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Join fellow weavers for a year-long study group to view the Jane Stafford’s Online Weaving Guild episodes on our big screen in BARN's small classroom or the great room. We will learn new weaving techniques and share our success as weavers.
Details:
Schedule
Group Host: Catherine Camp, ccamp@bainbridgebarn.org
More about the instructor Jane Stafford:
Jane began weaving at the age of 21, purchasing a new Fanny with the help of a chattel mortgage on her Chevette. Before two years were up she was accepted as an under-qualified, but very ambitious student at the Baniff School of Fine Arts. Two years later she was a teacher’s assistant there and, in a few more, an instructor herself. In subsequent years, Jane has had the great fortune to be able to earn a living doing what she loves most, weaving, and sharing her passion for excellence in cloth. Jane has been both a production weaver and a workshop instructor, helping students reach their potential across the continent, for over 25 years. She was the recipient of the “Teacher of the Year” award for 2014 from Handwoven Magazine. Jane now teaches exclusively in her studio on beautiful Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
A hands on presentation by nationally-known fiber artist Robyn Spady on the gadgets and tricks to help your weaving experience go just a little bit easier. Robyn has a vast amount of experience and is very knowledgable about how to make your weaving go just a little better without too much effort.
Weaving Labs are less formal presentations by other weavers/fiber artists on various topics with the intent to build a wide, more knowledgable weaving community.
Instructor Bio:
Robyn Spady is a national treasure in the arts and crafts field, having years of experience nationally as a weaving and fiber arts teacher and conference keynote speaker. She is the author of numerous books and writes regularly for various fiber publications, including Handwoven, and she is the editor of Heddlecraft.
Embellishing fabric is a great way to take a plain fabric or garment and customize to your personality and make it your own. People have been using embellishment techniques for centuries. In this class we will explore several different techniques that will allow you to start making your garments of fabric uniquely yours.
The class will start with a drawing exercise in which a simple shape will be used to explore design. From there we will use these sketches to begin the process of embellishment. We will cover techniques such as embroidery using four basic stitches: the running stitch, the French knot, the chain stitch, and the outline stitch. We will be using various embroidery thread and ribbon to explore stitched embellishment.
You will also learn appliqué techniques (raw and needle turned as well as reverse appliqué. We will look at fabric manipulation, simple beading and the addition of buttons. Finally, you will pick a print fabric and learn to merge it with a solid and embellish the solid fabric to compliment the print.
We will be stitching on small samples and you will leave with a small book of stitched samples.
In this workshop, you will make a round quilted fabric casserole carrier in the BARN Fiber Studio. This handy-dandy dish caddie is easy to make and easy to use and perfect for carrying a warm quiche to its final destination. Minimal sewing skills are needed: you will cut out the pattern and share our sewing machines (or bring your own) to assemble.
If you have signed up for the quiche class in Kitchen Arts you can use your caddie the same day. The quiche class is in Kitchen Arts in the morning and is a separate registration if you choose to do both.
Fran Fuller and Alex McKeon are relatively new members and very enthusiastic sewists in the Fiber Arts Studio. Recently they’ve been partnering to offer youth activities in the Studio.
Join your fellow Fiber Arts enthusiasts at the February Fiber Connections Event on Tuesday, February 25 at 7:00 PM. If you have never visited BARN or the Fiber Arts Studio -- this is a great chance to come and see the Studio, take part in a creative activity, and meet the community.
This months' event:
Working with Wool from Pacific Northwest Sheep
Lauralee DeLuca will present on her work with the various breeds of sheep in the PNW that she especially loves. She has handy small "bumps" that she has dyed and are ready to spin as well as some knitted swatches to see. She also does felting and will bring examples of her work.
Lauralee DeLuca learned to spin 40 years ago, at 20, fell in love with fiber and has been doing it ever since. She has made part of her living selling yarn and fibers since 1984 and a full time living including teaching since 2009.
This class will qualify you to use Fiber Arts Studio, standard, Brothers sewing machines in workshops that have this class as a prerequisite. This class will also qualify BARN members to use the Brothers sewing machines in the Studio for independent sewing projects.
