Teaching and Vending at the Carolina Fiber Fest, May 21-23!!

YEP!! I told you folks that the announcement was coming soon!! JazzTurtle Creations will have a vending booth ALL weekend at the Carolina Fiber Fest, May 21-23 at the Raleigh State Fairgrounds.
Not only THAT.. but I'll be TEACHING my 3 hr "Creative Corespinning" workshop- Friday morning (either 9-12 or 10-1, not sure yet) I'll post a link when registration is open. Class is $65 and includes a spinning kit.

Creative Corespinning:
Why corespin? If you want to learn a technique get the most out of precious fiber (like cashmere) or learn how to get the most texture and create funky art yarns, then corespinning is for you!
First we’ll learn how to corespin, with proper attention to achieving a balanced yarn. Then focus will shift to experimenting with different corespinning techniques- corespinning with locks, coreless corespinning and adding “fun stuff” into your yarns like felted nubbies, sequins, fabric, cocoons and other things you may bring. Translucent corespinning and carding textured art batts will also be demonstrated. Class fee includes kit with core yarn, 3oz textured batt, 1oz loose locks and fun add-in’s. Additional supply details will be sent with registration confirmation. Participants must bring a wheel and be able to spin a single. Class limited to first 16 registered students.

I will ALSO be doing free art batt carding and art yarn spinning demo's on Sunday afternoon!! If you're in the area please stop by and say hello.. and do some shopping while you're visiting!

A tour of my studio-where the carding magic happens!

Welcome!! This is what you see when you pass my studio. I've had a couple requests for a virtual "tour" so I thought I'd invite you inside and show you around. I did a bit of spring cleaning and organizing this weekend, so I thought it'd be a perfect time! You see my bin of treasure fiber is open and ready to collect leftover carding fiber. I also have a basket out with add in's I'm currently putting in batts and yarns.

When you walk in you are greeted with my shelving unit of add in's and sparkle. Installing this above the desk and carding table is what really turned this room into a "studio" Previously it was all in "bins" that I would dump on the floor when I was working. There were 2 main problems with that.. first I couldn't see everything I had.. and if I don't see it, I forget it's there and don't use it! Most importantly is that I had to bend over and stand up again and again and again when reaching for goodies like sparkle and sari silk.. and I gave myself some vertigo by continued bending over and standing up.. I couldn't work for over a week. So installing this unit was a lifesaver. Everything I need is within reach and in sight!

Top shelf is a bin of hand dyed merino top odds and ends, a bin of treasure fiber leftover from projects and a small bin of add in's like silk flowers, pom poms, crocheted flowers, buttons..
The middle shelf holds a small bin of novelty yarn snippets, another small bin of my sari silk stash (yarn, thrums, recycled tangles, ribbon and pulled waste) The middle big bin is full of fabric strips and silk for spinning and adding into batts. The bottom shelves hold my bins of lurex and silk thread, 3 colors of holosparkle lurex, and sequins (behind the holosparkle), my basket of hemp noil in rainbow colors, my bowl of felted nubbies and pebbles and my NEW set of 3 drawer units for my smaller add in's like shredded money, neps, silk cocoons, worry dolls, buttons, fabric flowers. These were previously in a basket and just getting lost! I feel SO much more organized now that I can easily (and quickly) get what I need!
To the left of the desk you see my bookshelf with my smoothie carder on top (next to the drum I got in Cairo), my craft books and magazines, old textbooks and reference books from college and massage school, and on the top shelf baskets and bins with scrapbooking stickers, beads, sequins and crystals.

In the drawers above the carding station are:
angelina and lurex drawer.. every girl LOVES her sparkle drawer!!

Then above that it's my noils and banana silk drawer. A rainbow of silk, bamboo and cotton noils, along with tangled strands of brightly colored banana silk fill this drawer. Above that is another sparkle drawer.. this one is filled with firestar and icicle nylon sparkle. Again, a rainbow of fibers! The top drawer has vintage trim and lace, some silk snippets and other things for carding into batts and spinning into yarn. In between the drawers I have bags of brightly dyed curly kid mohair locks for adding into batts.

Next to the carding station I have my wire rack of farm wools and fleece. These are mostly solid or semi solid fibers from animal friendly farms. I mostly card this fiber, but I also spin some without carding..
The bottom shelf is filled with bins of fiber, and the top shelf is my sewing machine, serger and other quilting supplies.

I use over the door shoeracks for holding my rainbow of kid mohair locks and some wrapping/plying yarns. No space is unused.. including on the wall and behind the doors!

In the closet is my scrapbooking supplies.

