After learning the basics, there’s no boundaries to what you can create. Experimenting builds new opportunities and that was definitely part of our last two classes. We start by continuing with a few more fabrics; direct painted, dyed, printed and screened from Stephanie Robertson’s Making Your Mark class. A family tree branched out on one piece, and after preparing the first stage of this mountain scene, it was definitely time to sit back and admire it with feet up! An idea proposed by one of Stephanie’s students and carried out in class this year was to hand-dye cotton that could be used in the Washington Island-made Quilts of Valor. Each student participated to create this array of fabrics for these meaningful quilts. […]
Express yourself
There are so many ways to express yourself. Count our first two classes in August, Basketry: Covered Coiling with Lynn Schuster and Making Your Mark: A Fabric Journey with Stephanie Lewis Robertson among them! By completely covering the core material with various yarns and expanding or decreasing the spiral core while constructing a basket was the method used in this class. As Lynn related to the students, the basket will tell you what it wants as far as its shape, rim and embellishment. The students commented on the relaxed and meditative-type atmosphere that was inherent in the wrapping and stitching of their baskets. Expressing yourself and telling your own story through fabric is the basis of Stephanie’s fabric printing and dyeing class. Experimenting with […]
Summertime
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 […]
Sievers Sneak Preview
The days are quickly approaching the February 1st opening of Registration Week. It is such a treat for us to hear from you in the middle of winter, anticipating the time we’ll share when you’re here for class (or for an Island visit). We will be welcoming one new teacher in 2018, Susan Frame. She will open our 40th season teaching Class 1 – Beginning Weaving on a 4-Harness Floor Loom. Susan took her first weaving class in 1982 and has continued learning since, including three classes at Sievers ( in 1988, 1989 and 2012). Since 1989, Susan has had the pleasure of teaching weaving techniques at The Fiber Garden in Black River Falls, WI. She and her husband live in Osseo, WI. Welcome, […]
