by Logan Gruber
operations@thenewsleaders.com
Anita Jacobson has only recently gotten into spinning, but her wheel has been turning for quite some time.
Jacobson will be easily recognizable at the Millstream Arts Festival on Sunday, Sept. 19 due to her spinning wheel. The wheel was actually built by her husband Bruce’s grandfather and is about 50 years old. The wheel is named Queen Margaret.
Spinning wasn’t her first art form though. Jacobson first learned how to crochet when she was a child but really started when she turned 50.
“When your kids start to leave for college you have time for a hobby,” Jacobson said. “Crocheting is a good creative outlet.”
Besides crocheting and spinning, she also does fulling. Fulling takes the woven or knitted fabric through the process of hot water and agitation in order to shrink it and create felted fabric.
It’s Jacobson’s first time at the Millstream Arts Festival. She’s been in the St. Cloud Art Crawl and at Pine Groove Art Festival, but a photographer friend of hers suggested she participate in Millstream as well.
Jacobson thinks the spinning wheel will be the biggest draw for her tent. She will be putting on demonstrations.
“Some people associate the wheel with Sleeping Beauty, while others like to watch the mechanics of it,” Jacobson said.
For more information about Jacobson, head to www.facebook.com/nitasknots.
To read other stories about artists who will be at the Millstream Arts Festival this year, see Poff’s art by heading to www.thenewsleaders.net/2015/09/24/millstream-arts-festival-features-local-artists-poff-drawings/, and see Zapf’s canoes by heading to www.thenewsleaders.net/2015/09/24/millstream-arts-festival-features-local-artists-zapf-canoes/.
Festival
Millstream Arts Festival in downtown St. Joseph is an outdoor art show which is held annually from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on the last Sunday in September, rain or shine. The festival always has a large array of visual art, music, dance, hands-on art activities for children and great food.
This year, 59 artists will be at the festival, including 17 new and 42 returning. Sartell’s sole contribution to the list is Anita Jacobson, but plenty more will be at the festival from the surrounding area including Sauk Rapids, Rice, St. Joseph and St. Cloud.
Musicians will be on stage during the festival and additional performers will be in the street, including cloggers and street artists. Other activities include horse-drawn trolley rides, a children’s art area, history tours of Art and Heritage Place at St. Benedict’s Monastery and of the St. Joseph Area Historical Society along with a vintage car-and-tractor show.
For more information on the festival, head to www.millstreamartsfestival.org.
These ‘ceramic’ vessels, actually made of wool, were transformed by the fulling process.
Jacobson works on her spinning wheel during the St. Cloud Art Crawl at Bloom Salon. The spinning wheel tends to draw more interest and questions than some of her other work.
Jacobson’s spinning wheel tends to draw more interest and questions than some of her other work.
The Millstream Arts Festival has a new logo this year. The design kept the signature oak leaf, though.
