So many designs…so little time! In the Marbling: Paper and Fabric class with Nancy Akerly and her assistant, Joyce Gitter, three days allowed for the exploration and creation of many designs and techniques including French Curl and Spanish Wave, but we’re sure the possibilities of so much more continues to swirl through the minds of the students even now. Step-by-step the process for each design is thoroughly explained and practiced. Even unexpected results can become favorites! Besides marbling on plain and printed papers, students used cotton, silk and rayon for fabric pieces, scarves, shawls or small garments. What a creative, fun and color-filled class providing (almost) instant gratification! Thinking about marbling brought the Stavkirke to mind and its altar with […]
Over, under and around
Simply put, weaving can be described as over, under and around. We’ve had all of that since the last week of June through early July. We began with Introduction to Overshot taught by Nancy Adams along with Jeanette Biederman’s Splint-Woven Basketry class and then most recently, Covered Coiled Baskets with Lynn Stracka Schuster. As an introduction to overshot weaving, the samples Nancy wove to inspire her students were appropriate for using the four-harness Sievers looms. All of those threads passing over and under each other many times in the students’ projects resulted in stunning handwovens. Now that they’ve been introduced, we hope overshot is a new weaving friend! Over, under and around makes a basket, too! To consider all the […]
Blue leads the way
Blue led the way during the week of June 14-21, starting with Anne Landre’s Shibori & Indigo Dyeing class. Using the Japanese technique of resist-dyeing with the option of several indigo vats in a range of light, medium and dark intensities, students stitched, clamped or folded cotton, silk and linen fabrics and then dyed them for predicted (and surprising) results. The blue sky each day of class seemed to be reflected directly into the fabrics. As Anne says, “Jump into the blue!” Besides blue, all colors were incorporated in the scarves, table runners and twill samplers in Susan Frame’s Beginning Weaving class. Of the eight students, seven were new to Sievers and one had taken just one class previously, Basic […]
In season
Appearing in the woodlands, along the shore and even the roadsides are the lovely, delicate flowers of late spring on Washington Island. From all corners of Washington Island and within, there’s always something in season to explore!
First of the season
For many years now, we have opened our season with an Open Quilt Studio and the same was true beginning on June 2. With a group in each building, all of Sievers was filled with bright, creative, thoughtful and fun quilts and quilters. Each and every one put their hearts into their finished pieces. Bringing ideas or quilts in progress, pre-cutting hundreds of pieces at home or starting from “block one” here at Sievers, the gallery of quilts through the week is ever-changing and inspiring. Stories are told, lessons are learned, gifts are made, friendships are formed, and family, friends and future holders of these quilts are cherished with each stitch. We move from quilting to quilting with Class #2, […]
It is April, isn’t it?
We’re only five weeks away from the start of our 2022 season, beginning with Open Quilt Studio. This spring, it can seem like it’s only been five weeks since classes ended, as we still have days that remind us more of late-November than late-April, including today. On a rare occasion, we captured some blue sky and water and know it’s still there, waiting to peek out again. We’ll be ready! In the midst of our all-day snowfall, a combination air conditioning/heating unit was installed in the Sievers Shop. April or November, it’s all the same to us!
The Sievers Shop
Last time we mentioned that the Sievers Shop at one point was the Jackson Harbor Store, selling groceries among other items. Since 1979, when Walter Schutz established Sievers School of Fiber Arts, the only groceries we’ve “sold” were a jar of peanut butter, a package of tuna fish and some crackers out of our staff lunch cupboard to a hiker who was on his way to Rock Island several years ago, late on a Sunday afternoon when Mann’s Store was closed. In those first years, the former coat room in the old schoolhouse was used to display Sievers Looms along with a very limited number of yarns for weaving. Visitors were greeted within the entry area (marked by the wooden […]
“Our” Grocery Store
Last year we visited Walter Schutz’s Milwaukee neighborhood of the early 1900’s with descriptions from his book It Was Fun Being Young, focusing on his memories of holidays and school days. Once again, we’ll follow Walter as a young boy, this time to the grocery store. He writes, “Our grocery store, Ellenbecker’s, was the largest place of business at the corner of Holton and North. It sold only groceries. You could not buy meat or shoestrings or toothpaste or any articles of this kind – it was groceries only. Back then, there were any number of small shops and stores that served neighborhoods. At Ellenbecker’s, a long, hardwood counter extended down the left hand side of the store. In front […]
