FiberME 2013

• The FiberME 2013 tour is a great opportunity to meet new fiber friends, relax in the natural beauty of Maine and to inspire your passion for the fiber arts!

• This year will kick off with a welcome reception for FiberME 2013, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm, Sunday, August 4, 2013. Sunday afternoon, August 4th, the FiberME 2013 participants and Halcyon Yarn staff will gather for a welcoming reception at Halcyon Yarn. We will meet and greet and get set for a fun fiber week. Goodie Bags and name tags will be distributed. Halcyon will give a short welcome and Jane will outline the plan for the week and answer questions. You'll meet other Halcyon Yarn staff and get a chance to put a face to the voice you have spoken with on the phone or the person who has picked and packed your order. You will also be able to visit the store. The highlight of the reception will be the yummy food provided by The Starlight Cafe. There will be plenty to eat: you may even want to skip dinner.

Mon, August 5, 2013

•Swans Island Blankets, Northport, ME. At Swans Island Blankets we will tour the showroom to see the different styles and weights of blankets woven on site, see the weaving in action with a chance to interact with the weavers, visit the various finishing stations for the blankets, and see the dye shop where the blanket and knitting yarns are dyed with all natural dyes.

•Romney Ridge Farm in Woolwich, ME and owner Kelly Corbett are always fun to visit. Kelly's description "beautiful yarns from happy sheep" gives you an idea of the loving attention she gives all her animals: sheep, roosters, bunny, the old pony and more. They all have a very happy home. Kelly's business is multi-faceted. Her Signature Yarns are spun from her own animals' fiber. She also offers other yarns she has spun from fiber she specially chooses from other Maine fiber farms, she dyes her yarns with Cushing Dyes (also a Maine company) and all her yarn is spun at Bartlett Yarns here in Harmony, Maine. Kelly also creates adorable needle felting kits of all sorts of animals from cardinals to chickens to puffins to rabbits as well as gnomes and santa and elf she packages in see through egg cartons. They are a big hit here at Halcyon Yarn.

• Maine Top Mill and Cloud Hollow Farm, Waldoboro, ME. Bob Weintraub and his daughter Erin run Cloud Hollow Farm with fine attention to detail developing and producing the finest animals with high quality alpaca fiber. Bob's interest in alpaca fiber led him to start Maine Top Mill. Their focus at the mill is making the Finest Quality Top as well as educating the public about textile manufacturing in Maine.

•Sara Hotchkiss, Waldoboro, ME. We will visit in her Old Point Comfort Studio where you will see looms where Sara weaves room size rugs, scraps of fabric, yarn, artwork, and beautiful, colorful rugs she has woven everywhere.

Tue, August 6, 2013

• Eggemoggin Textile Studio, Sedgwick, ME. Weaver Chris Leith will welcome us to her studio on the beautiful Blue Hill Peninsula. Her studio is full of her beautiful weaving as well as work by Jody Meredith / Hard Boiled Wool, Mayan Hands / Baskets, Shihaya Hopkins/Blossom Studio and Linda Fremuth / Northern Bay Yarns. While there Chris will talk to the group about weaving.

• Also at Eggemoggin Textile Studio we will see a demonstration by Amelia Poole. Amelia holds a Masters Degree in Woven Textile Design and Construction from the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Eco printing is a method of adding color, pattern and texture to cloth using only local plant materials. Focusing on bioregionalism and the use of organic and non toxic materials, she uses plants of the Blue Hill Peninsula and creating extremely detailed prints. Amelia teaches 1-3 day workshops in eco printing, natural dyeing (wool cloth of rug hooking, wool and silk or cotton and linen for knitters and weavers), experimenting with indigo and shibori, indigo shibori for quilters and nuno felting. Her work can be seen in galleries on the Blue Hill Peninsula and at the Guildford Art Center in Guildford Connecticut.

• Lunch at Millbrook Company in Sedgwick followed by an afternoon of traditional Maine Indian woven baskets.

• Basket show demo by Indian Basket maker Pam outdusis "Little Pathway" Cunningham. Pam is a Penobscot Indian Master Basket Weaver following the basket making traditions of her ancestors. She uses sweetgrass and brown ash (almost totally unique to Maine). The brown ash she uses is harvested in the woods of northern Maine and is used in her fancy baskets. The sweet grass she collects along the coast, soaks and braids into a long, continuous braid.

• Bobby Ann Packwood show and talk on antique Maine Indian baskets: Bobby Ann Packwood is a collector of Indian baskets that she sells on her website and at shows. She is considered an expert in Maine Indian baskets. She will show and talk about antique Maine Indian baskets.

Wed, August 7, 2013

• Today we will spend the day in Bath: no bus. We will meet at Halcyon Yarn in the morning for a special treat. Susie Stephenson, primitive folk artist (whose medium is rug hooking) and author of the book "Designing and Hooking Primitive Rugs" will lead a 'make it and take it' class on hooked flower brooches. All materials will be included for the class and you will most likely complete one brooch and start at least one more. Susie is a true traditional primitive rug hooker who will recycle anything and try it in her hooking. Her charming rugs are fun, colorful, whimsical and lasting. Her work includes nautical, maritime, sea, pet, and kid themes. She has designed several pieces based on family pets and her kids' drawings. She has a fun loving spirit and she will encourage you to try different materials in your hooked masterpieces.

