Programs and Workshops

October 11, 2023 | “Mushroom Dye Musings: A foray for color in our backyards" with Tonya Pettit & Heather Palmer

Guild Monthly Meeting

9:30am, First Baptist Church in person and on zoom

Heather and Tonya will challenge our imaginations by introducing the possibilities of color hidden in unexpected places with a display filled with wonder. They met in the online community called Mushroom and Lichen Dyers United, which led to friendship, supporting and encouraging each other in collaboration and comparison of dye techniques and identification of unknown species. This talk will address the ethics, safety and sustainability of natural dye derived from the lichens and fungi of the Rochester and Finger Lake region. 

Bios

Tonya Pettit

Tonya is happiest when totally immersing herself in a new skill or taking a previous skill further. From basket making to fiber arts, Tonya has learned each skill in order to teach her homeschooling family in an immersive way, with hands on experience that extends into the living history community that she demonstrates in. While turning those things into an artistic expression Tonya begins with research and attempts to create an accurate portrayal, then asks the question "what happens if?" in order to stretch the possibilities.  Currently she is developing her skills in Natural Dyes and chemistry with mushrooms and lichens, dabbling in biology with an herb garden, and exploring ways to dye porcupine quills with locally foraged dye materials.  Summer can find her at rendezvous demonstrating pine needle basket making and the skills of a country wife of the Fur Trade Era.

Heather Palmer

Rochester based artist Heather Palmer has a love for science, art, and the outdoors that started as a child and never stopped. After joining the Rochester Area Mycological Association 13 years ago, she learned of the wonders of mushroom pigments. Dyeing with mushrooms and experimenting with known and new dyeing strategies is a seasonal passion. Professionally, she works at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetic's as a graphic designer, creating scientific illustrations. In her free time, and while raising her three young children, Heather has been expanding her knowledge of mushrooms and their dye potential. Forms of her fiber art include sewing, felting, and crochet. Some of her favorite fibers to work with have been wool and silk, which have almost exclusively been acquired either second hand or from local farms. Heather's latest mushroom explorations have been papermaking and pigment creation.

November 8, 2023 | “Swedish/American Gotland Breed” with Tami Fuller

Guild Monthly Meeting

9:30am, First Baptist Church in person and on zoom

Join us as Tami shares information about it’s use as a fiber breed for wet-felting and weaving

as well as being a meat/pelt breed.

Bio

Fiber artist based out of East Aurora, working as an abstract weaver and felt artist. Born and raised on a family sheep farm, and connected to the fiber community in a professional capacity, using traditional women’s work as a medium to explore these concepts was a natural choice. She is self-taught and works in the abstract using woven tapestry, soft sculpture, mixed media and metals.

Her work is driven by first person experiences with exploitation, and she uses her work to explore post-trauma identity concepts from the female perspective. She uses traditional process 

based technique as a jumping off point for intuitive artmaking. Her work alludes to entrapment, suspended states and recovery through self-actualization against the backdrop of larger social discourse surrounding female sexual trauma, victimization and reclamation.

November 8, 2023 | “Needle Felting - Tomte Nesse” with Tami Fuller

Guild Half Day Workshop

1:00pm, First Baptist Church in person

Swedish Tomte Nisse are a traditional part of Jul, meant to bring good luck and protection during the dark evenings approaching yuletide. We'll create a pair using traditonal wool doll making technique, pre-made felt yardage, needle felting technique and authentic Gotland Locks, which is a heriiage breed of Swedish sheep.

Workshop Fee: $35 Sign up for members begins at the end of September.
Materials Fee: $15

Members can sign up here to be on a waiting list. The workshop is full.