In our most recent classes (like earlier ones and ones yet to come), creative power was held in the hands of the students, guided by instructors Anne Landre teaching Shibori & Indigo Dyeing and Introduction to Sashiko Stitching, and Susan Frame for the Beyond Beginning: Weaving class. Going back to 1947, Walter Schutz, the founder of Sievers, had a business named Jackson Studio, selling craft books and supplies by mail order. He wrote, “The escape (from the tempo of everyday life) lies in the creative power you hold in your hands. When you use your hands, you dissolve tension and worry. You open new fields of joy and vision – your cares and worries are pushed into the background.” We […]
More than once in a blue moon
More than once in a blue moon, artful and creative things happen in the Sievers studios. (It’s actually every day a class is in session!) That is due to our wonderful instructors who share their knowledge and enthusiasm, in combination with the work done by their students. Anne Landre invites her students in the Shibori and Indigo Dyeing class to “jump into the blue” and create patterns on fabric using resist-dyeing techniques. Mixing up a vat of indigo and dyeing multiple pieces of fabric is an all-day, some-of-the-night, all-in class and experience. Wrapping pebbles around fabric with rubber bands or around various sizes of PVC pipe, using clamps, or gathering and stitching cone-shaped features into fabric (see photo, below right) […]
Take five
We’ve had a busy start to August with five classes in session during the first ten days of the month. Beadweaving, and then Mixed Media Fiber Jewelry with Francie Broadie, Finding Our Way: A Dyeing Journey with Stephanie Lewis Robertson, Batik with Anne Landre and Coiled Basketry with Lynn Stracka Schuster. Let’s “take five” and see a little of what each class did during their time in the studios. Francie Broadie’s Beadweaving: Lesser Known Stitches class allowed all levels to try beadweaving for the first time or to explore unfamiliar stitches, then in her Mixed Media Fiber Jewelry class, students created one-of-a-kind jewelry using fabric scraps, beads, found objects or pieces of old jewelry, upcycling and combining them in fun […]
Something old, new, borrowed and blue
This age-old proverb usually isn’t associated with classes at Sievers, but it seemed fitting for the pair of classes held last week, Beginning Weaving on a Floor Loom with Susan Frame and Shibori and Indigo Dyeing with Anne Landre. Learning to weave on a floor loom certainly represents something old, or in more meaningful words, a continuity from the past. As you probably know, Sievers all started with looms and weaving. At the start of Susan’s class, Ann shared one of the first ads for Walter Schutz’s plan sheets for a table-sized Sievers Loom from the Fall/Winter 1974-75 McCall’s Needlework & Crafts magazine. Some of the many addresses Walter used for McCall’s ads were: Box 5M, Fifth Avenue, North Bay, […]
Batik and willow basketry
Two of our favorite fiber art classes (along with the other 35 this year!) are batik and willow basketry. Luckily for us they were recently in session, back-to-back, in the Walter Studio. For each, their signature fragrance fills the studio, with either the warm beeswax or the sweet scent of willow and other fresh-cut botanicals. In the Introduction to Batik class taught by Anne Landre, students layered colors on cotton fabric, working with beeswax. Designs were created by drawing or tracing directly on the fabric, by using templates or by working with antique copper stamps (tjaps). Then, a repeated series of wax applications and different dye baths were repeated to achieve fabulous results. With a combination of precision and surprise, […]
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 […]
