The adage, “a picture is worth 1000 words” is the theme for this post featuring photos from our early August companion classes, Diane Fitzgerald’s “Beading: Inspiration from Everywhere” and Stephanie Lewis Robertson’s “Making Your Mark: A Fabric Journey”. As it turns out, one thousand words equals about two full pages of writing. We will forego all those words and share photos from the classes instead. First, just a bit about each class. The beaders had selected a theme that appealed to them personally, researched it, then developed a concept and based on that, created beadwork in class. In Making Your Mark, students used simple silk screening, direct painting on fabric, dyeing, block printing and more to create designs on cloth. […]
Without Boundaries
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. […]
Adornments
It is always a treat for us when Diane Fitzgerald and her class is here. Each day, she and all her students are adorned in a variety of necklaces, bracelets and earrings showcasing the most wonderful, creative beadwork. Every day of class had a different focus with time afterwards to explore the possibilities. A pre-arranged exchange between students gave them all a chance to share some of their work with the rest of the “flock”. Shrinky Dinks© made for lovely, ruffled flower necklaces, or you could adorn yourself with these crystal flowerets. A definite theme prevailed during the week for the class, where the students are known as the “Flamingo Beaders”. Pink everywhere, ranging from a flamingo tablecloth, paper plates and napkins in the kitchen, to numerous mascots, to […]
May Miscellany
It’s official! The information packets for Class#1, Open Quilt Studio, were mailed today. On June 5, those students will be the first to arrive of 322 registered so far. We’re already getting the buildings ready as our initial guests will be the W.I. Art Association artists utilizing the Walter Studio starting on May 22. After 20 years, one part of getting the buildings ready meant it was time to sand and then re-varnish the floor of the Sophie Studio, making it nice and shiny again. Many beautiful and special items have already arrived for the Sievers Shop. We will be open daily, 10-5, starting Monday, May 22nd. Until then, as temperatures permit and if we are in the office, we’re happy to greet you. One […]
Time to Bead and Weave!
Each day of Diane Fitzgerald’s Anything Goes…with Beads class had a special theme or focus (as posted on the easel in the studio) with of course, time set aside to work on individual projects, some of which incorporated the class “mascot”. We won’t focus on Friday (with sad face, shown above, signifying the last day of class and good-byes said for this year), but instead look back at some of what the students were doing on the six previous days. As the last beads were being stitched into fabulous jewelry, the first heddles were being threaded by the beginning table loom weavers. Instructor Nancy Frantz guided the students through the steps involved in weaving a small sampler that can be used as a runner. As […]
Making their mark
For the first week of August, Stephanie Robertson’s class made their marks on fabric by screen printing, indigo dyeing, ice dyeing, direct painting, foiling, experimenting and discovering each day. Each time we walked into the studio the pieces changed as step one led to step two, three, four…and more. The indigo works it’s magic on the odd, but carefully planned combinations of clips and folds and ties. Bright and colorful, with jellyfish or without, the fabrics tell stories and leave their mark within the walls of the Walter Studio. A sneak peek into the overlapping class, Diane Fitzgerald’s Anything Goes…With Beads shows one of their first points of focus: zippers. We can’t wait to share more in the next post!
The Glass is Half-Full
It’s hard to believe, especially for us, that only half of our class schedule remains. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing many of you already and look forward to seeing many more of you through October, so we look at it as if our glass is half-full. The classes leading us into the second half of our schedule were Table Loom Weaving with Nancy Frantz, Beading “Bucket List” with Diane Fitzgerald and Making Your Mark with Stephanie Robertson. The beginning weavers spent three days learning the basics while weaving a sampler on a table loom. There were beautiful beaded creations adorning the beaders themselves as well as their workspaces in the studio. Because Stephanie Robertson’s Making Your Mark class is still […]
Sparkles and Shuttles
There’ve been sparkles to the east and shuttles to the west this past week with Diane Fitzgerald’s two beadwork classes and Nancy Frantz teaching beginning weaving on a table loom. Tiny seed beads were worked in bead embroidery techniques making a cuff bracelet on the weekend and the following class created jewelry out of two-hole beads. Would you like to do some bead jewelry window shopping? Here’s another reason to make bead jewelry! Sunflowers II was the first place winner in the Crystal Jewelry category at the 2014 Bead & Button BeadDreams international juried competition. Made by Mary Lou Allen, she kindly brought it with her to show in class. The shuttles in the Walter Studio were in the hands of […]