My fiber wall.. my home LYS.. my pride and joy. I often sit on the floor and plan yarns by staring up at all the colors and textures.. I often hang yarns I've finished to inspire me.
This wall is made up of wire cubbies. The bottom cubbies are filled with top I use for carding. The top cubbies are shop inventory (except the last 2 are combed top spinning stash) The left side cubbies are all uncarded locks and fleece I plan to spin uncarded. This is also the cubbies I have my bamboo rayon designated for spinning not carding. The rest is all spinning stash. Mostly batts, some combed top and clouds. Some is created by me.. LOTS is from other independent artists like myself. I admit, as much as I love spinning my own fiber, I love to spin other people's as well. We all have a different carding style, so it's fun to play with other techniques. It is crazy though, I've collected this stash over my 3 years spinning.. I don't buy as much as I used to.. but there are still weeks when the mail comes heavy to my house!!

Well, thanks so much for stopping by! If you're ever in the Raleigh/Durham/Triad area and would like to schedule a private lesson and come by for real, drop me a line and we'll figure it out!!

Teaching in South Carlolina- The Carolina Fiber Frolic!

Where have I been the last month?

Well.. Getting ready to vend my first spinning retreat and teach a couple workshops!! It was really overwhelming getting it all together. I learned a lot about what to do for my NEXT vending!! (maybe at the Carolina Fiber Fest at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh at the end of May.. but more about that later!) I had to build inventory for vending (Whew.. carding over 40 new batts!!)



Bryan and I loaded up the car with fiber, yarn and my wheel..



He was amazed I fit it all in.. but I learned how to pack from my Mother.. she's the best there is.

Off we went to the Middleton Place Inn and Plantation, just outside Charleston SC. I was really excited because I've never been there.
We arrived in time to unload and then had the evening to play. Wow.. what a place!! The plantation is from the mid 1700's and has the oldest landscaped gardens in America. We stayed in the inn.. that had beautiful rooms! The wall facing the river was all windows..
And it had a wood burning fireplace!!

And even MORE fun.. it had a 150 GALLON garden tub!! It was like a mini pool!!

It was really beautiful!! We were on the second floor so our view was like we were in a treehouse..


In the evenings the Lodge hosted some appetizers, wine and beer.. so we stopped by there before going into Charleston for dinner-
The walk from our room to the lodge was breathtaking!!




We ate both free nights at Hyman's Seafood House in Charleston. (they are open until 11pm.. and we didn't get out of the Inn until past 10 each night.. and the food was STILL amazing!!) OMG.. the shecrab soup.. and the crispy fresh flounder.. and the mussels.. oh the mussels!!

The next morning we set up my booth.. It looked great.. except I forgot my sign! Can you believe it! LOL!!
I loved having the laptop there!! There was wifi so people could pay with paypal, and I had a looping slideshow running of photos of previous batts and yarns!
The garmet rack was SO useful for hanging shawls, cloudspun yarn and specialty art yarn sets!
BATTS galore! These cubbies are a PITA to put together and take apart.. but they were really useful and made the booth look great!! I'd like to have one more set for more batts for future shows.

Ta Da!! Everything looked great!!

I taught my workshops on Friday!! My first was a 3 hour workshop called "Creative Corespinning" where I taught the basic corespinning technique, with focus on spinning a balanced yarn. I taught how to add in objects while spinning.. flowers, sequins, cocoons, beehives.. all sorts of goodies!! The second was an hour and a half workshop "Unwinding with Coils" teaching supercoiling and other art yarn plying tricks!! It was SUPER fun and everyone picked up the skills really quickly!! I felt like a proud parent!




Bryan and I also took some time to walk around the gardens. It really is an amazing place..The Middleton house after the main house was destroyed in the Civil War, and the original springhouse.
Spanish Moss swaying from all the trees so peacefully. I'm totally inspired to spin a yarn!
Amazing Camila blooms in the landscaped gardens.
H U G E trees.. from the 1700's!! So different than the Huge redwoods of Cali.

These were MONSTERS! The trunk was over twice Bryan's arm span.


We FOUND the hidden Dharma Initiative Gardens!! LOL!! You know how into LOST! we are.. so when we saw there was an octagonal garden.. we knew it was a sign!! LOL!!

All in all it was amazing weekend!! I made new friends, got a couple invitations to teach more workshops, scheduled some private lessons sold some fiber and MOST importantly made some alpaca and mohair locks connections with some local farms!! HURRAH!! AND even more importantly my hubby and I got to get away for the weekend and have some relaxing fun!!

SO if anyone wants some private lessons, or for me to teach my corespinning or superpcoiling workshops at their LYS or a guild meeting just drop me a line and we'll set something up. I have a couple workshops in the plan, so as they are finalized I'll post info about them here!!

AND watch for an announcement about JazzTurtle Creations vending at a local fiber fest near you!!