Please note that this is not an industrial sewing machine class.
Get acquainted with the features and functions of the Brothers sewing machines. This class will teach you how to:
**This special follow-up workshop is for the students who completed the February 1st and 2nd Nancy Klos tapestry class.** A registration code is required to register.
This Weaving Lab is an unstructured session where students who took the Tapestry Weaving Class at BARN in February can drop in with their samples and get additional help and pointers from Nancy Klos on tapestry weaving.
Come join us in the BARN Fiber Arts Studio and Churchmouse for a sponsored charity knitting circle. Just bring your knitting needles. Everyone welcome!
Free to Members and Non-Members. Registration is not required. Held every month on the first Wednesday of the month from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
We started a series of programs we call “Sew-Alongs.” What is a Sew-Along? It is kind of like a sewing bee where a group of sewing enthusiasts get together and work on the same kind of project.
The Fiber Arts Studio 'Sewing Programming Committee' selected some popular patterns and projects. People who want to participate will purchase their own pattern, fabric, and notions required to make the fabric bag. Then, we will meet and work together to make the chosen garment.
Please note: This is not a class with a formal instructor, but rather a gathering of folks interested in sewing together.
Skill Level Required: You should be able to use a pattern to cut fabric and follow written directions from the pattern maker.
In March we will make the SEW TOGETHER BAG pattern by SewDemented -- a fantastic zippered notions pouch.
The bag features three zippered pockets, four open pockets, and a spot for hand sewing needles and a small pincushion. The bag is closed with one long zipper that forms two handles. This bag will easily hold your 8" scissors, rotary cutter, marking pencils, seam ripper, extra needles, thread, snippers, and much more. You will be amazed by you how much you can hold in this fun and compact bag.
Student Supply List:
The pattern is available at the Bluprint website:
https://shop.mybluprint.com/sewing/patterns/sew-together-bag/136309
Esther’s Fabrics in Winslow has all of the fabric and notions you need to make this bag.
Check the pattern for appropriate fabrics and yardage needed.
* Photo Credit: Bluprint Website.
This class is about color and fabric and quilts. It will have some theory but will also be “hands on”, with lots of exercises to help sharpen the eye to color contrast, color harmony, and color variability.
The class will involve active participation - cutting, sewing, thinking, talking.
The subject matter will be appropriate for beginning quilters as well as experienced quilters, but at least a moderate level of sewing skill is necessary.
Students should bring:
Instructor Bio: Barbara Ramsey says "I am a fabric artist who sews original abstract art works using traditional quilting techniques. Employing my own designs, I piece together fabric shapes with a sewing machine and by hand. My main materials are commercially printed fabric as well as fabric I’ve dyed and manipulated myself.
My work expresses my fascination with light, color, texture, materials, and process. I love the ritual of taking fabric of one color and changing it into another color with dye or bleach. I’m completely absorbed by the simple acts of washing, rinsing, drying, sewing, and ironing as I pull scores of separate colors together into a single piece. Like many traditional quilters, I’m devoted to precise construction. I differ from many traditional quilters in that I design and cut fabric in an effort to distort geometry. I work to create irregularity, using various shapes to impel the viewer’s eye to roam over the entire surface of the quilt, seeking the harmonies in the middle of contrast. I create my work in order to disappear into its making."
Prepare wool for spinning with the use of various tools. There will be several fleeces provided for you to experiment with. You can bring your tools, but there are combs, hand carders and drum carders at the studio. (You are also encouraged to bring fleece you have questions about IF:
What supplies students should bring:
Tools and Fleece, if available.
Details
Instructor Bio: Emily Grice has been learning to spin for the past 30 years. She has attended several workshops and classes with local spinning experts.
Weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom is fun and easy. The looms are small and portable and your weaving can be as simple or as complex as you like. This class is for those new to weaving or established weavers looking for a way to make quick projects.
Class participants will learn how to direct warp the loom, how to do simple balanced weaving, how to identify and fix simple mistakes, and how to remove the finished project from the loom.
Rigid Heddle Looms are perfect for weaving with hand-knitting yarns. Participants will choose from a variety of yarns provided by BARN that will be used to make a scarf that they will finish by the end of class and take home with them.
