Purple stuff: what do you think?

The new year brought some experimentation. Even though I rarely change purses, I have been attracted to the "poofy" cloth purses I've been seeing at the craft shows lately. So, I dove into my stash of fabric. Pulled out old figure drawings to cut up as pattern pieces (Must recycle, afterall) and began designing.
It was fun to be designing and building in 3 dimensions again. It was fun to be using my re-furbished sewing machine. (Thanks, Steve Pauling of the Bobbin Doctor)
It all went pretty well. I had most of materials, although the interfacing was lighter than ideal. I did not have magnetic snaps .
I even figured out how to put the pocket in the lining. What I got confused on was how to design in the purse straps! By the next morning, I had figured it out, but things were all sewn up! So, it became a clutch with a wrist strap. Not ideal. No zipper...would have needed to sew that in much earlier in the project.

So what do you think? Does it have possibilities?
Here is what I am thinking, in the long run, for shows and the retirement use of the gallery space: The purse reflects the colors and sensibilities of other products I make or carry. Much of my hand dyed roving, hand spun and hand dyed silk scarves relate to the purse. Other materials I order in also relate. So, it makes a lovely display...and a person could, I suppose, buy a purse, a clutch or whatever, and spin a yarn to make a scarf or a hat or, or, or?

What do you think?

Happy New Year!

The wool nook is open! OK, it's not really complete...space and baskets are still being sorted out. More wholesale accounts are in process. But it HAS begun. One corner of the gallery is now devoted to wool and silk and cool fiber related stuff. The gallery is open on MONDAYS, 10-5 and by very generous appointment. Since the storefront is on the first floor of my building, and I live above the store, and I work at home....Obviously, appointments are easy. We just compare schedules and see what works.

What will you see in that tight little corner? Lots of roving, hand dyed and ready to dye, mohair locks, yearling mohair top (YUMMY!) It is so glossy! There are art batts, hand dyed silk and cotton scarves, lots of handspun and art yarn.

So much color! It is exciting!

SOUTH MINNEAPOLIS WILD WOOL MARKET!

The South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market

almost ready to go

The first market is Saturday, May 29, 10am-4pm. Light refreshments will be served.

Come join us for the fun!

The list of exhibitors so far:

Sue Hensel: batts, roving, yarn, Batt Your Own Wild Batt station and/or spinning demo

Kat Corrigan: Franken Sweaters and sewing demo

Pauline Mitchell: weaving, tapestry demo

Stefanie Moss: weavings from handyed yarn

Pam Angier: miscellaneous fiber goodness from the Fiber Studio

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!

Let the Dying Begin!!!

Work in the Susan Hensel Gallery has been overwhelming of late. We just opened the tenth anniversary show of A Reader's Art! TEN YEARS! 100 artists books from 50 artists from all over the world. Quite a feat, made more possible by the able curation of Jon Coffelt.

Slowly, between naps, I began dying mohair this week.New spring colors and the tried and true easter egg brights that mohair so loves to be.

Today I began the roving...peacock colors and muted early spring colors.

Come see the new colorways at YARNOVER, Saturday, April 17. I will be helping out Steven Be and will have fiber and yarn in his booth.

Then, Mother's Day weekend, SHEPHERD'S HARVEST!!!!!!! Save the date!!!!! May 8 &9.

3 New Yarns at ETSY

Curly Wild
Moonlit Night
Starry Night

Echo series on Etsy

Delta Echo: rural reflections
Caribbean Echo: remembering the Windjammer cruise
African Echo: the savannahs call
Aegean Echo: a long ago island cruise

Check out more about this new series of yarns at Sue's Luxury Yarn. When the thermometer reads below zero, an cabin fever rises, warm sand, hot savannahs, New Orleans and sea breezes certainly call.

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?

It's cold and it's June in Minnesota

Thank you to the hearty souls who braved the cold, constant rain to buy my yarn and my wool! It was a very pleasant day after all...although the heater in the car after the early close felt awfully good! Everything had to be unloaded and unpacked to dry out! It is kind of nice to have it all hanging in the studio again!

A strange scarf I can actually wear

I just finished a weaving class at the Textile Center Weaving for Knitters. I'm not much of a knitter, but I used my hand spun and went wild...experimenting all over the place, doing floats, lace, inlays, knotted locks, an inset of tapestry on a rigid heddle loom...And, believe it or not, one could actually wear it if it weren't 80 degress today! The big poof of knotted locks is, totally by accident, at the exact midpoint of the scarf, so it sits at the back of the neck as though intended.

The warp is a Harrisville wool. The weft is various handspuns, dominantly a beautiful black alpaca with bits of firestar and mohair, an alpaca with random mohair locks, and 2 wild batt handpuns of medium wool with sari silk, silk noil, firestar and stuff. I also knotted in some Wensleydale locks.