viewing the slide show, try following this link directly to www.sieversschool.com/news.) [slideshow_deploy id=’3754′]
Is it August already?
It’s hard to believe that it is already August, much less approaching the second week of August. We ushered in the month with Jeanette Biederman’s Splint-Woven/Independent Study Basketry class. At the end of the week, before the basket makers left, Diane Fitzgerald began teaching a weekend class, “Fingers in my Pockets” Beaded Doll followed by five days of More Shaped Beadwork. Overlapping the beaders were Beginning Table Loom weavers, taught by Nancy Frantz. No wonder the time is going fast, we’re having so much fun. See for yourself! Could these beaded dolls be more fun? […]
Summer Pleasures
During class introductions, one way for students to get to know each other better is to mention some of their hobbies. Any and all of the fiber arts are first and foremost on the list, but close behind are gardening and reading, great summer pleasures. This past week, our two classes, Willow Garden Art with Jo Campbell-Amsler and Wood Covers, Mica Pages with Daniel Essig combined all three of those favorite hobbies. In Jo’s class, students began gathering grapevine, willow and other natural materials the first afternoon and went on to make willow planters, willow people and sculptural pieces for the garden. In the […]
Weave, Cut, Sew and Show
The annual Weave, Cut and Sew fashion show took place yesterday on the boardwalk of the Sophie Studio. You could think of it as Sievers’ version of Project Runway with Mary Sue Fenner as the consultant. A little less pressure than the TV show (wait…ask the weavers if that’s true!) but creative, fun and inspiring, too. The five-day class started out with picking yarns, measuring warp and weaving or bringing fabric ready to sew, or re-working garments. From start to finish, enjoy the show!
In Summer, Sievers is Cool
There are a lot of cool things going on at Sievers this week! The garments in Daryl Lancaster’s class are adding up and there’s still time for more as the extended part of the class continues until Saturday morning. From rolls of handwoven, nuno-felted (or other) yardage emerge beautifully tailored jackets and more. Sometime soon, Daryl will post more photos on her own blog, http://weaversew.com/wordblog/. Check it out! In Rita Hagenbruch’s Loom-Structured Lace Weaves class, a table runner, placemats and napkins, scarf and shawl were planned, woven and admired late on Thursday afternoon alongside Rita’s own lacy plaid handwoven blankets and throws. You can see more of Rita’s work in […]
