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Here we are! Arlene (Spin Artiste – left) and Suzy (Woolwench – right).   What follows is a little bio from each of us to help you get to know us a better. In 2013 we combined our energies to create ‘FiberyGoodness.com’ because we share a love of sharing, we enjoy being part of a vibrant and growing community of fiber artists, and this is one of the ways we wish to contribute. We felt we had something new to bring to the fiber world, combining creativity and fiber in ways that were interesting and could help people expand their creative and fibery horizons.  Our first online course the ‘Golden Fleece Fiber Creativity Certificate’, was designed and written together, each of us bringing our own perspectives and creativity into a collaborative project that we hope will inspire, boost, and challenge participants during their own fiber journeys.

Since then we have added more courses, some, like the S3 Sketch Spin Scribe course, continue the journey through a rich and inspiring process of story telling and step by step yarn making, while our ‘Beautiful Bulkies’ and ‘Dynamic Colour’ courses focus on technique and skill development. We have also been lucky enough to have Evanita Montalvo join us as Customer Support and amazing Teacher, sharing her skills with Camera and Spindle in two wonderful courses!

Over time we have developed an amazing FiberyGoodness community on our Facebook group and the various private course support groups  where we can support, share, and continue together on our heroes journeys as teamies, in a kind and generous environment. This is part of our vision!

In future we would love to add more challenges, courses, and resources to FiberyGoodness.com! Watch this space because we have lots of exciting plans yet to come 🙂 If you are interesting in advertising with us, please contact us to discuss the possibilities!

 

Suzy (aka WoolWench)

I approach my spinning and fiber work as an ongoing experiment. It is curiosity driven, and my designs often start out with the idea of ‘what would happen if..’ This sparks an element of excitement and challenge in me, that I hope shows in my yarns and fiber designs. I find that taking risks with my creations often leads to new (to me) discoveries, and this is what motivates me to continue spinning and weaving.

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I am currently busy making online courses here on Fiberygoodness. as well as mentoring students through the ‘Certificate in Designer Yarns’, a course I wrote for the New Zealand National spinners and weavers Guild ‘Creative Fibre’. I am also the Assistant Editor of Creative Fibres quartley magazine.

In between teaching and the magazine I am also Social Media Manager at Majacraft, makers of fine spinning wheels and fibre tools! I am lucky to be part of this team with input into new designs and ideas.

I have a background in education, having studied Education/Sociology at University and going on to teach Communications at Degree and Diploma Level. After leaving my home country New Zealand to live in the Netherlands, I switched to teaching English as a Second Language.

I also spent some time working on farms before I got to University, and my favourite place was always the woolshed with the warm smell of lanolin and the sounds of the sheep and dogs and people.   Things came together when I learned to spin, and wow, that must have been 18 years ago, just before my daughter was born! I love working with fiber because its so versatile, I love dyeing and playing with fiber, painting it, blending it, adding sparkle to it..  and I love the seemingly endless creative possibilities, I have never ever been bored with it! Over the 18 years since I learned to spin I have had breaks from it, picking it up occasionally to spin for projects, but in the last 3 years or so I have made fiber my creative focus and have developed a much more passionate approach to how I use it.  As someone who loves to study I also couldn’t resist taking the Creative Fibres (NZ) Certificate in HandSpinning, which I thoroughly enjoyed and which added a good deal of technical knowledge to my more instinctive approach! Now I am thoroughly enjoying offering and teaching workshops in Creative Spinning,  Dyeing, and Weaving, here in The Netherlands and abroad. 

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I hope to be able to share my fiber passion further by combining this again, this time online, with my love of teaching, which to me, means sharing, inspiring, motivating, and offering knowledge with care and  love. It is also a reciprocal process and so very rewarding in many ways! I am very excited about developing the FiberyGoodness.com site with Arlene, who is just THE BEST, it is a fantastic experience to work with her and share in her generous spirit and vision, and I am looking forward to a long association with many exciting projects 🙂 Whooot!

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Arlene (aka Spin Artiste)

OK, now after reading all about Suzy, I have to admit to some intimidation about talking about myself because my wonderful co-collaborator is a really hard act to follow.  But, here goes.

Jewel Tone Boot toppersMany people know the story but it bears repeating again that I was a knitting (mainly socks) until I saw Debra Lambert’s handspun yarn at Picasso’s Moon Yarn Shop a number of years ago.  At the time, Debra had been spinning about six months and was making what was then called “art yarn” having studied with both Lexi Boeger and Jacey Boggs.  Once I saw Debra’s yarn, I fell in love and I was bound and determined to become a hand spinner…which I did but along the way, I was very unsatisfied with the amount of information about the indie fiber artists whose work I deeply admired.  Mainstream magazines weren’t cutting it for me.  So, www.spinartiste.com was born.

As an artist, I’m very attracted to color and texture.  I also tend to like things a little on the funky side — bold, bright, and wild.  At the same time, I have a deep respect and fascination for tradition and traditional ways.  Pink on shearling

Luca_Pacioli_(Gemaelde)Outside of the fiber arts community, my main gig since 2003 has been as the Chief Operating Officer at a large public accounting firm on the East Coast of the United States.  I love the diversity and challenge of balancing the business and art worlds and the interesting cross-overs that often take place.

Working by myself over at www.spinartiste.com has been a great ride, but with Suzy, I’m able to create and launch ideas here at Fiberygoodness.com at a level I never dreamed possible.  Like Pete Townsend wrote, “In life one and one don’t make two.  One and one make one.”Suzy and Arlene