As I’m getting ready for my first trip of the year, I am so excited for all the adventures that are coming. I am traveling every month to teach SOMEWHERE! I’m also teaching some amazing workshops this year, including my Art Yarn 201- Expressive Yarn Design!
This year I’m revisiting one of my favorite places- Michigan Fiber Festival! , Aug 17-20. I’m thrilled to be a part of the 10th anniversary celebration this Summer!! I’ll be teaching a full 4 days- Intentional Art Yarns (Art Yarn 101) and Expressive Yarn Desgin (Art Yarn 201)** more about that one in a second.. I’m also teaching a full day of Expressive Weaving, and 2 half day classes- Wild Carding and Wild Plying.
I’m heading to quite a few new places as well!! I’ve got a full week workshop at the outstanding John C Campbell Folk School July 24-29. We’ll take the full journey of creative yarn spinning- from the dyeing and preparing of the fiber through spinning and designing. I’m also teaching all things fiber prep, for 3 days, at the first PLYAway Retreat, in Kansas City, April 21-24. I’m excited to be teaching for my first time at Interweave YarnFest, March 30-April 2. I’m joining some other amazing interweave authors and sharing my techniques in multiple ways of creative spinning (including my Expressive Yarn Design, tailspinning, wild plying and corespinning) and fiber preparations. I’ll also be heading west this summer to Palouse Fiber Fest in Moscow Idaho, June 17-19. I’ll be teaching colorplay, fractals, creative spinning and expressive weaving.
Not only am I teaching at these great places.. but I’m extra excited because I’m getting to teach one of my favorite workshops- Expressive Yarn Design (Art Yarn 201) at Michigan Fiber Fest, and YarnFest. This class is great for anyone who’s already had a bit of creative yarn spinning- whether from books, videos or other classes. In this class we work beyond “just spinning” to create a work of art. This is an expressive class that will develop the spinner’s personal style and builds their creative process. Students come to class with inspirations or stories they want to tell in their yarn. This class is a special group learning experience- techniques are taught as they come up in the design process. Together we explore color, texture and design, and students will lock into their own personal process. By working from the concepts to spun creation, students will spin a yarn that tells their individual story. It’s a fun class to dive into our personal creative design styles, and I don’t get to teach it very often- so I extra enjoy it when I do!!
I’ve got some awesome other workshops on my roster this year as well. Expressive Weaving is always a blast, and lots of textured plying, corespinning and tailspinning. I’ve upped the tailspinning class to include 6 ways of spinning with locks- 3 with a core, 2 without and a traditional spinners method of tailspinning as well!! I’m also teaching my Colorplay class at Palouse Fiber Fest. I love the chance to work with just color for a few hours! It’s an accessible colortheory class, that focuses on not only creating interesting color palettes for textile projects, I’ll show you my techniques for creating a blending journal. We play with watercolor paints and colored pencils to blend colors and create personal color wheels. It’s a great class for anyone who likes color, whether you knit, crochet, spin, felt or you just like color.
My full schedule is here. There are spaces in all of these workshops (Except PlyAway- I think that’s full) So I can’t wait to meet lots of new folks this year!! I’ve also still got a couple international trips in the works.. The UK in September, and I’m still trying to make Australia work for May.. watch my FB page, or join my newsletter for information about new workshops when they are announced.
Of course if you can’t make any of my live workshops this year, you can always take my craftsy class (here’s the link for 50% off), and my Art Yarn and Striping Fiber Videos from Interweave. If you want me to come teach at your festival, guild, yarn shop or you want to organize a grass roots workshop in your area, send me an email at jazzturtlecreations@gmail.com. I’m currently booking 2017 workshops.
Teaching photos from 2015 Michigan Fiber Fest, by Sara Norine