Today were excited to share with you our favorite books for fiber artists! Nothing comes close to hands-on experience and in-person instruction, but having information available at your finger tips (without having to wait for a class) is more than necessary for artists. You may not always be able to call up an expert, but […]
Advice from a Fiber Artist: Sharon’s Colorful Methods
Our students, customers and, shoot, even the Thimble staff, are always amazed at the color choices Sharon puts together in her handmade pieces. Whether it’s a wet felted wallhanging or a handmade dress, the woman curates beautiful color palettes. Our beginning students are especially intrigued and often ask her “How did you know to put those […]
Busy Hands Make Beautiful Things
For the past couple of months, our creative mother-daughter duo, Sharon Mansfield and Lisa Classon have been extra busy creating beautiful things for our store and for their classes. Sharon has been botanically dyeing men’s and women’s clothing with fantastic results: The jagged edges of the leaf prints near the collar of the above shirt are such an […]
Naturally Inspired: Sharon’s Experiments in Botanical Dyeing
Sharon has been experimenting with botanical dyeing for years now, to the point that she has become an expert. It’s an all natural process that colors fabrics with the imprints of leaves and other botanical objects with the help of metal and steam. Over time Sharon has botanically imprinted fabric of all sorts, including those of […]
The Magic of Botanical Dye
Happy fall everyone! It’s Sharon writing to you today, and I am so thrilled about this post. I don’t think I have ever done any art form as exciting as botanical dyeing. The challenge of trying to find the right combination of mordant to metal pipe to metal pan to dye bath is always a […]
Fire and Ice Dyeing
Debra Hosler joined us here in our little ‘ol classroom for a two-day workshop last month on ice dyeing. Doesn’t that just sound lovely? Well the results were above and beyond what I was expecting and we are looking forward to hosting miss Hosler and her very neat class again in the spring. She had a nice full […]
With Sticks and Leaves: Botanical Printing
Mom has a new class where students spend the day botanical printing clothing. She’s been whipping these gorgeous garments out for a few months now (more photos of those here, and to come in their own blog post) and her first class was a total success! Five of our ‘regulars’ took the class and they had a blast. […]
Complex Shibori Class with Melissa Arnold
The amazingly talented Melissa Arnold taught a Contemporary Complex Shibori class with us back in May, and wow, her students created some stunning pieces! Melissa is an incredible textile artist, and just an overall wonderful person. We are always so thrilled to have her happy little self in our classroom! Students in this class learned […]
Dyeing with an E: Botanical Print Samples
Hello everyone! It’s Hannah writing to you today. A few weeks back, I spent the day with mom making botanical print samples. Having seen all the botanical printed items coming out of the shop I had oh, maybe, 348,597,150 questions about how it worked. Being the scientifically inclined person I am, I decided to set up […]
A Natural State
Hello everyone, it’s Sharon writing to you today. During Thanksgiving week I was walking the North Fork Yuba River Trail and since I have learned the Botanical Imprint Process, I find that I look at the world a little differently. As I walked I wondered what all the different leaves would do if I used […]
