Shepherding the Full Experience: The Story of Sheep to Kits on my Farm

Shepherding the Full Experience The Story of Sheep to Kits on my Farm Each week as I package and prep fiber arts kits to send to my students, I can’t help but feel a bit like Santa Claus, arranging and wrapping the adult version of stockings full of treasures for the learning adventures that will […]

Making Liberation

If you’ve noticed a quietness to my blog and social media lately, it’s because I’ve been nose-down in my studio, finishing a massive project.  The scale of this project goes beyond just the physical finished piece, which received its last punch, stitch, and steam this week. When I signed up to take the Oxford punch […]

Creativity Vs. Productivity–Yin and Yang

I was a bright-eyed fourth grader the summer we stopped by the gift shop in Wisconsin Dells where my mom’s younger brother had a summer job.  I had a tiny bit of spending money, and I picked out a necklace for myself—a silvery yin yang pendant embedded with shell inlay dyed maroon and a bluish […]

Inheritor of Stashes

The stash. I wish there was a prettier word for it, maybe something that sounds a bit more French?  Even horde sounds at least medieval or fantasy oriented to describe an assemblage of art or craft supplies, but “stash” seems to have become the term of choice. On the other hand, I don’t want to […]

New Exploration, Added Skillsets

Being an interdisciplinary artist means that I’m not married to one medium or methodology.  Creative projects for me typically start as an idea seeking form–which might eventually become a song, a tapestry, a story, or any number of options for making.  Adding to my toolset for creative expression keeps things fresh for me as an […]

Facing Your Project UFOs

For many of us, the term UFO conjures images of disk-shaped alien space craft with blinking lights and eerie music, but for creative makers, we have a different use for this acronym—Un-Finished Object.  A creative UFO is a different critter from the other acronym WIPs, or Works In Progress.  A WIP is something you’re actively […]

I Made a Thing, Now What?

Creating can be so much fun–invigorating, stimulating, and able to make hours disappear like mere minutes.  If you’re like me and a prolific creator (or you’ve been taking a host of my Zoom classes lately), you are probably creating quite a collection of items you’ve made.  Now, what to do with all this creative wonderfulness?  […]

A Fiber Journey into Rosemaling

In November 2018, I was a student at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN, taking a multi-day course on millenary (find that full story here).  We were stationed in Blue House, in the smaller of the two rooms.  Next to us was a large rosemaling class, with the tables formed in a wide […]

Joyful Lifelong Learning

I’m not much for watching TV, as you might have surmised.  The few winter evenings we do watch a program, it’s almost always a documentary, preempted by someone calling out, “Let’s learn something!” Learning, in our house, was not something you did only during school hours—it was a part of everyday life that was encouraged […]

Nisse: Yuletide Homestead Helpers

I love learning new things.  This last week’s Zoom needle felting classes were hosted with Vesterheim Folk Art School (based in Decorah, Iowa), with a class that proved to be so popular we added a second date to accommodate the waiting list, which also filled up in just a matter of days from opening registration.  […]