Many classes use all the colors of the rainbow (and more!), but in the Spinners’ Color Lab with Deb Jones, students made rainbows of their own, in roving and yarn. Mixing a certain number of “starter colors” into hundreds of other colors kept the rainbows coming. Deb reported 200 skeins of yarn (more than 5,000 grams) and 1,300 grams of roving were dyed in two days. Students worked as partners dyeing solids, gradients, speckles and more. After the dyeing and drying, students spun the singles into one-of-a-kind yarns that might look like keepsakes, but are sure to be used in other fiber works. We hope to see those on a return visit! Happiness is being surrounded by color! Although there […]
Still ringing true
In the 1982 Sievers class brochure, Walter Schutz wrote, “All who attend carry home with them not only the techniques of their chosen fiber art but also rich memories and lasting friendships.” Here we are, 42 years later and those words continue to ring true. It’s generally the case that several small groups of friends come together for our Open Quilt Studios. With a retreat atmosphere and the freedom to sew and quilt (or knit, explore and shop) when you want, there’s a unique balance of productivity and “permission” during the week. There were new pieces in the works every day and once in awhile, quilt blocks or a top make a repeat appearance. We could see them over and […]
Spinning and weaving rainbows
We set aside this photo of a rainbow taken in early summer just to mark the occasion of two of our most recent classes, Beginning Spinning and Rainbow Dyeing with Deb Jones and Weaving the Rainbow with Judith Yamamoto. A real rainbow is always a treat and so were the rainbow of colors in the studios, as was the work students did in class. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a Beginning Spinning and Rainbow Dyeing class in session, making it especially exciting to see new and beyond beginning students learn the art of spinning and hear the the soft click of the wheels at the start of the day! Spinning, dyeing, carding, blending and plying were all […]
Come…enjoy, share, & learn
“Come…enjoy, share & learn” were words used many times over in past Sievers School brochures. Since then, we’ve incorporated the statement, “An experience awaits you…”. Both of these sayings could apply to any Sievers class, but none more so than two recent ones, Rigid Heddle Weaving with Deb Jones and our second Open Quilt Studio of the season. Deb Jones of The Fiber Garden, makes every class she teaches an experience. From the outstanding instruction, to the personal attention given to each student, to the full array of equipment and tools she brings (which she magically packs into her “Mary Poppins” van), to joining students together for dinners out and about on the Island, she brings all of it together […]
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 […]
A good blend
From the very beginning, Walter Schutz felt Washington Island was the ideal place for learning and specifically as a place for Sievers School of Fiber Arts. He wrote in 1979, “What could be more ideal than creating in pleasant surroundings such as these?” Also, “…a positive cultural advance – the Island is ideally suited for this. I am convinced (Sievers) would not be as successful in other places…” and, from 1984, “I hope, too, that it will help you regard the Island with more reverence, help maintain its rustic, unspoiled atmosphere and above all keep it, as much as possible, the sort of place it is. It truly is ‘north of the tension line’ (and) opens the door to the […]
Catching up
It’s been three weeks since our last post so it’s well past time to catch up with what’s been happening at Sievers. After a short break in classes over the Fourth of July, Sandy De Master and Mary Germain were here for their Baltic Knitting Extravaganza class. Knitters new to Latvian and Estonian knitting began with a lined, ornament-sized mitten and went on to design their own pair or other project. The hardest part is deciding which of the many great color and motif inspirations to choose! These mittens deserve a hand (and these hands deserve the mittens)! What can we say about Rigid Heddle Weaving with Deb Jones? It’s a fast-paced weaving experience, complete with excellent instruction, beautiful yarns, […]
Of spinning and dyeing
Since 2017, we’ve kept a Sievers calendar close by, writing in the names of students and teachers who we haven’t seen for some time that happen to stop in for a visit. Generally, we have several entries each week and during July and August, it can be several each day. We love re-connecting in this way and keeping this record has been so much fun, we wish we would have thought of it years earlier! Just a couple weeks ago, a former student stopped in while biking on the Island. She’d taken one class here in 1987, spinning with Franie Philps. Since our first year, Sievers has offered spinning and Franie was the instructor from 1982-1999. For one of her […]
