After our last class ended, we began to look forward to one more highlight of the season! An event coordinated by Jo Campbell-Amsler and Lee Zieke Lee, Willow Connection 2023 brought together a group of willow basketmakers and enthusiasts from all parts of the country for four days of willow harvesting, basketmaking and sharing. The group harvested the entire Sievers willow patch in one morning, which ended up being the one time it didn’t rain during the time they were here! The fresh cut willow, along with other materials brought by the participants, was used for making baskets and sculptural pieces. Wrapping our season up with willow added more wonderful memories to the ones we already made in 2023! We’re also […]
School days
We’re sure you’re aware that Sievers (now the shop and library area) was originally the Jackson Harbor School, for grades one through eight, dating back to 1891. Built at a cost of $450, early records indicate as many as 46 students attended at one time. Sylvia (Andersen) Nelson began teaching at the Jackson Harbor School in 1930 at a salary of $100 a month. From the book, “Island Schools, Then and Now”, she recalled aspects of the schoolhouse during the winter months. “A small shelf held an enamel washbasin, a pail for clean water, soap dispenser, and a pail for wastewater. Since (the entry area) was never heated, the water froze in winter. For drinking, there was a crock-like container […]
Sievers News
It was February 27, 2008 when the first “News from Sievers School” blog was posted to our website. It was a bare bones edition with no photos, no email notification of the post and no social media sharing. We’re glad for the changes since then! The post began by saying, “We are happy to add this news page and share what’s happening at Sievers with you. Look for general news, photos, Island events and more. We plan to post news at least once each month, but I’m sure you’ll find that we’ve added something new more often than that. We hope you enjoy the Sievers News.” The rest of the post included a note about the “Aquafishy” box design our […]
March Update
Spring was showing itself (a little bit) with sightings of Sandhill Cranes and Red-Winged Blackbirds, bare patches in yards and mostly clear roads, until yesterday when we had a quick reminder of winter. We don’t mind though, as it is beautiful and the sunshine nowadays assures us it’s only temporary. From our post on March 7, 2017, “Today we counted 277 registrations.” Here we are one year later to the day and our count is…278! The last days of March have been set aside again for this year’s Quilts of Valor event, coordinated by Ellen Graf. There will be both on-site teams in the Sophie Studio and a number of off-site teams creating these special quilts. As a reminder, the application date for Sievers Scholarships is April 1. Scholarships are available for Sievers alumni or for new […]
Graduation and Studio Time
Five Washington Island high school seniors will graduate tonight (four girls and one boy), so this is a good time to share something about our 2014 Sievers Scholarship recipients. The Elisabeth Beinert Scholarship has been awarded to a student who is enrolled in John Mullarkey’s Tablet Weaving class in July. Our Doreen Speckmann Scholarship is going to a student who is taking Kay Rashka’s Etched Metalwork Jewelry class in September and last night at the Washington Island School’s awards presentation, Sophia Hagen received a Sievers scholarship in the amount of $500.00. Sophia will be attending St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI this fall and has won numerous awards all through high school for her drawings and paintings. Sophia is also one of the waitresses […]
