Educating Creative Expression
The “advertising” budget around here is very small…without a doubt, word of mouth is our primary vehicle…so if you could pass these rack cards along to friends, LYS’s, festivals, fairs and fabric stores (or woodworking stores)…please ask, I just ordered 1500 today…
Ta Dah…
Thank you Gale Zucker for this gorgeous picture of Leah Mae…doesn’t she just make you smile!
The most exciting part of being involved in Fiber College is watching where passion will lead people. I’ve learned that you can never predict and if I stay out of the way, the end results are more special than I could have imagined. Case in point:
Gary Kitchen turning a Nostepinne
If you’ve attended FC in the past years, you’ve probably been caught in Gary Kitchen’s spell on time or another. Gary is the gregarious craftsmen who turns wood on a lathe and creates bowls, kniddy knoddys and new converts to wood working. Last November Gary left a message on my answering machine: Do you know what a walking wheel is and do you want one? If you want to get my interest quickly, this is a very good way to start…fast forward to this week. Gary and his friend Bill Forbes were talking while they were at the Windsor Fairgrounds and idly playing with an antique walking wheel. Bill likes to forge metal and play with things that spin…Gary likes a challenge and will enthusiastically embrace any project that makes a friend happy…so they proposed:
It all starts with a sketch
“we want to build two cherry walking wheels for Fiber College. One will arrive on Thursday ready to start spinning…the other will be built during the weekend. Both will be replicas of an original housed at the Cole House in the Windsor Historical Society Complex. ” Fiber College will keep one in the Studio and the second will be raffled off during the upcoming year, proceeds will be split between Fiber College and the Historical Society.
In the meantime, jazzed by their energy, we will be working with local historical societies to highlight Maine’s rich textile history at Fiber College 2012…stay tuned for more information…
Instructor Marly Matthewman's Weimeraners at Lake Winnipesaukee
Thank you for your patience. As we continue to upgrade and update the way that we administer Fiber College with the mission of keeping things fresh, easy and inspirational, we welcome you to submit class proposals from now until March 1st 2012…the Jury will announce its decision by March 15th and classes will be posted by April 1st.
Our Fantastic Ravelry group has asked for: Bohus Wristlets, Estonian Lace Knitting (we received many requests for lace knitting…very popular this year), more photography because Gale Zucker is so wonderfully inspiring, more designing to customize patterns and twisted Bavarian stitches…so I’ll work on that plus the class requests on the postcards…
Brambles (Cashmere Goat) and Sir Neeshee (Angora Goat)
Alice Seeger is a calm force in the midst of creative chaos. She’s wise, experienced and generous. When Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson were developing “Cultural Creatives” they must have been looking at Alice when they identified the core qualities that defined this social group. Alice spins, weaves, dyes, studies the textile traditions of indigenous populations…and she’s supported her family with her art for thirty-five years…how many people can say that?
When we asked her about herself, these were the thoughts that she shared with us:
Presumably you’ve been an artist all your life…when and how did you decide to label yourself as one?
Not until I was 35 after spending my first year teaching weaving at a camp filled with amazing artists from around the world.
If your life were a box of paints…would you be pastel colors, jewel tones, flesh tones or black, white and shades of gray?
Jewel tones
Tell us about your first attempts to be creative.
I think I was 7 years old when I began making clothes for my dolls from fabric in the “rag bag”, holding them together with safety pins. It was magical when Gran taught me to thread a needle and do a running stitch. I learned to sew on a sewing machine in Girl Scouts when I was ten. I made most of my own clothes from the time I was in Jr. high. I discovered spinning and weaving when I was in college.
If you could have any mode of transportation in the world…how would you get from place to place?
Sailing is great, (except in High seas) the world looks very different from the water, arriving at a harbor to find a post office or go grocery shopping is an adventure! Sailing brings me close to Nature at a pace to see and experience beauty.
What is your favorite art related book?
