All you need to spin your dreams
We have a new addition to our Majacraft range of spinning wheels! The Luna is an innovative new wheel, designed to be so smooth it makes spinning a breeze. The extra stability of the inline design and our drive system combine to provide a lovely […]
EDIT – 5 April – Voting is now closed! Thank you so much to everyone who voted! I am pleased to announce that the Majacraft 2024 Bobbin colour of the year is…………… UNWIND FROSTY!! It was so fun to see all the votes coming in, […]
Yes! We have been plotting and planning, and in 2024 we are bringing you TWO Majacraft Camps! One will be at our usual venue at Papamoa Beach, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the other will be a return to our wonderful Australian Venue at Lake Dewar! Both of these venues have proven to be wonderful places to relax, learn, eat well, socialise, and enjoy a few days of fibre fun together, we would love to welcome you in 2024 to either (or both!) of our Majacraft Camps. We are very lucky, and grateful, that the lovely Janet Day (My Spin on Things) is once again organising the Australian Camp, Janet is so good at creating a wonderful environment for inspirational classes and enjoyable social activities, we have enjoyed planning these two camps together!
We have some fantastic teachers coming to share their knowledge and inspiration with you! There is a slightly different line up at each camp, so if you were planning to come to both, there will be something new at each one.
Here are our lovely teachers and classes!
All the way from Tucson, USA, Joan aka The Queen of Cotton, brings to us her wealth of knowledge of all things hemp – the strongest, most durable, long-lasting natural soft fibre on the planet. A well-known and respected spinning teacher for over 40 years, Joan has also published many books and articles, and also DVD’s on the subject of plant fibres. More info on Joan can be found at www.cottonspinning.com
An inspirational art yarn spinner all the way from Washington, USA, Charan brings to us his creative passion for colour and textures with clever ideas and exciting spinning and plying techniques. At Camp, Charan will be teaching his ‘fish-net’ yarn, an art yarn that is fun and Charan is also a well-known potter, using his knowledge of fibre and textiles to create amazing function works of art – check it out on his website www.creativewithclay.com
Pat is well known throughout New Zealand as one of our most knowledgable and experienced spinners and teachers. She tutors the Creative Fibre NZ Handspinners Certificate, and has authored the book ‘In A Spin’. For Camp, Pat will be teaching her Crimp, Spin, Ply class, spinning to match the crimp: – How to use the crimp of the fleece to guide the thickness and amount of twist to incorporate into your hand spun yarn.
Emily’s fibre arts journey began when her grandmother taught her to crochet as a seven year-old, launching a life-long passion. Also an experienced knitter, Emily took up spinning four years ago. She is fascinated by the interplay of fibre, yarn construction and cloth-making, and enjoys designing yarns that precisely suit their intended purpose.
Emily’s handspun yarn and garments have won a number of first prizes at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show, and she loves the opportunity to share her skills with others. At camp she will be teaching a class focussing on elasticised yarns and twist directions.
Maren Klum is originally from Germany, and now resides in NZ. Maren brings her technical knowledge of the iron-age craft of band weaving. At Camp Maren will be teaching Scandinavian band weaving – weave a band using a Scandinavian pattern heddle and shuttle. Learn to create a two or three coloured warp on a pattern heddle, read a pattern and weave a basic band. This will give you the knowledge to weave wider bands in the future. While weaving, the band will be attached to a belt (please bring a sturdy one with you) on one end and to a post (provided) at the other.
Suzy Brown is the Editor/Publisher of tinyStudio magazine for spinners and yarn crafters, and co-author of the Big Book of Fibery Rainbows. She brings her in-depth knowledge of fibre preparation to her ‘Experimental Blending’ class, where you will be mixing and matching unusual fibres to make your own blends, records, and samples.
We would love to see you at camp next year! As always, places are limited so we do recommend you contact either the office (support@majacraft.co.nz) to register your interest and make sure you are on our Camp email list, or Janet Day (camp@myspinonthings.com.au) to register for Majacraft Australia Camp!
Use the slider below to view our two Camp Flyers!
