February 1st will be here in only three weeks! That day, all of our 2024 classes will be open for registration and the class descriptions, along with complete information, will be available on our website. The site will be in “maintenance mode” soon, but available again for registration on February 1. Featured on the cover of the 2024 brochure is the handweaving of Judith Yamamoto. Judie first came to Sievers as a student in Mary Sue Fenner’s 1981 Basic Weaving class and the following year, she offered a class in knitting. Since then, she’s gone on to offer another 100 classes at Sievers and has been a student here 35 times. Thank you, Judie, for being part of Sievers for […]
2023 Sievers Preview
February 1st will be here in only three weeks! That day, all of our 2023 classes will be open for registration and the class descriptions, along with complete information, will be available on our website. The site will be in “maintenance mode” soon, but available again for registration on February 1. Featured on the cover of the 2023 brochure are some of the many colorful splint-woven baskets made by Jeanette Biederman. Thank you, Jeanette, for all the beautiful baskets and equally beautiful friendships you’ve made with us and your students over the past 32 years! Many of our instructors are returning in 2023 and we welcome two new teachers this year, Joyce Gitter and John Rezachek. Both Joyce and John […]
Wonderfully woolly
A class specifically to study the wool of different sheep breeds and their characteristics as they apply to spinning (and more) made for a wonderful woolly week. As always, instructor Deb Jones brought a wide variety of wools and other fibers for use in class. Some of the spikiest of tools are used for carding, combing and blending the softest of wools. Putting the fibers to work, the spinners had their wheels in motion, interspersed occasionally with faraway looks, contemplating which blends to combine next. Swooning over all the wools and yarns from class! Cindy R. shared her “Sievers Story” with us: “What a wonderful experience. The bunk house was fun and the class was out of this world. Deb […]
Be All You Can Be
Attention!! The recruits in Deb Jones’ Spinner’s Boot Camp grant permission for you to inspect their field of operations (aka the Walter Studio). Deb brings so much for the students to experiment with, from wheels to blending and carding tools to an amazing array of fleece. It certainly allowed them to be all they can be! In this class, the boot camp atmosphere began with each student receiving a fatigue hat to form a spinning squad. Daily training in techniques and challenges were part of the week’s wooly “obstacle course”. To become a more intentional spinner along with instilling more skills and confidence were the goals of these training exercises. At the end of the first day, the comments were, “I’ve learned so much already”. […]
Straw into gold
Well, maybe not technically spinning straw into gold, but the students in Deb Jones’ Beginning Spinning and Rainbow Dyeing class took simple wool fibers and turned them into something equally precious to a beginning spinner, their own handspun and hand-dyed yarns. By the end of the first afternoon, these beginners were spinners! You can see more photos from the class as Deb has posted them on The Fiber Garden Facebook page. Her next stop, along with other Sievers teachers (Nancy Frantz and Mary Germain), students and friends is the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival from September 7-10. Spinning is one of the classes that’s been offered at Sievers each year since the start. One of those first classes in 1979 is shown in the black and white photo. Dyeing was added later, using […]
Happiness is…
…a colorful quilt. ….being inspired by nature. …warm woolens. …wildlife in the backyard. …watching clouds and sunsets (especially the ones on Washington Island). As promised last time, the Open Quilt Studio “challenge quilt” border fabrics were on before class was over. Everyone likes…a colorful quilt. In Susan Hoffmann’s Landscape ‘Painting’ with Fabric class, students worked with the same set of fabrics. Although they all started with the same theme, there were as many variations as students, each person creating a unique woodland scene and …being inspired by nature. The Spinning Art Yarns class taught by Deb Jones used a variety of fibers and combined them into special and fanciful yarns by using the drum carders, picker, spinning wheels and plying in order to have some one-of-a-kind…warm […]
Spinning and weaving, as promised
Dyed fibers and yarns from past years came back to visit the spinners during Spinners’ Retreat (or perhaps more aptly named Spinners’ Advance!) class with Deb Jones. The drum carders were put to good use as were the wheels during this 5-day class. We’re looking forward to Deb’s next class, “Dyeing to Knit”, August 21-24, where students will dye yarns that create “Fair Isle” and striping patterns when knit. The weavers, with instructor Nancy Adams and assistant Susan Johnson, wove not only their projects on the looms, but themselves together as a group during the week. We will also see Nancy Adams again when she returns to teach “Beyond Beginning: Weaving” from September […]
Weaving, Spinning, Weaving and Weaving (Baskets)
You certainly can pack a lot of action into four (5-day) classes at Sievers. Sharing September 17 -22 were Robyn Spady with her Exploration in Weaving: Block Party class and Deb Jones with Spinners’ Retreat. Then we continued with Beginning Weaving taught by Nancy Adams with assistant Susan Johnson and Splint Woven Basketry with Jeanette Biederman from September 22 – 27. Four classes, ten days, a lot of learning, a lot of projects and a lot of fun. It’s hard to believe that one month from today will be the last day of our last class. That means we’ll have to start planning for 2014! As a reminder, the Sievers Gathering, our 18th “reunion” weekend with workshops, vendors, speakers and fiber arts garage sale […]
