Our Story
My name is Betty Forsyth and I have been a teacher all my life and love it. I have taught workshops in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. In 1996 our studio opened here at the farm on the third floor of our home and quickly expanded to a 750 square foot room built just for workshops, classes and sales of equipment, fiber and yarn specifically selected for the hand spinner and weaver. I was also in charge of 50 Shetland sheep and took care of the membership for the National Association of Shetland Sheep. Shetland Sheep are my favorite with all of their coat and color variations I think you can find a Shetland fleece that will do most anything, (I am a little prejudice though)
Some of our most popular workshops in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s were “The Rainbow Dye pot” a method that consistently makes 12-15 colors and the “Long and Short of It” which graphically showed the fiber artist how to select an appropriate fleece for their project. One of our most popular ongoing classes was “Spin to Design” a unique method developing a project from wool to the finished product. We will be revisiting these workshops and adding a bunch more. Visit our workshop page often or just call if you want a private lesson or you just want to stop by.
After 10 years, I sold the studio to one of my students to allow my Mom to live in the studio space. I never dreamed I’d have a chance to open again but my predecessor decided to sell the shop and it left a vacancy in the Howell, Livingston county area so I re-opened. So in 2012, I decided to open again here at the farm. The farm name is Gate House Farm LLC, so it was a perfect fit to call our studio Gate House Fiber Arts. We even have a gate house at the end of the driveway. I am available most of the time but must admit that May – August or September I am away at horse show with my Arabians and dressage horses. However, I do come home most of the time and have my cell phone with me 24/7. 810-923-1136. If you have questions or need to arrange to come by just call. May – September I’m usually home and available Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I do not go to horse shows every weekend so there are lots of times you can catch me.
We have a long list of dealers we represent as before: Louet, Kromski, Schacht, Ashford, Harrisville, Blue Butterfly, Hogett frame looms, a Full line of cotton for spinning and weaving Ashland Bay to mention a few. The studio is full of fiber weaving yarns, wheels, looms and a lot of etc. With my previous connections , I am able to find whatever you need if we do not have it.
Go to the
class page to see how we will proceed.
