For us, Batik with Mary Jo Scandin and Thom Scott together with their students means summertime! Like all of our classes, it’s one we look forward to long in advance and then while here, the time goes by too fast. So much is accomplished in those five or seven days. In some cases, clothing is brought to class, ready to wax and dye. Other projects are created from start to finish in the studio. A design challenge is part of the week, too, as is the delicious smell of beeswax and freshly ground gourmet coffee! A puzzle, perhaps, to read this in reverse, but the message is worth the effort. I think it’s fair to say the subject was found this week in the Batik studio. A mix of […]
One-of-a-kind classes
Of course, we see all of the Sievers classes as “one-of-a-kind’s”, but in this case, it refers not only to the actual title but to the garments and the instructor! Mary Sue Fenner brings dozens of her unique jackets and tops to inspire her students. The option (and challenge) of weaving your fabric in class was taken up by one student this year. The others cut and sewed one or more garments with the goal of wearing the finished piece in the fashion show on the last morning of class. Simply said, Sievers wouldn’t be what it is without Mary Sue Fenner. A chance encounter with an Islander in Green Bay prompted a note and letter to Walter […]
Three classes and one message
We’ve had the joy of seeing all the students and their wonderful work in Marbling on Paper and Fabric with Nancy Akerly, Beginning Weaving with Nancy Adams and Susan Johnson and Independent Study: Splint-Woven Basketry with Jeanette Biederman all within this past week! Looking back, it was 1999 when we last held a class in marbling. After 19 years, new were so many detailed designs. The options of printing on paper (from plain to pages from books, sheet music, maps and more) or fabric gave great options for students. This was the first time marbling has been held in the Walter Studio as 19 years ago, it was about a month away from being finished. As you can imagine, we could share dozens of photos from each […]
Threads in common
A common thread from the Open Quilt Studio week through the Japanese Temari class was…thread! As usual, quite a few quilt projects were started, finished or continued and ideas shared in the studio time. Whether it was finishing an eight-year project or experimenting with a new technique, it’s always inspiring to see the one, two (or more) pieces being worked on by each person during the week. A magazine photo was the inspiration for the start of this Landscape ‘Painting’ using fabric. The fabric artist and maker, Susan Hoffmann, will be teaching this technique in a class at Sievers in July featuring a scene with birch trees and golden leaves. Quilts blocks and tops, bright and beautiful! Some of the fabrics used in the piece on the left are from Sievers […]
First and new
The first class, many first-time weavers, a new instructor and for the first time, using the 8-shaft Baby Wolf Schacht looms in a Beginning Weaving class at Sievers were a lot of “first’s and new’s” to start our season. Besides the first project of a scarf or table runner, students finished a three-piece color gamp. Quite a lot of weaving these happy students were able to go home with! Susan Frame, the instructor, is familiar with using the 8-harness looms for beginners when teaching at The Fiber Garden so we followed suit and, as we anticipated, it all worked beautifully. One of the students attending the class had bought a Sievers loom in 1981 from Walter Schutz (we still have a record of […]
Before we begin
Before we begin our season of classes on Saturday, May 26 and welcome the first of our students and instructor Susan Frame to teach Beginning Weaving, it seemed like time to share more photos of spring on Washington Island. With the Beginning Weaving class and all the others that will follow this year, we’ll have many photos to share telling the Sievers story. Today, it’s a story in photos of our home and the simple, quiet beauty that can be found on Washington Island. Looking back to the opening sentences from the first year Sievers brochure (1979) we read, “For those of you who have visited Door County in Wisconsin we need not tell you about the exhilarating beauty of the area. Washington Island, we think, is the best…it […]
If Once You Have Slept on an Island
“If once you have slept on an island, you’ll never be quite the same;…you’ll see blue water and wheeling gulls wherever your feet may go.” “Oh! you won’t know why and you can’t say how Such a change upon you came, But once you have slept on an island, You’ll never be quite the same.” Rachel Field We can attest to that!
Local Yarn Store Day
Although Sievers will have to formally celebrate the first Local Yarn Store Day a month later on May 21st when we open our doors daily, we did want to share photos of our yarns as we are beginning to arrange everything that has come in, including the lovely work sent by many Sievers students and teachers. We hope you will be inspired this year, not only by yarn and knitting, but with any fiber art you love best. “Stairway to (Blue Sky) Heaven” “Norwegian Wood” (I mean Wool) “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” “Send in the (Knit Circus) Clowns” “Kashmir” Merino Silk DK Rowan Felted “Tweed-le Dee” “Mad (Tosh) World” “Sock It To Me Baby” Brown […]
