Continuing on with our June classes, we’ll see more from Ellen Graf’s “Your Latest, Greatest Quilt” class and the Batik Alumni Studio with Mary Jo Scandin, along with some terrific weaving done in the “Introduction to Overshot” class with Nancy Adams. Here’s where we left off, starting with the busy hum of sewing machines, creating big, beautiful designs from small pieces. Like most quilters, these ladies were an organized group! Stacks of pre-cut pieces or pre-made blocks from home were labeled carefully and kept in order, ready for precise placement. Ellen helps each student bring their ideas and vision together, making their “latest, greatest quilt” extra special. Batik alumni gather with Mary Jo (who is ever-creative and always evolving), to […]
Making the most of June-Part 1
How much can we fit into the month of June? Plenty, as it turns out! We’ll have welcomed five classes since June 10, which we’ll visit in this post and the next. For beginners and beyond, team teachers Kathy Broer and Judith Yamamoto have shared one or more new techniques during their Japanese Temari classes and this year, the focus was on Kikus and Triwings. In addition, for their main project, the students were challenged to use several shades of orange colors in each of the design motifs on their Temari. It’s truly captivating to see all of the samples Kathy and Judie bring as inspiration for their students and there’s an added delight to see the looks of amazement […]
Time flies
When the schedule is set for the season, we immediately begin to wait (with great anticipation) for the classes to begin and to see all of you! That certainly applies to the Batik Alumni Week, led by Mary Jo Scandin. Mary Jo first taught Batik here in August 1982. The last line of her biography in the Sievers brochure that year read, “Her work and products are outstanding and her students learn so much.” These words were added the following year, “Her enthusiasm about the art makes learning the batik process a delight.” How time flies! Here we are forty years later having the great pleasure of so many batik classes either taught or co-taught by Mary Jo, who now […]
Batik & Beyond
It was 1982 when Mary Jo Scandin first came to Sievers and offered a class in Batik and Direct Dye Painting. Every year since then we have delighted in the return of “batik week”. Some of the students in this most recent class first came for batik in the mid-1980’s! What a wonderful journey it’s been together. Mary Jo’s piece, “Nighttime on a Hill” appeared on our brochure cover last year. Now, thanks to her, it is part of our permanent collection, a gift for all who walk through the doors of Sievers. Batik is a multi-step process and there are both active times dyeing and rinsing and quiet, meditative times drawing, waxing and ironing. The results are beautiful. Pam […]
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 […]
Fiber friendships
We received a wonderful surprise gift from the Batik class of 2015 and instructors Mary Jo Scandin and Thom Scott after this year’s class introduction. Last year, each of the students and teachers had made a batik panel based on a color challenge that was later assembled, backed and sewn by Thom (he also did the bottom Sievers School of Fiber Arts panel). Now hanging from the beams in the Walter Studio, this is really a gift to all of Sievers – including you! Thank you batik artists for the banner and for your friendship! [intense_row padding_top=”0px”] [intense_column size=”6″ medium_size=”6″ small_size=”12″ extra_small_size=”12″] [/intense_column][intense_column size=”6″ medium_size=”6″ small_size=”12″ extra_small_size=”12″] [/intense_column][intense_row] The buckets were brimming and the wax pots were in use for the next seven […]
Coverlet Weaving + Tablet Weaving + Batik = July at Sievers
This is a four-class post! Students in Rita Hagenbruch’s Friendship Coverlet class not only fostered friendships, but wove overshot blocks for each other. Those blocks will be assembled into coverlets, warming the owners twice: first with the wool and second, with the thoughts of their new weaving friends. Two classes of Tablet Weaving with John Mullarkey discovered all kinds of intricate patterns at their fingertips. John is one of three new instructors this year and we, along with his students, are so happy to have him here, sharing his passion, samples and knowledge of tablet weaving. Would it be summer at Sievers without batik? I don’t think so. The colors of the rainbow and all shades in between soaking […]