I’m a nut whenever I get near a museum book store, It’s dangerous really…. I have a great collection, I love them all, I especially love the Dutch Painting of the 1600’s depicting everyday life. In a “coffee table” book of the work of Jan Steen. you can study the clothing and material culture of the time period clearly depicted.
Do you make a living with your art?
YES, I don’t know how to do anything else.
What is your preferred environment when you’re in a creative mood?
My back deck, looking out over the Catskills with hummingbirds visiting the garden and good music playing on Pandora.
What do you wish you could do?
I really want to Move to Maine! where there are like minded souls.
If you were forced to give up your current artistic medium, what medium would you pursue next?
While doing arts residencies in schools I’d have to document as well as create content for the programs. I’ve added Photography my skill set. I’m currently taking photos for Real Estate and hope to be adding product and fine art photography. I like everything about it, from shooting to post processing in Photoshop! Extremely creative outlet and extremely satisfying! I love the learning curve and I get to invest in new toys!
What is your favorite art related website/blog?
Name five adjectives that best describe you at your best.
Passionate, caring, creative, loyal, funny.
Are you currently working in “the perfect” studio? What does your perfect creative space look like? What would we find in the drawers and cabinets?
My studio is currently a granny cottage for my Mom who has dementia. Three looms now reside in my living room with tall shelves for yarn and books. The sewing machine is in an itty-bitty room off the kitchen that doubles as an office/pantry. Not ideal, but it works for now.
With the tap of a magic wand, you can go anywhere and study with anyone…time is of no essence…what are you doing and with whom?
I love traveling to indigenous communities where textiles are still part of the living culture. India and Africa are still on the “bucket list”
When was the last time you laughed at yourself?
oh, at least once a day.
How many projects do you generally have going at one time?
3 or 4, and many more in my head
Alice will be teaching Easy Weaving for Handspinners on Sunday from 9-12, Felted Bead Jewelry on Sunday from 1-3 and has graciously agreed to assist Katharine Cobey in her Longdraw Technique Classes.
I have no excuses for not knowing Beth better…she lives just up the road, and I’m certain that she’d be a fun friend. Note to self: invite Beth for a cup of tea when the snow starts to fly. In the meantime, she at taught Fiber College last year and her students gave her rave reviews. We’ve seen her silk screen and surface design work and it’s a wonderful combination of inspired and original. Her blog , “sew sew art” is a generous source of information and we’re happy to know that she’ll be teaching a full day class on Thursday this year…Silk Screen: Construction and Uses.
Here are the responses she gave us for her interview questions:
1. Presumably you’ve been an artist all your life…when and how did you decide to label yourself as one?
I have always know I was an artist. As a kid, I just said I liked to draw and crayon but later realized that if time and money were no object, I would spend all my time creating art of some sort.
2. If your life were a box of paints…would you be pastel colors, jewel tones, flesh tones or black, white and shades of grey?
I am definitely jewel tones especially blue, green, turquoise and purple. I love the cool colors of the natural world.
4. If you could have any mode of transportation in the world…how would you get from place to place?
Private jet, no contest.
6. Do you make a living with your art?
I am working with a Visioning Project this year developing ways to make a living from my art work both with gallery representation and teaching workshops. The first gallery I exhibited in this year sold one of my pieces opening night – the first piece sold. Very encouraging.
What is your preferred environment when you’re in a creative mood?
Very early morning with not a peep in the house with nothing scheduled that day. Cool temps and on a roll.
If you were forced to give up your current artistic medium, what medium would you pursue next?
Acrylics. I started with pen and ink and oils. Then moved to acrylics in the 60′s. With acrylics I can lay down lots of color and marks in a short space in time. I’ve thought about it and I HAVE acrylics but I love the touch, feel, texture and dimension of fiber very much.
Are you currently working in “the perfect” studio? What does your perfect creative space look like? What would we find in the drawers and cabinets?