• Lunch 'on your own' in beautiful downtown Bath

• In the afternoon you will be free to explore Bath taking in some of the local galleries and shops including Markings Gallery where several of the fiber artists will be present to visit with you and answer questions about their work. ALSO, back at Halcyon Yarn, several fiber artists from all over Maine will bring their work to show and tell and sell. They will set up in Halcyon Yarn's large upstairs classroom for a fun fiber afternoon. (This was a way we could introduce you to many more fiber artists than time would allow to visit in their home studios).

Halcyon Yarn’s Fabulous & Fun Fiber Crafts Fair, 1:00 – 6:00 pm

What an opportunity to see an even larger selection of Maine Fiber Artists showing their work, meeting and greeting folks, and selling their work. The show is free and open to the public as well as the FIberME 2013 tour participants. Work will be on display throughout the store and in the 3rd floor classroom. During the FiberME 2013 tour we will visit several working artists’ studios as well as farms, mills, and galleries but there is no way we can visit all we wish. So this is the opportunity to bring several more fiber artists into the tour as well as invite the public to see the work of several artists they may never have been able to visit.

Here is a partial listing of fiber folks you will see:

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Janice Jones, Jones Weaving Ltd.

Janice weaves a variety of items from scarves and shawls to kitchen linens. She uses natural fibers: alpaca, silk, cotton, wool and rayon.

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Michael Patterson, weaver

Michael long was a fixture at Halcyon Yarn having taught weaving for several years. He has now ‘retired’ from teaching at Halcyon Yarn and has set up his new studio at Fort Andross in Brunswick, Maine. He weaves a variety of household and decorative items.

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Elaine O’Donal, Tatted Webs

Elaine has been chosen one of the top 200 traditional craftspeople in the US by Early American Homes Magazine, has been honored with many other awards, and has many published designs and she teaches at many venues.

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Jennifer Field, Jennifer Field Studios

Felted and glass bead jewelry and sculpture. Jennifer earned a BFA in Illustration with a minor in Printmaking from the Philadelphia College of Art. She has worked at many jobs including fabric and graphic designer, jewelry designer and glass bead maker. She will show her felted and beaded jewelry / sculpture.

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Liz Stoyko, hooked pillows

Liz creates a whole line of wonderful sheep, animals and other designs in pillows for fun home decorations. All her animal designs have great personalities: they will make you smile. She will even consider designing your family pets, family members and favorite scenes into hooked designs. Liz sells her hooked art throughout the US. We are fortunate to have her call Maine home.

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Nantz Comyns, aka The Moose Lady of Maine

Nantz creates wonderful, creative, fun sculptures of animals – primarily moose - but she will be bringing sheep, and maybe some chickens, to the Halcyon Yarn Fabulous & Fun Fiber Craft Fair. Her sheep are so big they need a pen to hold them. They are funky and colorful, creative and attention grabbing. They indeed will make you smile. Nantz is a sculptor and an illustrator with work exhibited in public sites and galleries throughout New England. She is a Maine native and earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine arts in Philadelphia. She has traveled extensively and while working with artists from different cultures began to use recycling of indigenous materials and fibers in her work. Nantz leads many school workshops with kids opening their eyes to creative collaboration in the world around them.

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Janet Nannen, Harpswell Silks

Janet’s experience of being a painter combined with her experiences on a trip to Japan led her to start dying silk scarves. She was fascinated with the Japanese dyeing techniques such as shibori and the ways fabric dye colors reacted to different humidity and temperature. She has gained much knowledge over her more than ten years dying silk. Janet’s one of a kind scarves are sold throughout the US in galleries and shops and shows she attends selling directly to the public.

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Stephanie Crossman, Gram J’s

Stephanie uses the traditional technique of knotted netting (also known as fishnetting) to create unique decorative and wearable art. She works with white nylon fishing twine which she dyes. Her work includes shadowbox framed sculptures inspired by the nature around her: jellyfish, sea urchins, flowers and birds to wearable and utilitarian shawls and shopping bags. She recently was chosen to participate in the Smithsonian Craft Show, one of 121 chosen out of 1,500 applicants.

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Pam Rowan, Rug Braider

Award winning rug braider and teacher here in Maine She is known for her beautifully designed and colored rugs, baskets, totes and turtles. She often acts as a design consultant to students planning new rug projects and she repairs old rugs bringing back new life and functionality to family treasures. Pam teaches at national rug braiding conventions and at various other locations particularly the northeastern USA, including Halcyon Yarn.

