Wool Market Fun

The South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market was, once again, well attended and so much fun. Even if no one came, I think we would enjoy ourselves! What's not to enjoy about people engaged with fiber?
This darling little one finished her fiber day with Grandma at our place. She had started the day by making fairies at the Fiber Studio and ended by making a Wild Batt with me.


Jenn Cuff spent the day spinning (So did I;-)) Although I have no photos to prove it, my friend Carla brought in her Navajo spindle and taught us how to use it. Several of us took turns on it while she tried out my new Majacraft Wheel. Her hand can be seen somewhere in this fluffy, curly single made from loose locks. I spun 3 skeins during the day, totaling nearly 300 yards.

You never know what will happen at a wool market. If you stay long enough, you are bound to learn something new or make a new friend.

Next market? July 24.

The wool market will probably resume in September. Stay tuned.

more installation shots

study with Adrienne Sloane

(Leslie D., Martha B.,Deb G.,Fran N., me, Adrienne Sloane)

The class, Knitting and the Political Landscape, by Adrienne Sloane, finally taught this longtime knitter (like 40 years on and off) HOW to knit. The goal was to accumulate enough skills to be able to knit in a sculptural manner. It was so HARD ON MY HANDS! (The nearly 50 years of art working have taken a toll!) BUT, stay tuned. Things may happen! I organized and added a few needles to the stash and do have plans involving shifu, audio tape and wool.It was a power-packed class. The lists and the bulletin boards barely cover the intensity. We sampled, sampled and sampled, technique after technique, stretching our knitting concepts and forms into three dimensional space.

In the end, yarn bombing happened. Leslie, with the help of Martha, knit a garter for a baluster outside of Yudof Hall. Other bombs were sprinkled through McNeil Hall.

installation

The gallery is a quiet studio, talk radio in the background. This Saturday, it will light up with the second South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market. Ideas have been knocking around in my head that involves the little dresses again, but in 3-d with fiber. SO, I today I began.

I like the relationships that are developing among the parts, although it is still too linear, simply curated objects rather than a full 3-d experience. I think the placenta dress needs to hang in space rather like the stuffed dress at the left.But with the wool market arriving in a couple of days, I will leave it as is for now.

Flowers in celebration

Do you remember Kari Gunther-Seymour? I do! She sent this bouquet celebrating 7 years of the gallery and the beginning of my sabbatical!

What a wonderful artist and what a wonderful human being. Kari was one of the first artists I worked with here at the gallery. She shipped in WAR GAMES, an amazing installation of interactive art games that pertained to our never ending war in Iraq, in the first year of the gallery. Kari is a life long peace activist whose son went to war. She has produced powerful bodies of work that deal with the tension between supported her son, and the troops, while abhorring the war.(go to the gallery website and check out the archives: Show #3 and show #15.)