February - Anne Bossert

Why Bother?

Why we are compelled to continue making things by hand. Anne will talk about the importance of the handmade, for both our culture and for the individual maker.

The Lowdown: How I got from there to here

Anne will talk about her influences and inspirations from childhood to adulthood, focusing on how and why she makes the things she makes.

Anne got her BFA in metalwork and Jewelry from Northern Illinois University and her MFA in Fiber Art from CSU. She loves bright colors and pattern, especially strips. She dyes and weaves stripes into cloth that she then incorporates into wood furniture most typically made from fine plywood so that the wood can be striped, too. She exhibits her award winning furniture locally at Translations Gallery in Denver and nationally at furniture and fine craft show. Check out her website: annebossertart.com.

Updated 02.09.2021

March - Diane de Souza

Fact and Fiction of Regenerated Fibers or How Green is Green?

Do you want to utilize more environmentally friendly (green fibers) but aren't sure what is 'green', what is available, and how to use them? This talk will focus on the regenerated fibers: bamboo, soy silk, tencel, and sea silk. Manufacturing, fiber characteristics, yarn construction, and sources will be discussed as well as environmental issues related to production.

Weaving on the Web

There are a lot of resources available to weavers, knitters, crocheters, and dyers on the web. At times, the amount of available information can be overwhelming. Some resources can be real time savers; others time sinks. This will be a quick tour of what's available, what I find most useful, as well as time saving tools that will allow you to maximize usage of your computer time.

Workshop: Monday 3/8

Textile Finishing

The workshop will be a discussion of the correct finishing processes and include tapestries, home textiles, and wearables. Before and after samples will be shown from the instructors' work which will include both woven and knitted examples. Students are expected to bring their own work to finish.

Workshop: Saturday & Sunday, 3/6-7

Spicy Weaving

Try your hand weaving with tofu, seaweed, bamboo, tencel and other regenerated fibers.

Diane has a broad background in fiber and weave structures having worked with most fibers and weave structures ranging from weft face rug weaving to 24 shaft loom controlled work. She has been actively weaving for 10 years and knitting, crocheting, ... for many more. She has done production weaving for Tierra Wools and Weaving Southwest. She has taught in multiple venues and enjoys passing on her experiences to others. Her work has won awards or been accepted for juried shows at IWC, Convergence, the Boulder Guild, Pagosa Fiber Festival, and the Taos Arts Festival. Her current focus is interesting fibers, dyeing with natural dye extracts, loom-controlled shibori, and complex loom controlled weave structures.

Updated 02.09.2021

April - Gasali Adeyemo

Workshop: Saturday & Sunday, 4/10-11

Nigerian Batik Resist Techniques and Dyeing

Traditional Yoruba tribe batik is called adire alabela which is the process of applying wax resist to create designs on cloth. Students will bring cotton cloth and will explore methods to apply the wax. After the designs are created, Gasali will show us how to dye our cloth and how to remove the wax.

Trunk Show, Monday, 4/12

Gasali will host a trunk show at Shuttles, Spindles, & Skeins from 1pm - 6pm. Take advantage of this opportunity to visit with Gasali and take a closer look at his work. His folk art will be available for purchase.

Gasali is from the small village of Ofatedo in Nigeria. He studied at the Nike Center for Arts and Culture in Osogbo, Nigeria, where he mastered the arts of batik, indigo dyeing, quilt making, embroidery, and applique. Gasali has traveled the world conducting workshops and participating in exhibitions including the International Folk Art Museum, World Batik Conference, and Maiwa. He currently lives in Santa Fe, NM. Visit Gasali at his website: http://www.africancraft.com/

Updated 02.09.2021

May - Jill Powers

Off the Beaten Path -- Plant, Insect, and Animal Fibers

Jill will share her many adventures with unusual nautral fibers, including horse hair , gut parchment, kozo, and her collaboration with silk worms!

Pathways for Fiber Artists -- Adventures with Alternative Media

Jill plans to bring samples of her unusual natural materials, including silk cocoons and wet cooked kozo! Those with papermaking, basketry, and silk spinning or weaving interests won't want to miss it! There is a change in schedule for May. There will be no show and tell, and the program starts at 7:15. Presentation of prizes will follow Jill's presentation.

Jill is a fine artist with a Master's degree in fibers from Tyler School of Art. She is on the Visual Arts faculty at Naropa University, and teaches her own workshops and retreats focusing on natural materials. Jill's intriguing fiber panels and vessels are made of plant materials that have been harvested, cooked, cast into shapes, stitched, and painted. Her favorite material is a sustainably grown mulberry bark fiber from Thailand called kozo. Jill has also raised silkworms to spin their cocoons in collaboration with her sculpture!

Jill shows her work internationally in such galleries as the Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe, the Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles, Translations Gallery in Denver, and Snyderman Gallery in Philadelphia. Her work has been featured in 500 Baskets, The Fiberarts Design Book, The Crafts Report, American Style Magazine, and the New York Times. Her work won Best of Show in the Millennium Show at the American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta. Visit Jill at her website https://jillpowers.com/ .

Updated 02.09.2021