I do have the perfect studio for me. I just need a built in organizational genie to put my materials away after each project. I MUST clean and organize my studio between projects or the mess is too discordant and I can’t concentrate. I have so much in my studio, it would take hours to catalog it. No drawers just open shelves where things can be seen. All sorts of paints, metal, foils, tyvek, yarns, silk and wool roving, hand dyed scrims ,burlap, felted wool,.white good to dye and professional photography equipment to photograph my work.
With the tap of a magic wand, you can go anywhere and study with anyone…time is of no essence…what are you doing and with whom?
Jane Dunnewold, Linda and Laura Kemshall, or Kerr Grabowski. I’m flexible (smile)
How many projects do you generally have going at one time?
I work on one project at a time and finish it. I also have a “hand work” project to work on while relaxing and watching a movie at night. If the muse leaves me when I have a piece in process, I make beads, create tyvek painted elements or dye fabric. It not only keeps me busy but ususally jump starts the creative juices.
Josette is a stunning beauty. She looks as though she walked out of a Titian painting. She laughs and nudges and she counsels with gentle humor. And she creates sparkly batts of spinning wool and texturally exquisite yarns that are so enchanting you simply want to stand in her sphere of energy. Sound over the top? Wait until you meet her and you’ll see this description is far from exaggerated.
Luckily for us, Josette is also an extremely generous artist who volunteered this winter to help bring the best spinning to this year’s Fiber College. She’ll be offering two classes (Thursday’s Totally Batty and Sunday’s Spinning Beehives and Coils) and she influenced some of our other stellar spinners to join in the fun.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of being with Josette in person, here are a few of her interview responses…and then look for her in the Vendor’s Boulevard during the weekend.
Presumably you’ve been an artist all your life; when and how did you decide to label yourself as one?
Way too far down the road. I don’t fully understand why, though I’m starting to, calling myself an artist was so difficult. It was one of those things that I felt I needed to be invited to do. So, I waited and waited and waited. And, long after many of my friends, colleagues and wonderful customers continued to call me the “A” word, I finally realized it was okay for me to do it, too. I have to admit, though, I still get nervous about it. Sometimes, I still have a nervous giggle when responding to the heavy question, “what do you do?”
(fc interviewpic2) here
If your life were a box of paints, would you be pastel colors, jewel tones, flesh tones or black, white and shades of grey?
I’d be dark, deep jewel tones. This is partly because I love color to be intense and jewel tones are the way I roll but also because with jewel tones and a bit of white you can make any other colors you want. When I started dyeing, I started with a basic set of colors. I’ve ventured some since then but I still prefer to create my own by mixing colors together.
(fc interview pic 3 here)
If you could have any mode of transportation in the world, how would you get from place to place? Definitely teleporting! I waste way too much valuable knitting time driving from place to place.
Do you make a living with your art?
Yes. It’s not an extravagant living. I work long hours and don’t get days off. BUT, I get to work around the people I love and I do something I feel passionately about and get to be creative whenever I want to which is a huge gift that I am thankful for on a daily basis.
What is your preferred environment when you’re in a creative mood?
It depends on what I’m creating. On dye days, it’s my dye studio with my favorite sneakers on, some good music that makes me feel like dancing and an old t-shirt that I don’t mind sloshing with colors. On spinning, felting, crafting days, it might include a cool room, bare feet, something entertaining or inspiring to watch or listen to, and my favorite colors spilled all over a bunch of great fiber. On batt carding days? Close the door to the studio, plug in an audio book and start wildly blending colors, sparkles, and spices.
What do you wish you could do?
Live, without being grumpy or super silly, on less than 4 hours of sleep each night. The whole sleeping issue really conflicts with my work schedule and, all too often, eats up my creative time.
(fc interviewpic 1 here)
Name five adjectives that best describe you at your best:
Honest, Tenacious, Compassionate, Resourceful, Creative
Are you currently working in “the perfect” studio? What does your perfect creative space look like? What would we find in the drawers and cabinets?