Materials Fee: $15. Yarn for this class project will be provided.
Skill Level: Universal - Beginners to advanced weavers
Ages: Ages 14+ Welcome. Bring a bag lunch. We have a refrigerator and a microwave for your use.
Instructors:
This class will be taught by a rotating team of Fiber Studio weavers and fiber artists, including Terry Winer, Dale Walker, Sybil Carrere, and Sandy Hall.
Come join your fellow BARN artisans for a "Spin In" from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., on Tuesdays once a month in the Fiber Arts Studio.
Bring your spinning wheel, drop spindle or just come to hang out. Show and tell spinning projects welcome -- get inspired.
Your host will be Lori Lawson who is interested in all things fiber, especially spinning, weaving, knitting and dyeing.
The 2020 Dates for the 'Spin Ins": February 11, March 17, April 14, May 12, June 9, July 14, August 11, September 8, October 13, November 10, December 8.
Two days, six sheep breeds, twelve preparations, all local: Here’s a spinning workshop about the woolly wonders to be found nearby.
Our part of the Pacific Northwest suits a wide range of sheep types, so the fibers will be diverse and appealing—and a number of them will be rare breeds. Within a context of hands-on experience, participants will learn about the historical and cultural backgrounds of the featured sheep, as well as their present-day situations.
Fully rooted in place, this workshop comes about as a collaboration between Twisted Strait Fibers, a local community organizing a cooperatively-owned fiber processing mill on the North Olympic Peninsula, and Bainbridge Artistan Resource Network (BARN), the non-profit community arts organization in Winslow. It will be facilitated by Deborah Robson, fiber author of The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook and The Field Guide to Fleece (and UW graduate).
Students Should Bring to Class
Instructor Bio: Deborah Robson is a fiber generalist who specializes in spinning, knitting, and weaving, although she experiments with all aspects of textiles. She is the fiber author of The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebookand of The Field Guide to Fleece, in collaboration with livestock expert Carol Ekarius. For fourteen years she served as an editor at Interweave Press, including twelve years as editor-in-chief of Spin-Off: The Magazine for Handspinners. At Interweave she initiated the Save the Sheep project and the book Handspun Treasures from Rare Wools. She also edited Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, has worked in trade, literary, and scholarly publishing, and has written for many publications, including PieceWork, Interweave Knits, Spin-Off,and The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, as well as several fiber-related anthologies. Her textile designs have appeared in several magazines and collections.
She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and of the Colorado Authors’ League, and served two terms on the board of directors of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (now The Livestock Conservancy). Her current research focuses on the millennia of alliances between sheep and humans, emphasizing the fiber perspective and using Shetland sheep as an example of how the relationships have evolved, and she is publishing monographs on fiber-related topics. Websites related to her work are at independentstitch.com, www.DreamingofShetland.com (a site maintained by friends), www.DRobson.info, and www.Fleeceand Fiber.com.
Join your fellow Fiber Arts enthusiasts at the MARCH Fiber Connections Event on Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 PM. If you have never visited BARN or the Fiber Arts Studio -- this is a great chance to come and see the Studio, take part in a creative activity, and meet the community.
Our primary activity this month will be for the attendees to show current or recent work. Bring a recent project that you want to share, or something you’re working on. We all get good ideas from each other!
We will start with Business and Announcements. You’ll have a chance to learn what’s going on in the Studio, and about upcoming classes and activities.
Be a Maker for a Day!
Enjoy an afternoon of creative hands-on activities in BARN's 10 artisan studios. It's free, and open to all ages.
For more information contact: info@BainbridgeBARN.org
The BARN Fiber Arts Basketry program is very excited to offer a workshop in traditional fine skein willow weaving. Bill Roeder and Heidi Miller are Pacific Northwest master basketry weavers who teach students how to create baskets using the traditional German techniques.
Students will learn to prepare their own materials using specialized German “skeining benches”. Once materials are prepared the four-inch tall basket is woven over a wooden mold created for this class.
