February 1st will be here in only three weeks! That day, all of our 2023 classes will be open for registration and the class descriptions, along with complete information, will be available on our website. The site will be in “maintenance mode” soon, but available again for registration on February 1. Featured on the cover of the 2023 brochure are some of the many colorful splint-woven baskets made by Jeanette Biederman. Thank you, Jeanette, for all the beautiful baskets and equally beautiful friendships you’ve made with us and your students over the past 32 years! Many of our instructors are returning in 2023 and we welcome two new teachers this year, Joyce Gitter and John Rezachek. Both Joyce and John […]
It’s a warp…and a wrap!
Two weaving classes, Simply Scandinavian with Connie Westbrook and Rag Rug Weaving with Deb Sharpee, wrapped up our 44th season of classes with many yards of warp! We can think of no better way to finish classes than to have a studio full of weavers working at Sievers looms, the foundation of Sievers School. Connie’s beautiful Scandinavian-inspired handwovens provided lots of possibilities for students’ class projects, focused on clean lines and simple designs. The class wasn’t only about weaving, it also included a tour of the Washington Island Stavkirke and a daily afternoon “Fika” break with treats. Last year we shared Connie’s delicious chocolate cake recipe, which made another appearance this year. We may try to obtain Tuesday’s special Swedish […]
Fall is for weaving
Coinciding with the first days of fall were two weaving classes, Beyond Beginning Weaving with Susan Frame and following that, Beginning Weaving with Nancy Adams and assistant instructor, Susan Johnson. What better time than fall to add to your weaving repertoire or to learn something new? (Actually, any time is good, but fall does have that special “time to start a project” feel.) In the Beyond Beginning class, students had a choice of projects, suitable for the shorter, four-day time frame. Susan wove and brought several examples including doubleweave blankets, scarves and samplers. Not only was it time to start fall weaving projects, it was time to finish them, too, as one scarf was woven and off the loom on […]
Basics and beyond
It’s always good to start from the beginning. With the two classes last week, students in one did just that, while the other was geared for beyond beginners. Interestingly, the three instructors for these classes started at the beginning and have gone well beyond here at Sievers. In the Quilting 101: Boot Camp, co-teachers Ellen Graf and Jackie Barry started students off with the basics of how to choose fabrics, accurately measure and safely cut fabric and sew patchwork blocks while establishing good techniques. Learning four different blocks and combining them, students created a wall hanging or table topper. Speaking of starting with the basics, Ellen came to Sievers for a Basic Spinning class in 1983, returning later for beginner-level […]
September days are here
The first several days of September have certainly mirrored the lines from the poem by the same name, capturing the “.. summer’s best of weather, And autumn’s best of cheer.” Other bests of September have been happening in our recent classes, including Splint-Woven Basketry, Navajo Weaving and Metalwork Jewelry Boot Camp. Basketmakers used their five days in the studio to full advantage, creating baskets of all shapes, sizes, colors and patterns. Add to that the new and renewed friendships, the many offers of helping hands with each others’ baskets and simply, but most importantly, spending treasured time together. Putting most of the week’s worth of baskets in one photo makes for quite an impressive display! From preparing the Navajo loom […]
Three of a (fiber art) kind
Perhaps the art and practice of batik, beginning weaving and cartonnage might not have much in common, but from August 15-25, these three (one-of-a-kind!) classes certainly shared the joy of learning, making and being creative. This was the first year we’ve had an Introduction to Batik class since…way back. Our batik classes evolved over the years to a studio week for experienced batik students, so when Anne Landre offered to teach an introductory class with Karen Zeman, we enthusiastically said, “Yes!”. Anne brought many, if not all, of her Indonesian tjaps, which allowed beginners to apply an entire design in wax at one time on the fabric. After applying the wax, the cotton or rayon fabrics were dyed one or […]
Wonderful and better
It was a wonderful week of Rigid Heddle Weaving with Deb Jones and the only thing that could have made the week better was to have an Open Quilt Studio at the same time…so we did! Some of the weavers were beginners and some had previous rigid heddle experience, so there were intermediate-level techniques and project ideas, including weft-faced weaves. Beginners started with scarves, then made a sampler, then had time for at least one more project. The instructor, Deb Jones, first came to Sievers as a student in Franie Philps’ Intermediate Spinning class in 1991. She continued to take spinning-related classes with Deb Menz as well as weaving, marbling, papermaking, feltmaking and coiled basketry. In 1999, less than a […]
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 […]
