What happened to February, or more importantly, in February?
I found out that Birkeland Bros. was closing. It wasn’t a shock. I think Cara had been carrying the burden of the shop for a while. I’ve enjoyed teaching there. As a matter of fact, I never considered teaching until Cara asked me to and well you know the rest. I have been running classes there for the last three years. I never really realized that a nice portion of my livelihood came from this….until it stopped.
Suddenly I find myself flooded with emails from people wondering where they can take classes and if I’m willing to teach. Other people wondering where to get wheels.
The classes are scheduled, my Louet Dealership secured so bring on your questions and get ready for some learning. The changes in the studio have made it so much easier to shift this part of my life down the street.
I was also fortunate enough to keep working on Once Upon a Time. This time more of a challenge (which I love) trying to breathe new life into a pretty wrecked CPW. Very old, brittle and wobbly and yet with still one more scene left in it. After that scene I am uncertain! It was a wild ride working with Disney, and although I see this gig coming to an end, I’ve realized that I have some weird fibre horseshoe thing going on. One gig ends and another one finds its place.
I’ve just been asked to custom dye alpaca fibre to be used in the production of wigs for a costume department. So there you go. And the studio classes, well they are practically full for the month so my work life seems to transition enough that I am always provided with new learning opportunities and skills.
I am embarrassed to say that I am still working on jury pieces, but I am trying to make something exquisite, and it’s taking more time than I imagined. Free form is a wonderful medium for me to work in, but I am so careful to keep it uniquely mine and not infringing on Prudence Mapstone’s wonderful work. So when I see something evolving in that direction, I pull it out and start again.
My shows are starting so much earlier this year so I have to have a full show’s worth of production by the end of April. The blog will be sparse other than yarn updates, but if you have any questions for me regarding classes, where to get fibre, some wheel help, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do.