My studio is far from perfect. I like to tell myself it’s a work in progress but it really is a land of chaos most of the time. Now, if we can drift off into fantasy for a moment, my dream studio is highly organized, thus deleting the 47 times a week I spend frantically looking for (insert material of the moment here) and near panicking until I finally (and, you know, why is it always in the last drawer/box/cubby you look in?) find it and swear to myself that I’m going to get everything organized before my next big deadline. ‘Tis folly, though. I generally have a tight work schedule so I finish a project and the next big deadline is already in sight leaves little time for great big organization schemes. Still, I want wall to wall shelves, drawers, a big table to do EVERYTHING on and all of my supplies will just zoom back to their respective spots when I’m done with them.
With the tap of a magic wand, you can go anywhere and study with anyone, time is of no essence, what are you doing and with whom?
I’m standing in front of a canvas with Van Gogh. A cool breeze is drifting in and we are sharing some great wine and have all the colors we can dream up laid out before us. Then, we just start painting. I don’t know how this translates into reality because he is clearly painting on a canvas and I’m painting on a wool canvas but, somehow, we both use the same paints and our varying mediums don’t seem to have any effect on the outcome.
When was the last time you laughed at yourself?
Five minutes ago. It will happen again so, if you have a few minutes, stick around! LOL. It helps to get through the rocky spots of days, don’t you think. Well, that and a little art yarn spinning do it for me.
How many projects do you generally have going at one time?
If you don’t count, you don’t worry. I’m overly responsible in most areas of my life but in my knitting and spinning works in progress, I fully embrace the notion that, when it comes to “how many,” ignorance is most surely bliss.
Want to find more ways of connecting with Josette? She’s on Ravelry as “farm-witch”
On Facebook: Josette McWilliams
On Twitter: EnchantedKnoll
Her shop is: www.enchantedknoll.etsy.com and her website is: www.enchantedknoll.com
Tom doesn’t waste alot of time with idle chit-chat…but he makes you feel like you’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like…like an old friend. In all the years he’s been with us at Fiber College, we can’t get him to give us good images of his work…I’ve tried begging, chiding, coaxing and pushing…I think he ignores me when it suits him…I guess that’s OK when you’re as accomplished and charming as Tom is.
You’ll need to come and take a class or watch him work during the weekend…this year he’ll be teaching two classes: A full day Thursday class in Carving Wood Blocks for Printing and Carving Wood Spirits on Saturday morning.
Presumably you’ve been an artist all your life…when and how did you decide to label yourself as one? Probably when I finished my art degree and started teaching which was about 37 years.
If your life were a box of paints…would you be pastel colors, jewel tones, flesh tones or black, white and shades of grey? I would be back and white.
Tell us about your first attempts to be creative. My first attempts to be creative was when I was 8 or 9 when I used to draw a lot, especially flowers from my mothers flower beds.
If you could have any mode of transportation in the world…how would you get from place to place? By helicopter
What is your favorite art related book? Carving and Whittling by E.J. Tangerman
Do you make a living with your art? Sometimes
What is your preferred environment when you’re in a creative mood? An area with natural light and old rocking roll music
What do you wish you could do? I wish I could go to China and study with some of the traditional carvers of today.
If you were forced to give up your current artistic medium, what medium would you pursue next?
Painting
What is your favorite art related website?
National Wood Carvers Association
Name five adjectives that best describe you at your best:
Laid back, driven, traditional, old fashion, sharp
Are you currently working in “the perfect” studio? No!!
What does your perfect creative space look like? It would probably be built out of logs with a lot of windows on south east side. Probably 3 floors with a cellar and 50′ by 50′.
What would we find in the drawers and cabinets? Drills, hand held tools, paints, everything under the sun.
With the tap of a magic wand, you can go anywhere and study with anyone…time is of no essence…what are you doing and with whom? China and study with traditional carvers of today.
