Out Of My Studio: At Fiber Flame

Recently on this blog we read about a visit by fellow Hudson Valley Etsy Team blogger

Lark Practical to the Rhinebeck Arts Festival. She reviewed the booth provided by Fiber Flame and the wonderful time her son had spent painting a lizard. I decided this month to visit the mother ship- the original Fiber Flame studio located on route 212 between Woodstock and Saugerties. I say mother ship because recently Fiber Flame have also opened a studio in Rhinebeck and can be found at many local events, festivals and fairs.

Mother ship can also be used to describe the inspiring futuristic construction of the Fiber Flame building. Upon entering you are immediately welcomed by a beautifully curated gift shop, combining wares made from local crafts people to fair trade goods sourced from all over the world. This area is truly inspiring for any would be maker to get their creative juices flowing.

Gift shop at Fiber Flame

The space is then given over to numerous crafting tables where visitors are able to get making themselves. Shelves are jam packed with projects for children and adults alike to decorate and assemble. The walk in studio offers visitors the ability to come in whenever fits their busy schedules; Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday 10am-5pm and Friday and Saturday 10am -6pm.

Some Halloween 'blanks' ready for decorating

Visitors first choose a 'blank' on which to work. This could be anything from a onesie to a wooden car, a piece of pottery to glaze or a canvas tote to decorate. Each 'blank' has varying prices from $1 upwards. You also pay a studio fee of $10, for this fee all the studio materials are included in your two hour session; from buttons, beads, fabrics, papers, embellishments, a rainbow of glazes and also help from one of the friendly assistants if you need it.

Embellishments

Fiber Flame also offers a wide variety of classes for children and adults including its monthly Dirty Girls Night Out; offering women the chance to have a night out, make a mess,  try something new, meet and chat with fellow like minded people and get creative.  Previous nights have included embroidery, needle felting, indigo dyeing, jewelry making and pottery.

The studio also throws wonderful children's birthday parties and is open to private bookings including film showings on its huge movie screen. Kids Nights Out are held regularly whereby the youngsters can create, eat dinner and watch a movie while their parents enjoy a night out.



Dirty Girls Night- Indigo Dyeing Workshop



Main area- crafting tables

It is truly a remarkable and creative place well worth a visit -to fill some time on a rainy day, learn a new skill or to make Christmas gifts for the whole family.

"Fiber Flame is our effort to honor and feed the ancient human need to adorn ourselves, our loved ones, and our environment with handmade beauty. In a mass-produced world, it feels good, essential even, to make, have, give and receive one-of-a-kind, imperfectly-rendered objects." Shea and Christina


For more information about classes and events:

Fiber Flame

1776 Route 212

Saugerties

845 679 6132

make@fiberflamestudio.com

www.fiberflamestudio.com

or visit the new studio at 18b East Market St Rhinebeck

Sarah Omura - So Handmade

Where To Find the Hudson Valley Etsy Team This Weekend

We've got an exciting weekend prepared for you with some wonderful markets in Philadelphia, the Berkshires and of course the Hudson Valley. It sounds like it should be a gorgeous Fall weekend so go out and enjoy!

Elena Rosenberg will be at the PA Guild of Craftsmen Fine Craft Fair with her knitted wares including scarves, hats, arm warmers, crocheted jewelry and more. The fair takes places this Friday-Sunday, October 10-12 at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, PA. Hours are 11AM-6PM Friday and Saturday, and 11AM-5PM Sunday.

Elena Rosenberg

Elena Rosenberg

Lollypups is bringing her doggie-wear to beautiful Stockbridge, MA, where she will be selling them at the Harvest Festival this Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11, from 10AM-5PM.

Lollypups

Lollypups

Get Glassy, Stone and Fiber and Huzzah Handmade will be selling their creations at the second last Warwick Makers Market of the season this Sunday, October 12, from 9AM-3PM in beautiful Warwick, NY, right here in the Hudson Valley.

Get Glassy

Get Glassy

Stone & Fiber

Stone & Fiber

Huzzah Handmade

Huzzah Handmade

Happy shopping!