Following German tradition, great attention will be placed on detail and technique - including placement of stakes, control of stakes during weaving, German style twining, chase weave, 3 rod whale, installation of fully wrapped foot and rim.
Instructor Bios:
Bill Roeder began his basketry many years ago with commercial reed from Asia. As a partner in Fishsticks Basketry, Bill worked with many instructors from around the world, both weaving and learning the preparation of natural materials. Bamboo and working with Japanese artist Jiro Yonezawa became his focus. Beginning to teach was a natural progression. In 2003 Bill made his first skeined willow basket. He has studied privately with masters Alfred Schneider and Herr Popp many times since 2003 and this year’s study will be with Esme Hoffman in the Netherlands.
Heidi Miller began weaving seriously in 2009 when her aunt invited her to the Michigan Basket Weavers Convention. Discovering the huge variety of basketry styles and materials, Heidi became hooked on natural materials. Heidi has taken instruction from many of the finest teachers in the country and eventually round willow basket weaving became her focus.
Heidi and Bill met in 2010 when Heidi took a bent alder furniture class in which Bill was an instructor. Later, Heidi helped out as cashier during special events at Fish Sticks nursery. Bill offered her the chance to work with skeined willow and their future as instructor/student, and later as instructor/instructor came from that chance opportunity. They are both passionate about skeined willow and keeping the German tradition alive. They now travel to Europe together every year to study with the masters, as well as working together weekly. Heidi and Bill teach nationally.
In this class you will learn how to make screen prints for enamel application.
We will use the patterns and drawings to create screens for printing the pattern onto the enameled metal. We will kiln fire our enameled copper pieces then experiment with pattern layering and creating different textured surfaces that you can apply to your jewelry designs.
Instructor: Karin Lee Luvaas is a local Bainbridge Island artist and jeweler. With an art degree in encaustics, painting and metal sculpture, Karin has studied under acclaimed enameling jewelry masters Linda Darty, Keith Lewis, Heejoo Kim, and Aurélie Guillaume and achieved Graduate Jeweler status under Alan Revere of the world renowned Revere Academy of San Francisco, California. Karin is also a GIA certified Graduate Gemologist and holds a Jewelers of America Bench Jeweler Technician certificate.
Karin’s current work can be viewed on Instagram @karinluvaas.
Contact: Jewelry.Programming@BainbridgeBARN.org
*Class for teens ages 14 to 18*
Learn to Weave during Spring Break! Weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom is fun and easy, the looms are small and portable and you can finish a project in just one day!
Bring a bag lunch. We have a refrigerator and a microwave for your use.
This class will be taught by a rotating team of Fiber Studio weaver Terry Winer.
Go beyond the basics and weave more than plain weave on your rigid heddle loom.
Spend two days immersed in the joy of weaving with pick up sticks, learning to make additional sheds and manipulate your warp threads.
Discover the difference between warp and weft floats and how to use them to create your desired patterns in a sampler.
Try out lace patterns, honeycomb, waffle weave and more.
After learning a variety of patterns, see how the right finishing techniques really make your patterns pop.
This sampler will be the basis for planning many beautiful future textiles. While weaving the sampler, students will learn various methods for finishing the ends, how to wet fish the woven pieces, and many tips for easier weaving. After you finish your sampler you will see how to plan future projects based on the patterns you like best.
Please Note: The BARN Fiber Arts Studio has 10 rigid heddle looms available for BARN members use in this workshop. If BARN members wish to reserve one of our rigid heddle looms for this workshop, please click on the appropriate "Member Discount Price - Need to use studio loom".
Non-BARN members will need to supply their own rigid heddle looms for this workshop.
Instructor Bio: When Deborah Jarchow discovered weaving in 1996, her life-long love of fiber, texture, and color came together. Since then she has worked full time as a weaver and artist, including teaching fiber arts, creating and selling wearable art, giving lectures, and showing in local, regional, and national exhibits.
Her work has been exhibited at many galleries and museums across the country, including the Gerald R. Ford Museum. Her work has been commissioned by many churches and is in many private collections. She has won numerous awards and written articles for national publications. In 2019, her book, The Weaving Explorer, co-authored by Deborah and Gwen Steege was released. Deborah loves traveling the country and sharing her love of weaving.