When was the last time you laughed at yourself? Today
How many projects do you generally have going at one time? 5 to 10
Marty Elkin wandered into our world last year as a vendor at Fiber College. She and her partner Mary Ann sell many products from their farm but the most fascinating to me are the “tile kits” Marty has created using wool they grow, process and dye on their hundred acres in Sumner Maine. With a kit from Marty, your needlefelting will be a certain success because she has a talent for blending colors and making the subject pop off the background.
Customizing her kits one step further, Marty is teaching a class in Pet Portraits during this year’s FC on Sunday. Nine lucky students (at the moment I’m writing this, there are still 4 seats available) will be able to send the portrait of their choice to Marty and she’ll plan the project kit…a one of a kind art project based on your favorite animal.
We asked Marty a few interview questions, and this is what she told us:
Presumably you’ve been an artist all your life…when and how did you decide to label yourself as one?
I started with oil painting in the 1970’s and have tried out many mediums since then including sewing, quilting, tole painting, watercolors, embroidery, needlepoint, knitting and needlefelting I have only called myself an artist for about 5 years. In these five years I have become proficient in dyeing wool and creating designs for needlefelting.
If your life were a box of paints…would you be pastel colors, jewel tones, flesh tones or black, white and shades of gray?
If my life were a box of hand dyed wool I would include all of the colors except flesh tones, including black, white and gray. In creating needle felting designs I find I need the contrast available only when using intense colors in contrast with pastels, and almost every designs uses some black and white. My life is full of the same variety as I put in my designs.
If you could have any mode of transportation in the world…how would you get from place to place?
If I could use any mode of transportation in the world I would ride in a wagon or a sleigh pulled by a draft horse. I realize this would take longer, and this would offer me the opportunity to see the world up close along the way.
What is your preferred environment when you’re in a creative mood?
My preferred environment when I am in a creative mood changes daily. I like to have creative people around me and I am energized by conversations with the people I meet. I also can lose myself in a project when I am alone.
If you were forced to give up your current artistic medium, what medium would you pursue next?
It is very hard to imagine giving up the use of wool, my favorite medium so far, but If I had to I might paint murals such as one I did of sunflowers inside a privy, or painting wooden cutouts of animals or flowers to mount on buildings or large walls. I also might choose weaving using natural fibers.
Name five adjectives that best describe you at your best.
Five adjectives that describe me at my best are: Kind, Loving, Generous, Patient, Genuine
One of my current favorite quotes: Live Simply, Speak kindly, Love Generously
Are you currently working in “the perfect” studio? What does your perfect creative space look like? What would we find in the drawers and cabinets?
I have the perfect studio. Last year we built a new building called the Tesseract, which has a fully equipped dye kitchen large enough for classes, yet organized to be efficient. The cabinets are full of large pots and pans, dyes and natural dyestuff, basins, and utensils for dyeing wool. This is adjacent to an open room with table and chairs, windows for natural lighting, and space for picking, carding, and spinning wool. The cedar closet is full of washed fleeces from our sheep and hand dyed roving and yarn. On the wall is a rack of yarns dyed many colors, each one with the formula attached using the 3 primary colors that were used to make them. The walls are decorated with pictures of our sheep. There is a rack of washed wool laid out to dry. The front of the building is our farm store full of products made with wool from our animals and jars of maple syrup. The walls have needle felted framed pictures. There is a rack of hundreds of little balls of hand dyed roving in a rainbow of colors, hand dyed and natural colored wool yarn. There are angora lined hat kits, and felted mitten kits. Our most luxurious yarn is 20 to 25% angora from our neighbor’s angora rabbits.
With the tap of a magic wand, you can go anywhere and study with anyone…time is of no essence…what are you doing and with whom?
If I could go anywhere and study with anyone I would go to Prescott Ontario and study with Trudy Van Stralen, the author of a book called Indigo, Madder and Marigold. In this book she describes classes she has taught in which students go home with a portfolio fo colors from natural dyes. The images in her book are what I imagine I would like to have here at the farm, including a wood burning stove and giant pots, and clothes lines to hang big skeins of plant dyed yarn on. I will be coming close to this dream by having Joli Greene work with me to do a workshop on natural dyeing of wool with indigo, staghorn sumac, goldenrod, and lichen.
