Released: March 16, 2005

Fiber Festival Expected to Draw From Several States

MANHATTAN, Kan. – First-time visitors to Phillipsburg, Kan., are in for a surprise.

Business is bustling in the northwest Kansas community, but it isn’t business as usual. Phillipsburg is building a following as a textile and fiber art center much like similar centers in Scandinavia, said Vicky Overley, Kansas State University Research and Extension agent in Phillips County.

The community will host the third annual Central Plains Fiber Festival, April 16-17. The festival is expected to attract artists, craftspeople, producers, and others just wanting to learn more about this lush, lovely, practical – and natural – trend in clothing and home décor, Overley said.

More than 200 people attended the festival last year. More are expected this year, said Ron Branek, a sheep producer and member of the organizing committee.

Branek sold out of sheepskin and wool fibers at last year’s event and said that the festival is a little like a swap meet.

“It promises something for everyone,” he said. “It’s family friendly and an opportunity to match artists and crafts people with the people who are producing the fibers they need. Educational displays and fiber-producing animals, both for exhibit and sale, complement classes teaching how to use the fibers to create textile art.”

Attendance at the festival is free. Charges for classes are based on the materials provided. For example, the cost to attend Marcy Burns’ class on Turkish Felting, the Kansas Way, is $60. Burns offers a simplified technique that comes close to a time-consuming process typically identified with rug making. She is a weaver, spinner, felter and designer, based in Topeka. She also will teach a class ($20) on making a Mosaic Cobweb Scarf.

Fiber artist Sally Brandon (and leader of the arts and craft movement in Phillipsburg) will teach Creative Dyeing ($20). Brandon’s instructions include: “Wear old clothes and plan to play.” The cost to attend her class on needlefelting slippers, a hat or handbag costs $40.

Other classes include Beginning Spinning, taught by Nancy Square, a fiber artist based in Wichita ($50) and Shag Rag Rugmaking, taught by Linda Beckley ($30, which includes a loom).

Edie Hopson, a quilter and fabric dyer who raises sheep and llamas; Linda Little, who raises Finn sheep and French Angora Rabbits, and Kay McCoy, who has moved from wheat weaving to spinning, knitting, weaving, dyeing and felting, also will teach classes at the festival. McCoy is co-owner of the Great Plains Artisans, one of the fiber festival sponsors.

A class for children, ages seven to 11, will teach basic weaving and embroidery. The cost to attend the childrens’ class is $15.

Classes are expected to fill quickly; registration is required and early reservations are recommended.

More information on the Central Plains Fiber Festival and classes is available at www.centralplainsfiberfest.com  and at the Phillips County Extension Office at 785-543-6845.

As a student traveling with the International 4-H Youth Exchange Program, Sally Brandon traveled to Finland. Seeing the Scandinavian textile art – weaving, spinning, knitting – changed her life and encouraged her to bring fiber-related businesses to her community, she said.

Brandon founded the Great Plains Artisans and she and her husband also own The Shepherd’s Mill, which processes and weaves wool into finished products. The couple was honored recently as “Leaders of the Year” by the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Joining them in organizing and supporting the festival are the Fleece and Fibers Weavers and Spinners Guild; K-State Research and Extension, Phillips County; Phillips County Farm Bureau; Kansas Biggest Rodeo Association in Phillipsburg; Great Plains Artisans, also in Phillipsburg; and The Plum Nelly, in neighboring Hastings, Neb.

Phillipsburg is located at the junction of U.S. Highway 183 and U.S. Highway 36.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Nancy Peterson
nancyp@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News