For those who want to learn to weave on a 4 harness loom, and have been looking for a weekend class, BARN is offering this special class with renown instructor Deborah Jarchow.
In this three session workshop, you will learn the basics of weaving by:
In this workshop, Donna Lark will introduce you to the wet felting technique, Nuno Felting. Students will be able to create one nuno felted scarf during the workshop.
The Nuno Felting technique involves learning how to construct silk and wool fabric, the building block for all manner of projects from simple scarves to table runners, upholstery fabric and wall hangings.
Workshop participants will learn the history of felting and how to evaluate the quality and suitability of different silks and wools. Workshop attendees will also learn how they can continue the technique in their home. WHAT TO BRING TO CLASS: Participants should provide a waterproof apron, cuticle scissors, and 3-4 old towels. This is a physical process, bordering on strenuous, but anyone can do it if they pace themselves.
Instructor: Donna Lark states "I create Nuno Felted clothing inspired by the features of the natural world that I am attracted to on a daily basis. I love light, reflections, and colors that accompany the change of seasons. My passion comes from an old family tradition of garment making. My love of the outdoors led me to pursue degrees in Environmental Education (B.S.) and Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of Michigan. Landscape Architecture is, at its core, a design process that encourages a fluid and intuitive relationship between the built environment and the natural, dynamic elements that envelope it. At its best, a good design enhances the best qualities of both nature and structure. In my clothing designs there is a flow of color, form, texture and structure that is not unlike the movement in a garden. I use a similar skill set that I do in designing a garden. My goal is to enhance the qualities of the structure of the human body."
Time travel through fabric, craft, and art. It is through the passage of time that the necessary and utilitarian practice of Boro has become art.
Take your creative expression to new heights in this 2-day BARN exclusive. Join internationally renown instructors Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby and explore the exciting Japanese textile art of Boro!
You will use the fabric piecing principles of Boro, a traditional Japanese mending and quilting technique, and associated Sashiko hand-sewing skills to elevate a stack of everyday scraps into rich one-of-a-kind textiles that will beautifully adorn your home and wardrobe.
“BORO is patched clothing with a lot of small cloths here and there, but nothing fancy like today’s quilted or patched works. It was made purely for the practical purposes for retaining warmth in the snowy areas and for making it last as long as possible where it was hard to obtain any sorts of cloth. When we review its practicality and design from today’s point of view, we are able to realize its incredible sophistication.”
-Amuse Museum
Beginners encouraged – No experience necessary!
Recycling, repairing, and reworking textiles using Boro and sashiko is perfect for the maker who is ready to try something new and exciting. Even if you have never done any hand sewing and never fused two pieces of fabric together with a needle and thread, this is the class for you! If you’ve wanted to try quilting but were intimidated by stodgy traditional techniques, you’re going to love this class.
We’ll use Boro techniques to create a whole new panel of unique fabric from seemingly unusable remnants and odd pieces. By the end of the weekend, you will have a stunning new fabric that you can use by itself to enhance a favorite garment, accessory, or home décor item. Or use your new textile creation as the basis for a larger project like a quilt top, tote, or throw.
Want to make your reworked fabric even more special? Bring an old shirt, pair of jeans, old ties, or favorite fabric remnants and we will use those items or scraps to work into your design! Any fabric will do. Woven fabrics, pieces of lace, crocheted or knitted motifs… bring it on!
Have a garment that could use a little dressing up? Or a grocery tote that is just plain bland? Bring your favorite jeans that have worn through, a jacket that still fits but you ’re bored with… and we ’ll show you how to use your newly created fabrics and stunning stitching skills to take them from drab to FAB!
Join us and reignite your creativity – one stitch at a time.
Day 1: Welcome to the Rabbit Hole
We will explore a little of the history of Boro as a patching technique; why and how it helped springboard visible mending into the modern craze we see today. We’ll also discuss the nature of sashiko stitching and its variations.
It all starts by learning the ‘rules ’ of how to lay out our Boro patches so they work together in harmonious imperfection. We call this “purposeful abstraction”. Sounds Fancy, right?