Recently Suzy posted a picture of me (Andrew) on Facebook taking part in a health check of a Kiwi which quite a few people were interested in. I thought I would share a little more about this and show something I have recently been working […]
This week marks the end of an era here at Majacraft. One of our longest standing team members, Lance Hemingway, is leaving us for an exciting new opportunity in Tauranga and we wanted to acknowledge the impact he has had on both Majacraft and the […]
Each year our Majacraft Camp fills with the presence of wonderful spinners and fantastic teachers, all willing to share knowledge, ideas, and our passion for fibre art in every form. 2023 has been no exception! This year we welcomed Janet Day (Australia), Pat Old, Leigh Morris, and Judy Knipmeijer as teachers, and enjoyed a visit and presentation from Ineke and Ans De Brouwer, all the way from the Netherlands.
We would like to thank everyone who attended and participated, your creativity and inspiration was amazing. What follows is a photo record of the classes over the weekend, we hope you will enjoy this look back over the weekend.
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Leigh Morris taught a great class on how to manage and spin flax strick, including how to attach it to (and spin from) a distaff
Janet Day’s class learned how to create a soft, light, and round yarn using a special carding technique, as well as how to ‘wiggle’ and steam their fibre to make it easier to prepare (and see the crimp!)
Judy Knipmeijer’s class on creating tweed yarns with some carding and colour splashes created some gorgeous yarns!
Pat Old’s class was all about the fibre, with essential information and practice in identifying the crimp and how to spin to that crimp to get the best out of each type of fibre’s characteristics, also lots of wonderful yarns spun!
We also had a talk by Ineke and Ans De Brouwer, in which they shared some wonderful photographs of places in the Netherlands and beyond, plus local stories and legends that have inspired some very creative and beautiful yarns and weavings.
On the Saturday evening Annette Montgomery demo-ed a tool for spinning art yarn to make short lengths ideal for jewellery, and on Sunday afternoon Suzy Brown hosted the tools table with combs, cards, and also all the Majacraft wheels for people to try out.
And we also cannot forget that while the spinners spun, Owen Poad entertained their partners and spouses with some trips to places of local interest!
Many thanks to the Majacraft team for organising everything so wonderfully again this year, it is always such a pleasure to attend and I know how much work goes into making these Camps happen!
Photos by Suzy Brown unless otherwise noted.
It is time to get your registrations in for 2023 Majacraft Magic retreat! 2023 Class Content: Crimp Spin Ply with Pat Old – design yarn that matches the crimp of the fleece Beyond one Batt with Janet Day (AU) – carding for a big project Love Linen with Leigh […]
We have a couple of new products to announce! The first one is pretty straight forward so I will start with the new limited edition bobbins, and then tell you all about our new Extra Fine hand combs, with a wee story about what makes […]
Once again we were so lucky to have the opportunity to gather together for three days of spinning, learning, chatting, and sharing at this years Majacraft Camp! We were all delighted to see so many old and new friends, and we hope all those attending enjoyed every minute, as we did.
Our venue once again provided comfortable beds, great food, and excellent teaching spaces, and having the beach just across the road is a real bonus. We were super pleased that the weather was beautiful this time with lots of sunshine and warm days.
Our classes this year provided entertainment and learning opportunities with a variety of topics covered. We had some really interesting Heritage Spinning with Leigh Morris (author of “The Handspinners Companion”) in which longdraw was a feature along with some New Zealand heritage breed fibres.
Annette Montgomery created a ‘tool time’ playground so everyone could get hands-on with the range of Majacraft fiber preparation tools and ALL the wheels!
Pat Old helped everyone do amazing things with cotton, and I am sorry I do not have a photo from her class to add here! Everyone who knows Pat understands the wealth of knowledge she has to share and her fantastic approach to both investigating topics and teaching her skills to others.
It seemed that this camp involved much use of our Majacraft hand carders, with the heritage breeds and the cotton, and also Suzy’s class on using silk hankies. In this class everyone used silk hankies to spin samples, from super fine thread to bulky corespun yarns, and also blended some silk with wool. A nice range of sample yarns were made, and the teeny tiny cotton reels filled with silk thread. Everyone went home with a record booklet to keep their experiments and ideas in.
We ended the weekend with a bang! Debbie Held joined us from her home in the USA via Zoom, on the big screen! She showed us how to split up our multicoloured top into just the right size pieces for ‘Combo Spinning’. The yarns that have been created with this technique, both at and after camp, have been just fabulous!
We had such a lovely camp experience and hope everyone enjoyed themselves, the fibres and yarns they spun, and went home with new ideas and inspirations!
We really enjoy creating custom wheels, each one is unique, and it is always an interesting exercise to turn a customer’s ideas and designs into something that will work on wood, and fit the shape of one of our wheels. This is the story of […]
