Fiber Filled Summer!

Even the brushes were beautiful!

Since I hit the ground in the USA, I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to engage in all kinds of amazing fiber arts activities!

It started with me attending the Black Sheep Gathering. It was the first time I have been able to attend in a few years. I am so amazed at how it has grown! This is the first time that I took classes at the gathering.

The first class I attended was on steam dying natural fibers with acid dyes. It was such fun and something that I would like to do more of! She showed us some clever techniques that resulted in some stunning creations!

Dye Preparation

Demonstration on how to apply the colors

Hand painted wool, steaming in the pot

Our painted wool top, hanging out to dry

Our silk hanging out to dry

My next class was on painting and stamping silk with natural dyes. I really enjoyed this! It was an interesting challenge to plan out a design that you have only one chance to execute. I am used to crocheting, knitting, embroidery, and weaving that allow you to take your work out and start again! We were painting silk scarves, so you had to decide and commit to wherever you put your brush or stamp and make it work if it didn't look quite like you thought it would! I was quite conservative with my designs, because I wanted the scarves to be something I would wear when they were finished. In the end I was pleased with the scarves but wished I could paint and stamp one more of each with the knowledge I gained painting the first two!

Natural Dyes

My finished handprinted scarf

It is amazing to see what is created in a group when everyone has the same  resources! All completely different!

The last class I took was New Tradition Needle Felting. It included needle felting with wool locks, fabric and adding embroidery and beaded embellishments. It was so much fun! I had done some needle felting before, but never including fabric. You could have heard a pin drop in the room! No one wanted to go on the mid class break. We were all too involved in our pieces! I plan to to a lot more with needle felting in the future. The possibilities are endless! I realized that I didn't take as many photos in this class, because I was so absorbed in the process!

Sample made by the teacher

In progress

It was really amazing to be surrounded by so many people interested in fiber arts. It also reignited my interest in drop spindle spinning. I have started to experiment with spinning my own art yarns for weaving. I really just need more hours in the day to play with fibers!