We will then really get our hands involved with learning how to stitch Hitomizashi and Moyouzashi sashiko. You ’ll master Unshin - handling the needle and thread. Through the exercise of putting needle to fabric using the unique palm thimble and rocker motion of sashiko that we will make you proficient at this awe-inspiring stitching skill.
Finally, we begin the process of piecing together a tote bag using Boro patches and Sashiko stitching and begin to create new one-of-a-kind fabric.
Day 2: The Fruit of our Labors
We will continue to embellish our new textiles with a selection of hand-embroidered Sashiko patterns. By the end of the day you will take home a tote bag made from stunning new fabric, or a panel of Boro fabric that can be used to enhance a garment, act as an accessory or home décor item, or use as the basis for a larger project like a quilt or throw.
Instructors Bio: Shannon and Jason Mullett-Bowlsby are the dynamic DIY duo known as the Shibaguyz, the inspired creators of Shibaguyz Designz studio.
The Shibaguyz’ award winning crochet, knit, and sewing designs have been featured in and on the covers of dozens of domestic and international publications. Together, the Shibaguyz team currently has over 300 published patterns and 11 books credited to their name since their first design was featured on a magazine cover in 2010. Their fashion and portrait photography work can be seen in four of their books. They are sought-after freelance book-packaging designers having created books for major publishing companies like Sterling Publishing, Leisure Arts, and Creative Publishing.
The Shibaguyz have been teaching adults for 30+ years. Their enthusiasm, quirky sense of humor, and relatable teaching style have made them sought after teachers in both local and national venues like STITCHES Events, Vogue Knitting LIVE, and DFW Fiber Fest. They also have a wide range of online classes available from Blueprint and Interweave.
Shannon and Jason are proud ambassadors for Aurifil, Clover, BERNINA, Soak Wash, and the Daylight Company. They are working on a new book with C&T Publishing. Look for it in December 2020.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Facebook.com/Shibaguyz
Instagram.com/Shibaguyz
Twitter.com/shibaguyz
Looking for a community service project that will lighten the day for a cancer patient?
Work with Carol Latham, the Women's Club, and fellow members of the Fiber Arts Studio at BARN to make colorful and imaginative pillowcases for cancer patients living in Seattle while going through cancer treatment at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle Children's Hospital, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Resource Center.
Patients coming from all over Washington, the USA, and the world for cancer treatment at these facilities stay at the Pete Gross House, a 70 unit furnished apartment complex. This means they often can not bring much from home to personalize their Pete Gross House apartment or make it more cheerful. Getting something as simple as a pillowcase made with love and creativity can brighten these cancer patient's world and make them feel like people care about what they are going through.
You don't need to know how to sew to participate in this community service project.
What to bring:
Please register so we know how many people will be attending. Feel free to bring someone with you. Please enter number of "guests" you will be bringing when you register.
All Community Service Project Workshops in the BARN Fiber Arts Studio are Free for BARN and Non-BARN Members
The Ring Border Basket is a challenging and rewarding intermediate level basketry workshop.
Students will brush up and sharpen their twining skills during the first day of the workshop while making the basket base. There will be many colors to choose from to create a dynamic combination.
A stunning Ring Border will bring this basket to completion.
Student baskets will measure approximately 6” tall by 18” in diameter.
During all three days we will discuss the importance of tension on the materials, hand/finger placement, shaping and materials selection.
The Ring Border Basket uses multiple diameters of round reed that have been dyed with cellulose fiber dyes. All weaving materials have been selected and prepared for ease and flow during the workshop.
For directions, transportation, and lodging information click Getting to BARN.
Ages 18+ Welcome.
Instructor Bio: Peeta Tinay grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was born into a family of creatives: her father a chemist by day and a jeweler by night, her mother a painter and weaver. Art work from both parents and their friends filled the house throughout her childhood. Her grandfather was an inventor, keeping a fully functional foundry and pattern shop behind the family home. Roaming through his old work buildings was always an adventure. This early creative environment was fertile ground through which she came of age and discovered her life’s work. From 1990 to 2000 at The Caning Shop in Berkeley California she was introduced to techniques involved in the restoration of wicker furniture. In 2000 a move to Washington gave a fresh start motivating her to branch out. She continued restoration work and also started making wicker pieces from the ground up using 1920's wicker as inspiration.
