About this Newsletter

Welcome to our new format for the newsletter. This website was created using Apple’s iWeb program, part of its iLife series. Use the Navigation Bar at the top to access different pages. Use the silver scroll bar at the far right to move each page up or down in order to read text. With this issue, we have added a Photo Gallery with pictures of our building under construction. The page “Photos” may take a little while to load, but allows you a “virtual” visit. In this way, we could also provide a glimpse into future exhibits and events. Enjoy.

Maine Fiberarts News

Somewhere around 36 members emailed to say they greatly prefer our new web-based NEWSLETTER found at http://web.mac.com/fiberarts.  Please note: do not type "www." Once on the site, use the scroll bar at the right hand side of every page to move the page up or down. Use the Navigation Bar located directly underneath the title "Maine Fiberarts Newsletter" to click on the words "Letters," "Workshops," or "Opportunities" to visit different pages.  Earlier issues will be archived for a time at this same URL. As you will find, I'm including more news from members, so send in your letters and fibery happenings.  Members enjoyed visiting other sites directly from the live links on the newsletter, as well as the photos and formatted text. Several said it was easy to print out pages from the site making the added pdf file unnecessary. Please let me know if you have difficulty accessing the site.

CONSTRUCTION is still going on at Maine Fiberarts' building in Topsham. The new rooms are now insulated and pine beadboard walls are going up. Heat was finally fixed in the "old" space, and the boiler for the radiant floor heating in the new space is just about to be turned on. Stonework around the gardens has been beautifully restored. The office is still filled with dust and construction debris as the stairwell is dismantled, along with several walls. Everything came out of a storage closet, just in time for new volunteer Brighid Doherty to arrive, who shines at organizing spaces. It feels good to be cleaning out and reorganizing for the new space, as we envision plans for the coming year. I'm also taking time to reorganize my studio in Richmond after moving in two years ago. New things are on the horizon.

NORTHEAST FELTMAKERS GUILD will host their annual meeting at Halcyon Yarn on January 20-21. Maine host Marianne Dubois is organizing events, which will include a business meeting, feltmakers' show-and-tell, possible studio tours and a speaker. Maine Fiberarts would like to host an exhibit of felted work if our new space is ready. We seek suggestions of feltmakers, felted work, or digital images (300 dpi, 5x7 inches, saved as tiffs). Please mail slides or a CD of images.

MF visited the exhibit WOOL WORKS in Farmington sponsored by Mountain Counties Heritage. A lovely reception enabled me to meet art enthusiasts from Western Maine and to address the audience about our expanding search for new studios and farms in Western Maine for future Tour Maps. Congratulations to exhibited artists Amy Grant, Mary Chaisson, Carol Hedden, Mary Isham, Heather Kerner, Kathy Lehto, Lorinda O'Brien and Judith Tollefson. [See photos on “Events” page.]

Tour Map News

A writer from FROMMER'S.COM contacted Nancy Marshall Communications in September, the State's PR firm, to learn more about our Tour Map to Studios and Farms. NMC referred the writer to us for suggestions of fiber destinations to visit this past September. NMC is now pitching fiber studios to Martha Stewart using our Tour Map.

Our grant application to the Northern Forest Center for $20,000 to help fund a repeat of the Tour Map has been rejected. NFC received 113 applications and chose to fund 19. Our attempt to secure funds from a second source has also been unsuccessful. Because of these developments, a repeat of the printed Tour Map will have to be put off until 2008 to give us time to raise funds, as Tour Map fees from participants represent only a portion of costs. We'll be soliciting input from Tour Map sites via survey at year's end and are still contemplating options.

Thanks to all who have kept the Maine Fiberarts Tour Map red and white signs displayed in front of their studios and farms. People who know me around town or who see my license plate "FIBRART" have stopped to ask "what was going on."  We will repeat the Tour Map once again, so please hang on to your signs and store them safely.

Back Issues

Use this link to read the November 2006 issue of this newsletter:

http://web.mac.com/fiberarts/iWeb/November_News/Welcome-News.html