South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market

Returns in time for Holiday Shopping

Come Saturday, November 27 & December 18, 10-4, to Susan Hensel Gallery, for wooly, silky, alpaca goodness!

•spinning

•weaving

•felting

•re-using!

Demos and shopping!

Fresh food!

You will find art dolls, handspun and hand dyed yarn, tote bags, tapestry, weaving, spinning materials. It is an ever changing roster of artists!

Almost all the artists will be demonstrating! Some teach, so talk to them. All invite you to sink your hands into the marvelous world of fine fiber.

WHERE? Susan Hensel Gallery, 3441 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Treasures!

One of the highlights of my New York trip was a day in the garment district. Silks and trims at wholesale! Here are some of the trims: tiny rick rack and 3 kinds of sequins. I wanted them all! Whoopee!
The day I got back, while desperately wanting to assemble my Aura, I had to make a delivery to the Textile Center. Dutifully I delivered the hand dyed bamboo. And then I visited my friends at the Weaver's Guild only to find a 4 harness loom at an unbeatable price. Now I did have a great Shepherd's Harvest this year. I was able to get the AUra without having to deplete savings. This was just not the day to buy a loom. So I went home with out it. The next morning I called and had them hold it for me;-) It is a little Schacht table loom, about 18" wide. It has been well loved...i.e. a bit beat-up. But someone cleaned it and restrung it and everything works just fine. All I need are lease sticks and time!

SOON! AURA! SOON! SABBATICAL!

Well, Shepherd's Harvest was a great success! Thank you all for making it fun! In the 4 or 5 years I have been doing this festival, I don't think I have ever encountered a crabby customer, nor, even, a crying child! Natural fiber is heap-big, powerful joy juice! Soon I will have my Aura! I have been told that it will ship this week from New Zealand! I also now have a very wide hackle! I got it from Mielke's Fiber Arts. The hackles are in production again, from 2 manufacturers....finally.

In my other, but rather closely related "Other life", I own and direct the Susan Hensel Gallery. Do take a good long look at the website to see what I have been doing for the last few years! The current show, Earth & Air by Leslie Sobel is our 40th! Wowsers! Times flies!

So, now, I ask myself,"What does it mean to BE Susan Hensel Gallery for 7 years?" Well, I will investigate that over the next 6 months! I will be taking a sabbatical! Regular programming of the gallery will be suspended June 1, 2010 -Dec 31, 2010. The regular programming of gallery shows will resume at that time with a solo show my Dean Ebben: IN THE HOUSE OF THE MINERAL SPIRITS. followed up by A Reader's Art and an Installation by Libby Soffer, Sara Christensen Blair& Gregory Blair and Debora Miller. But the gallery will not be silent. I will be focusing on my relationship to fiber and textiles in my personal art. Since I moved to Minneapolis 7 years ago, a transformation has been happening. I tell people that I was "bit by a sheep." I learned to spin on a drop spindle and spinning wheel not long after I got here. No matter what I do, no matter how I resist, the fiber keeps luring me away! My son thinks he'll come out to visit someday and find an urban sheep ranch! (I just heard that someone up the street was raided by animal control for raising goats in their apartment!) So, this summer and fall I will be spinning, weaving, studying in and around the fiber arts. Stay tuned!

I will study in the University of Minnesota Split Rock program with Adrienne Stone. I will attend the full week of SOAR, Spin Off Autumn Retreat. I may take some field trips to see fiber mills and who knows what else! It will be an exciting time!

Shepherd's Harvest with a goal!

I have dream! It is to own an Aura Wheel from Majacraft. So, day one of Shepherd's Harvest has gotten me part way there in the most enjoyable fashion! What could be more fun than enabling other happy fiber people to fulfill their dreams too? I spent the day selling and teaching from the booth about Wild Batts, spindling and "Lazy Felt". And I spent it with my newly engaged friend Carla who bought her first loom today. I bought alpaca fleeces. So, I ask you, "What could be better?"

Come by tomorrow if you are in the area. With or without purchases, it is a blast!

Shepherd's Harvest is 2 days away! he newest product I am bringing is hand painted bamboo. It is SOOOO pretty! And SOOO slippery! The hard part was figuring out how to package it so it can be handled without unwinding. I finally cut up some wild paisley chiffon and tied each ball up like a gift box! Hope this works! If you are interested in the bamboo, come early...the supply is very limited.