Artist Statement: I spent the first two decades of my career learning and refining restoration techniques of antique and contemporary wicker furniture. In 2011, at age 43, a cathartic personal discovery about my birth and heritage threw open a door to creativity and set my work on a new and unexpected course. This experience provided the catalyst I needed to start creating my own designs for the baskets I make. I am inspired by techniques from antique wicker furniture, passementerie and anything exceptionally made and beautiful finished. Repeating patterns intentional and unintentional always catch my eye for a second look.
My basketry projects combine a variety of weaving techniques including twining, plaiting and lashing. I now prefer to create large works, moving beyond previously held notions of scale and proportion. Fine detail is achieved by using small-diameter round reed in the beginning stages of weaving which eventually transitions to larger reed. The combination of bold scale and fine detail are, to me, simply sublime. When plaiting with flat reed, I discovered additional interest by using multiple layers - juxtaposing interior and exterior colors that draw the observer deeper into the work. Cellulose fiber dyes are hand-blended creating either natural hues or vibrant colors. Finishing steps include a UV archival varnish and a hand-buffed wax finish.
From weaving techniques using a variety of materials to replicating complex finishes using paints, stains and dyes, my skills are continuously expanding. Reed, the primary material used in antique woven furniture, is the material I have chosen to use in all my projects. Derived from the vine rattan palm, it has been a workhorse in the production of handwoven wicker furniture since the 1880’s which ushered in America’s Golden Age of wicker furniture production. The versatility and resilience of this amazing material gives each new project infinite possibilities.
I feel that my current work captures and showcases all of my skills with reference to design and technique. I will continue to evolve as a craftswoman, seeking excellence in my work and within myself.
This is your chance to work with international fiber artist, Sue Spargo. In this 2 session workshop on June 1st and 2nd, students will be creating an embroidery sampler to be finished into a needle roll.
This class is for students to learn and expand their understanding of many stitches by incorporating them in different formations and combinations.
The focus of the class will be on the use of Eleganza Perle Cotton in sizes 8, 5, and 3. Each cover will be unique, using either Kumquat or Turquoise wool as the front cover. Students have the option to learn English paper piecing to decorate the inside with a floral flower.
Instructor Bio: Sue Spargo is a much beloved instructor and artist who teaches workshops around the world. We are very excited to welcome her to BARN.
Sue was born in Zambia and educated in South Africa. She later moved to England. She reports that living in both cultures shaped many of her designs. You can see the influence of Africa in her choice of colors. The whimsy and charm of her creations reflect African folklore.
She moved to the United States in 1980 and settled in Ohio where she started her company, Sue Spargo Folk-art Quilts, Inc., in the basement of her home in 2002. It was here where she embarked on her journey of dimensional layering and embroidery and introduced the world to wools saturated in bright colors, multi-medium layering and embroidery which resulted in textural depth and dimension never before seen. The circle of fans that love her and her artistry has grown exponentially over the years. Her company now has a store in Ohio with an abundance of the fiber-related products that she incorporates in her designs as well as her kits, patterns and books.
Creative Stitching Book (2nd Edition) by Sue Spargo.
Sue Spargo's Creative Stitching Book (2nd Edition) book is available at Esther’s on Island, Quilted Strait in Port Gamble, or online through Sue Spargo's store. The Eleganza Pearl Cotton embroidery thread and different needles can also be found at these stores.
Join Sue Spargo on an adventure of learning how to do dimensional layering and embroidery. In this three session workshop on June 3rd through June 5th, students create a tone on tone piece using creative stitching to form texture.
Sue will guide the students through the study of the stitch. With eliminating color, students will start to understand textural depth and learn the possibilities of simplistic color. Students will also enjoy the art of meditative stitching.
NOTE: Base circles are required to be appliquéd down prior to class. You will receive the Sand Dollar kit several weeks prior to the workshop along with wool thread to appliqué the circles. Please have the circles appliquéd before the first day of this workshop.