A Simple, DIY, Hudson Valley Wedding - Picking The Flowers

Whew! It’s been awhile. I got caught up with actually planning and having my wedding! Now I’m back to tell you how it went and what I learned, starting with the flowers. :)

There are an incredible number of options when choosing wedding flowers (or you can choose not to have any). Do you want some for every table? Every person? Or just the bouquet for you? Which florist? What types of flowers? Colors? Are you going to preserve them? The questions go on and on!

If you have decided you want to have someone else design your flowers, you might want to skip the florists and go straight to a flower farm. There are several in the area with many options and some of them will design the flowers for you or know someone who will. This way, you also know your flowers grew locally, seasonally, and even organically depending on the farm. Shoving Leopard Farm even has an option where they grow a bed of flowers just for your wedding if you let them know by December.

For me, I went straight to the DIY approach to save money, and because I wanted a simple, casual feeling that is sometimes hard to find with florists, and in-season flowers were also important to me. I also turned out to be pretty good at it, if I do say so myself!

on the way to the venue! flowers are very distracting while driving, by the way. (photo by Thomm Quackenbush)

If you choose this approach, you still need to figure out where to get the flowers. You can look at flower farms like I mentioned before or look into bulk flower sellers online - this can be a bit pricey but you do end up having the largest number of flower options so you can be pickier about colors or if there’s a specific variety you just have to have.

photo by Daniel Evans

You can also try and grow your own flowers. I tried this and got mixed results, due to the weather and some fencing complications that pushed back when I planted my seedlings. I ended up not having nearly enough flowers by the wedding (I've got a ton now, though!) so I had to get some flowers from elsewhere. However, I did get a ton of pansies that I made ice cubes with that gave the water a slight cucumber taste while looking great, too! So that was a success, and having a few flowers I grew myself making a showing in my bouquet and the other arrangements meant a lot to me, so I’m super glad I tried - plus one of my dahlias finally blooming greeted me when I got back from our honeymoon.

photo by Daniel Evans

Another way you could go is to stop by a pick-your-own farm to pick some flowers. You could even make a day of it with your bridal party! This is the way I went when it turned out I didn't have enough flowers. Most places only charge around $10 for a bucket full of flowers and I only ended up spending around $40 in total. If you go this route, pick them as close to your event as possible and do your picking in the early morning or evening on a cloudy day for the best results. If you have access to a cooler, you might want to pop the flowers in there once you get them home. If not, a dark cool place would be fine. I only ended up putting my bouquet in the fridge once I made it to keep it fresh.

bottles actually used to be for clam juice!

Finally, you can just buy flowers from the grocery store. Some places like Sam’s Club will even have discounts on old flowers that might have a few bad stems, but are generally good. This way is probably the riskiest if you want specific flowers or colors, as they might only have a small selection - but if you’re just looking for roses and carnations or have a seasonal color palate (think oranges and reds around fall and pinks and yellows for spring) this might work out great for you

Now that you've got your flowers, how will you arrange them? There are a ton of great resources online for flower arranging, but, if you’re doing them all yourself, time will be a huge factor, so the simpler the better. For me, I started with my bouquet by simply working in a circle until I had about what I wanted and then taped it up with green floral tape and trimmed the stems. After that, you might want to use ribbons around the base, but I think it looks great even without that.

Next, I designed the table flowers. I used pasta sauce jars and other bottles that I had been saving up, and a few actual vases as well. These, I filled with flowers, generally keeping to a color scheme or feeling for each one. Finally, I used the flowers that were too short for anything else to make the boutonnieres. Those I did like the bouquet, just smaller. And you know what you can do with the extra flowers that just weren't quite good enough or got bent? Save them for the flower girl to throw!

photo by Daniel Evans

As for preserving your flowers, I don’t know much - I just took pictures then added them to my compost pile. Still you can look into drying the normal way ( hanging them upside down) or look into something more interesting, like freeze-drying. You might just want to keep a few flowers pressed in a book, too, especially if you do scrap-booking - all you have to do for that is place the flower in a book and then weigh it down until completely flat, and then wait.

Thanks for reading!

Amber

Photo by Jun Ogata dress by Holly Mccabe