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Squam Art Workshop 2016

Amber and I had the opportunity to attend Squam Art Workshops for the first time last weekend! Squam takes place on Squam lake in New Hampshire. It is a long weekend retreat that includes classes for fiber arts as well as writing and other arts and crafts. 

While at Squam, we stayed in an adorable lakeside cabin with our friends Anna of Tolt Yarn and Wool and Tif of Dottie Angel and Jess of Ravelry. We made a ton of new friends. Each cabin had its own dock where we spent tons of time hanging out. 

 

 
Each of us took two classes. My first class was Dream Weavers with Maryanne Moodie. I've been a long-time fan of Maryanne and was so excited! This weaving class covered all the basic stitches as well as some fun new ones for tapestry weaving. I made a beautiful weaving and I love the new "negative space" technique that I learned.

Amber's first class was jewelry making with Page Sargisson. She learned how to do "lost wax casting" to make a silver ring. Starting with a block of hard wax, Page taught them how to file, carve, melt and shape the wax into a ring. The final wax ring will be used to make a cast to pour molten silver into, making an exact copy of the carved wax. Page also brought along vintage batik stamps that students could press into the warmed wax to make impressions in their ring. Amber used the tail of a peacock stamp to make a feather impression into one of her rings, and it looks just like knit stitches.  

My second class was Doll Making with Ann Wood. I love Ann's aesthetic and was excited to learn with her. She brought tons of beautiful fabric mostly from clothing that was from the late 19th century and early 20th century that we could use to craft our dolls with. The fabric was so inspiring! Ann taught us several methods of creating dolls and the class was super free-form. I choose to make a full moon doll in honor of the Harvest full moon that night. My doll has a cloak that she can use to cover up depending on the moon phase.

Amber's second class was colorwork knitting with Arne and Carlos. The knitting duo taught her Norwegian style knitting, and she might just be a convert to Norwegian style knitting! After practicing her stitches on the sample, she started designing her own version of the mitts and hasn't put her project down since.

I signed up for one more informal workshop with Tif of Dottie Angel to make a tiny embroidered heart. Tif is a magical woman with a British accent and a way with words that makes everything ok. The class was great and I love my tiny heart.  

There were also some fun events at Squam. One evening, Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed gave a talk on the process of creating a Brooklyn Tweed collection.

Virgina and Noah of Gather Here in Boston put together a beautiful modern quilt show that was on display in a gorgeous old wooden building. Amber had two quilts in this show - her Constellations quilt and her Nani Iro Double Star quilt. These were on display with quilts from Denyse Schmidt, Lizzy House, Cauchey Complete, and more.

There was an art fair where vendors set up booths and sold goods. We had a booth and sold our sewing patterns and Heirloom mitt kits. Some of our favorite people were there selling goods like Miniature Rhino, Carrie Hoge of Madder Made, Wing and a Prayer farm, Cal Patch, Anne Weil, Maryanne Moodie, Knit Collage, Brooklyn Tweed and more.

Overall, Squam is a magical experience. The meals are provided and are amazing, the setting is serene and calming, the classes are inspiring and the people are lovely. We hope to go back again one day.

 

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