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Heather Kerner, Felter

Accomplished felter and fiber artist whose work you can see in How We Felt by Carol Cypher (Interweave Press) and 1000 Artisan Textiles by Lark Books. She likes to work with wool as it encompasses several aspects of her Maine life: an interest in farming, a need for the warmth of wool, the desire to use color in her materials, the ability to sculpt forms, demanding physical activity and artistic pursuits. Her newest work combines leather (from Irving Tannery here in Hartland, Maine) with her felt resulting in beautiful and functional handbags, portfolios, totes and zippered art cases .

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Jody Meredith, Felting

Felting artist of a different style. Jody creates her pieces using locally sourced yarns, knitting them on a hand powered knitting machine, felting or fulling the fabric she has knitted, then cutting and sewing the fabric into scarves, hats and a variety of garments. Her creations are at the same time colorful and sophisticated. Her fabrics have wonderful drape. It's not surprising that Jody combines so many fiber techniques in her work. She learned to sew, knit, weave and braid rugs from the age of 13 working in her mother's fabric store.

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Kristen TenDyke, Author

Author of "Finish - Free Knits: No Sew Garments in Classic Styles" will be showing off all the sweaters from her book. Does 'no sew, no sweat' sound good to you? Let Kristen demonstrate her ideas and techniques for easy garment construction. Kristen will show from her examples how you can knit beautiful sweaters containing lovely detail work and avoid traditional sewing, seaming and grafting. Her book contains 20 patterns and you will be able to see all the models in person. Kristen's designs have appeared in several publications including Weekend Hats, Knitting Green, and The Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters to name a few.

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Joelle Webber

Joelle Webber, MermaidBindery, creates beautifully creative and detailed bindings and protective boxes as well as a line of journals and treasure boxes in her studio in the heart of Westport Island, Maine. Joelle's training includes a postgraduate certificate degree in bookbinding from the Center for the Book at the University of Iowa.

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Suzanne Gunston

Suzanne Gunston, Oh! Sweet Lavender, lavender heirlooms. Suzanne sells her lovely embroidered heirlooms at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens as well as other fairs in Maine. We think they are sweet remembrances for special gifts - for friends or for yourself.

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Sybil Shiland, Fiber Artist

Sybil Shiland, weaver, lives in Standish, Maine and has been weaving for 12 years. She enjoys other fiber pursuits including knitting and spinning but finds weaving endlessly fascinating. She has participated in fiber events at Maine FiberArts demonstrating weaving and spinning and selling her work. Sybil weaves a variety of fashion accessories and household items.

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Gabby Wicklow, Rug Hooker
Gaby Wicklow, rug hooker and teacher, designed and taught in the needle arts field for over twenty years before she discovered rug hooking. Now she devotes her energy to hooking and is a member of the National Guild of Pearl McGown Hookcrafters, the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild and the Association of Traditional Hooking Artists (ATHA). She teaches rug hooking at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine as well as at Halcyon Yarn. Gaby is known for using silks as well as wools in her rugs, tearing the fabric instead of cutting, and for incorporating wider strips than are traditional into her work.

Thu, August 8, 2013

• Jagger Bros Spinning Mill Springvale, ME

We'll tour the mill where we will learn about the many different yarns they produce and their spinning process from start to finish.

• Lunch at The Crabby Bear in Acton, Maine

• Saco River Dyehouse Biddeford, ME

Here we will tour the newly set up dyehouse with Don Morton dyemaster. The Saco River Dyehouse has been established from the licenses, equipment and experience of the now closed JCA, Inc dyehouse. Some of Halcyon Yarn's Signature Yarns are dyed in this dyehouse. The reintroduction of the well known Paternayan Needlepoint yarn is also in the development program at the Saco River Dyehouse.

• Susan Mills, felt and mixed media artist, Bowdoin, Maine. We will visit Susan at her studio to see and hear about her latest fiber felt work and her process of working. Susan's work is inspired by nature, by the physical world and the world of the spirit. Each piece tells a story. Susan will tell us the story behind her pieces, how they were conceived and where they fit in her world. Susan's work may reflect her feelings about the spiritual world but she is also grounded in reality by her llama and two above average cats. Her work is included in several books and has been shown in several galleries along the east coast, the southwest and Bermuda. Susan teaches classes here at Halcyon Yarn. Her students always leave with a smile on their face.

Fri, August 9, 2013

• Bartlett Yarns, Harmony, ME. We will head north this morning to Harmony, Maine, home since 1821 of Bartlett Yarns. Here we will see the "Bartlett Mule" in action as it has been for over a century and a half. Bartlett Yarns spins fiber from Maine and other northern New England farmers who bring their fleeces each spring to trade for knitting yarns. Recently Bartlett Yarns has also been developing alpaca / wool blends to help create a new market for local alpaca farmers. We will tour the spinning mill and visit the mill store.

• Box lunch snack on the go today

• Late afternoon will find us in Georgetown, Maine at The Mooring B & B where we will enjoy a traditional Maine coast Lobster Bake with all the fixins. The Mooring B & B is right on the ocean: a perfect spot to have a traditional Lobster Bake. We'll feast and recount the fun fiber week we all have enjoyed. (non- shellfish entree available for those who do not eat shellfish).

• TBA - possible extra stop/venue