When was the last time you laughed at yourself?
This morning as I sat down to respond to these questions.
How many projects do you generally have going at one time? Let me see, I have a sweater I have been knitting for several years, an afghan (I am on the 6th square, each with a different color of natural dyed wool, several designs for my needlefelting designs including a puffin, a draft horse, birds, sheep portraits, and baby farm animals, and nearly finished 10×20 needle felting of a ewe defending her twins from a border collie. That is probably not everything, but what came to my mind first.
Mary Ellen Kranz is a quilting rock star. Really. And to take it one step further, she’s a wonderful, caring, cheerful human being and we’re grateful to have her in our lives. Once a technology manager in the corporate world, MEK transferred her skills to printing images on fabric and then she set about transforming the world of quilting and pushing the image of little old ladies with a needle and thread to tech savvy women with digital cameras and computerized sewing machines. This is the third year the Mary Ellen will be teaching at FC…this time she’s making the coolest of aprons…some might say wicked cool heirloom aprons.
She responded to our interview questions with these thoughts:
Presumably you’ve been an artist all your life…when and how did you decide to label yourself as one?
I think it was when a publisher saw the quilts in my classroom and asked me if I would write a book. And when I started using business cards for my own business, I had to give myself a title and ‘textile artist’ seemed right. I did art as long as I can remember but never thought about the title until I ‘went public’.
If your life were a box of paints…would you be pastel colors, jewel tones, flesh tones or black, white and shades of gray?
I love Maine for its pure, primary hues. So I guess I’d say the basic box of 8 Crayola crayons with a silver/gray thrown in (for the fog!).
Tell us about your first attempts to be creative.
I remember making doll clothes made from the scraps of neon colored tulle, satin and sequins on the floor of my mom’s bedroom where she sewed. She made costumes for a dancing school and I loved dressing my doll from those scraps in such flamboyant style!
If you could have any mode of transportation in the world…how would you get from place to place?
Any way as long as someone else drives so I can watch the scenery!
What is your favorite art related book?
Oh Wow, that’s hard. Right now it is a book about the landscape artist, Wolf Kahn.
6. Do you make a living with your art?
The income from my books and teaching supports my habit (art) with a little left over for the necessities. When I made the switch from a corporate job to full time artist, my income the first year as an artist was 5% of my income the prior year. Fortunately, I had saved a little before I made that switch!
What is your preferred environment when you’re in a creative mood?
Near a window. Even if it is just doodling in my sketchbook at an airport, I find a seat in the terminal that looks outside.
What do you wish you could do?
I wish I could stop the suffering of so many people in the world.
If you were forced to give up your current artistic medium, what medium would you pursue next?
There’s not enough room to answer that! I’d like to try furniture making, spinning, metal sculpture, encaustic painting, bookmaking, glass art, ….. I had better live a long life to get all that in, don’t you think?
What is your favorite art related website/blog?
Name five adjectives that best describe you at your best.
teacher (MEK…is that an adjective? 
), optimistic, creative, funny, generous
Are you currently working in “the perfect” studio? What does your perfect creative space look like? What would we find in the drawers and cabinets?
I have a great studio but not a “perfect” one. I’d love to work in a tree house and have lots of comfortable chairs for friends to come and visit. Right now the drawers and cabinets are stuffed with fabric, thread, and photo inspirations and my sewing machine is next to the window. I bet if I tried, I could cram in a couple of chairs!
With the tap of a magic wand, you can go anywhere and study with anyone…time is of no essence…what are you doing and with whom?
I’ve always wanted to go to Bali to learn the process of making batik fabric.
When was the last time you laughed at yourself?
A minute ago at some of the answers to these questions!
How many projects do you generally have going at one time?
Many. Perhaps ten ongoing projects as well as small fabric studies. I’m not sure if that makes me an artist or a procrastinator!