This year I also have Angelina fiber, dyed wool and cotton nebs, sari silk and yarn confetti for sale as Wild Batt additives to take home.

Try out the Batt Your Own Wild Batt station. AT the carding station, for an additional fee, you will be able to card up to 2 ounces of purchased Sue's Luxury Fiber at a time with additives such as angelina, firestar, nebs, yarn confetti, mohair (included in the price of carding.) It is too fun!

Art Fair Weekend

Come visit me here! I will be showing fiber, fiber and more fiber!

Designer Yarns,

Beautiful Wild Batts, Roving, and

New Felted scarves and

hand dyed silk scarves...all reasonably priced for gifting!

I'll be spinning on site! Come and say hello!

Decisions with dulcimer and cotton

Charka time at the old corral...and decisions made.

Cotton happens! I have been bored with my Dorset It is just SOOO WHITE! So, I have returned to cotton on the charka. But first I plied everything I had stored on little toilet paper tubes and bobbins in my basket. There was a lot of cotton there! Enough to weave with.And a lot of merino silk that I had spun on my beloved Bosworth spindle. That's a lovely three-ply in the middle. Which brings me to the first decision: The hammered dulcimer. I have had it for years. It is lovely, even if the back is cracked. It still makes lovely sounds. But, it must go to make room for the loom....and to pay for the loom legs. I decided that IF I could sell the dulcimer, I could afford to buy the legs for the rigid heddle loom, so it can be UP and available to weave upon at a moments notice! Smart, huh? SO the price, local pick up only, is $150. They are between $395 and $1000 new. So, such a deal.




Then there is another decision: I have decided to NOT be a vendor at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival this year. There was just too much on my plate. Maybe in the future...

Vacation fiber fun

The gallery has been closed for over a month...nothing dire, just much needed vacation with a couple extra accidental weeks thrown in! What a joy! I drove over 3000 miles to see friends and family. While on the road I did spin a bit of merino silk on my Bosworth...but not much. While in East Lansing Michigan I went to my old friend Nancy's store, Woven Art. I bought this wildly dyed silk there and began spinning it as soon as I got home.
I washed the Dorset fleece I got at Shepherd's Harvest. It is the sproingiest stuff! I spun a sample and it was as stretchy as a rubber band. I decided to card a bunch with @ 10% nylon to make sock yarn that I plan to space dye and knit up for my son. SHHH! Don't tell him....especially since I am a very slow completer of projects! He'll get them some Christmas someday!
Little old dog, BABY, watches me with bleary eyes and an equally bleary brain. Her Altzheimers is worse since I got home. I think she knows who I am now. But she is still sweet. That has not changed.

Last night I wove this little, still un-blocked, weft-faced purse on a cardboard loom. Fun, but it made my hands hurt a lot. It is about the size for business cards.

This was my first independent "scarf"!!!The only problem is that I really mis-measured the warp! It won't even go around my neck...can't even make it into a cowl or a collar. So, it ia a lovely, llama table thingy.
This time, I measured the warp right. I am doing a sampler scarf based on various lace patterns. Too much fun.

And I forgot to photograph the most recent yarns, hanging to dry in the basement. Maybe tomorrow;-)

So, what's on your wheel?

5 1/2 yard warping board

I made a 5 1/2 yard warping board last night...plenty of length for my rigid heddle loom. It is based on a picture of a Schacht warping board that was 20" x20". So, I cut the available clear pine into 20 " lengths; overlapped them and inserted wing nuts and lag bolts; inserted a removeable nail at each of the top corners to reduce side to side motion. Cut 1 " dowels to 6 " and 6 3/4?"...can't quite remember. The four dowels across the top are longer to accomodate the fact that they are on a board laid behind the other boards. I used a 1 inch spade bit in a drill press to drill the holes. Put in LOTS of wood glue, inserted the dowels and waited overnight. Ta da! No it is not hardwood, yes there are some extra holes here and there since I did one of the corners wrong. No it is not varnished. But, who cares? It works! AND it comes apart for storage. If I had wanted to be more elegant (and more able with wood working tools) I would have made a lap joint at the corners...is that what it is called? It's a joint where part of the wood is taken away so that the pieces key into one another. I would not have needed the stabilizing nail if I knew how to make that other kind of joint. Oh well...as I said before...who cares? It works!