February 1st is approaching quickly! That day, all of our 2020 classes will be open for registration. Descriptions along with complete information will be available on our website, https://sieversschool.com. The site will be in “maintenance mode” soon, but available again for registration on February 1st. Note: The tabs and links you see now on this site are from last season. Featured on the cover of this year’s brochure are handwovens by Nancy Adams which were on display during her “Four Shafts or Less” weaving class in 2019. It has been many years since weaving was featured on the Sievers brochure cover. Thank you, Nancy! Many of the same instructors from 2019 will be returning to teach in 2020 and we welcome […]
Downy flake
…The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. Robert Frost Thank you for your friendship and for being part of the Sievers story! Our best to you from all of us at Sievers, Ann, Butch, Cindra, Carolyn, Barb, Kathleen, Patricia and Kirsten.
Sievers stories
We have included a number of Sievers stories here during this past year. Thank you to everyone who shared their story with us as part of our 40th anniversary season! As part of the early Sievers School story, we found this in a 1981 flyer written by Walter Schutz. He begins, “Be the one…in your group of friends who can show off exquisite, one-of-a-kind hand woven jackets, scarfs, table linens, rugs, wall hangings. Be the one who is admired and perhaps envied for the skill of her hands. Be the one who has found contentment and happiness by doing something just for yourself for once. Be the one who has taken advantage of the joys and fulfillment that has come […]
Forty and forty-one
These were two of our favorite numbers this year! Forty for Sievers School’s 40th anniversary year and forty-one for our 41st season of teaching classes. With the origin of Sievers based on weaving, it was very appropriate that our last two classes were #40, Beginning Weaving with Nancy Adams and assistant, Susan Johnson and #41, Magic Carpet Ride:Rag Rug Weaving with Deb Sharpee. It was the perfect way to finish our 2019 season and mark those two milestones. From a variety of samples, perfect for beginning weavers, students learned the basics of weaving on a floor loom and were able to finish their first project and then go on to dress the loom and weave a second piece. Most of […]
Weavers all around
Recently, it was looms to the right of us and looms to the left in Rita Hagenbruch’s Halvdrall and Monk’s Belt class in the Sophie Studio, joined by Nancy Frantz teaching eight beginning weavers on our Sievers table looms in the Walter Studio. The samples Rita brought were so inspiring. Some commented that they could never bring themselves to actually use such fine handwovens. But Rita reminded them that unless they are used regularly at family dinners, holidays and the like, they don’t become heirlooms. Only when they are part of your memories do they become most valuable. This piece (also shown at the top of the page) was fresh off the loom at the time of the class visit […]
Stories
Each hand crafted piece has a story and the pieces made in last week’s Navajo Rug Weaving class and Open Quilt Studio all have their own stories. The reason for the choice of colors and design, who it may be given to and why, what it will remind the maker of each time they see it or what was happening around them during the process are all parts of the story. We have a story for you, too. Once upon a time, a group of people met at Sievers School for a Navajo Rug Weaving class with Betty Glynn Carlson. They started by warping the Navajo looms and choosing colors and designs that were to be the words of the […]
Batik & Beyond
It was 1982 when Mary Jo Scandin first came to Sievers and offered a class in Batik and Direct Dye Painting. Every year since then we have delighted in the return of “batik week”. Some of the students in this most recent class first came for batik in the mid-1980’s! What a wonderful journey it’s been together. Mary Jo’s piece, “Nighttime on a Hill” appeared on our brochure cover last year. Now, thanks to her, it is part of our permanent collection, a gift for all who walk through the doors of Sievers. Batik is a multi-step process and there are both active times dyeing and rinsing and quiet, meditative times drawing, waxing and ironing. The results are beautiful. Pam […]
We will be waiting for you
Those words were used 40 years ago by Walter Schutz in the first Sievers School class brochure and for many years that followed. They’re still true today! Each year since classes began in 1979, we await meeting new students and reconnecting with returning student-friends. Not only are we waiting for you, so are the instructors, fellow classmates, the studios, dormitory, favorite Washington Island places and the Sievers shop. As one way to mark our 40th anniversary year, we’ll occasionally share some of the “Sievers Stories” collected last year from students. In one, Kathy B. wrote, “I came for my first class in 1989 and took beginning spinning followed by intermediate spinning. When I think back, that was really ambitious for […]
