Wine county gift basket

dream weaver, wine maker

BLAIR, Wis. - In the Tenba Fiber Arts Studio overlooking the owners' horse pasture, Kiyoko Fiedler carefully weaves baskets of different shapes and colors - and on some days teaches classes in basket making.

Her husband, John Patrick Gill, gives wine-making classes in the same studio, in the couple's home between Ettrick and Blair, Wis. And he is busy obtaining federal licenses that will allow him to start selling his wine next fall under the Tenba Ridge Winery name.

With help from Gill, Fiedler operates Tenba Fiber Arts Studio in the home they built in 1993 on an 80-acre farm they bought in 1989. They moved from Milwaukee into the old farmhouse on their property before building the new home.

Fiedler has a full-time job as director of planning and development for the Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council, which helps low-income families become self-sufficient in Trempealeau, Jackson, Buffalo and Eau Claire counties. She joined the agency in 1990.

Gill, who was trained as a mechanical engineer, is a project manager for All Trades Service, a mechanical contractor and construction firm in Winona, Minn.

On Nov. 2-3, more than 200 people visited Tenba Fiber Arts Studio during a self-guided Artists' Studio Tour of four studios in the county. The studios held their second tour with help from the Trempealeau County Tourism Council.

"It got very crowded in here," Fiedler said, smiling about the exposure that the tour gave her business.

Fiedler, who teaches basket-making to more than 100 students a year, began making baskets about eight years ago and began selling them about five years ago.

She took up basket making after injuring her left arm in an automobile accident in 1994. "I needed some way to keep my left arm moving," Fiedler said. "Otherwise, it would have atrophied. Fortunately, I'm right-handed."

Before the accident, she said, "I had tried other arts. I was a mediocre potter, and I tried stained glass." Then she switched to embroidery, which she gave up because of the arm injury.

"I'd always been fascinated by baskets," Fiedler said. So after her accident, she took a basket-making class at a crafts store in Black River Falls, Wis. "I took my first class there, and I've never turned back," she said.

"I've been very lucky," Fiedler said. "I've taken basket-making classes from some of the best teachers in the country." She studies different techniques at conferences around the nation.

Fiedler started teaching others three years ago, after two teachers at a conference told her "It's time to start teaching."

She is known for her use of intense colors and intricate weaving patterns. Fiedler said she draws her inspiration from Japanese, American Indian and American basket makers, and uses such materials as rattan, willow, cattails, bulrush, seagrass, yucca and bamboo. She dyes some of the rattan various colors before using it to make baskets.

"It's very in the moment," Fiedler says of her love for basket making. "My focus becomes going from one spoke to the next spoke" as she creates a basket. "I'm watching a gift, emerge from the earth," where her raw materials originate. "And I feel a tremendous sense of connection with basket makers from throughout history. It's one of the oldest crafts."

On average, Fiedler makes one basket a week. "Occasionally I make three a week," she added.

She sells some of her baskets on consignment through The Fiber Garden in Black River Falls and two art galleries in the Chicago area. This is the first year that she also has sold some at festivals and juried art shows.

Fiedler also sold baskets during the Artists' Studio Tour, which has led to a number of commissioned works. "They pick their colors on the spot," she said.

Tenba means "flying horse" in Japanese and symbolizes Fiedler's love for horses and for jumping horses over fences a sport she gave up after her arm injury.

She was born in Kobe, Japan, but has spent almost her entire life in America.

Her father was in the U.S. Army stationed in Japan and married a Japanese woman. When Fiedler was 8 months old, the family moved from Japan to Ohio for five years while her father attended graduate school. Then the family moved to Madison, where she spent most of her youth.

In 1985, Fiedler met Gill, who was raised on a farm near Waterloo, Iowa. They married in 1986.

While living in Milwaukee, the couple decided to move to a hilly, scenic area where they could raise horses and focused on the' greater La Crosse area. They looked at properties for about a year before buying their farm.

Gill started making wine at home about six years ago as a hobby.

"Basically, it was for me, and it was fun to make," he said. He has taught wine-making classes at the studio for two years he has taught about 65 students this year.

Gill uses apples, cranberries, cherries, grape juice and honey to make a variety of wines and hopes to start selling them next fall at the studio under the Tenba Ridge Winery name. "We'll have a tasting room here, and you'll be able to buy wine here," Gill said.

Two distributors have expressed interest in distributing his wine in the area.

TENBA FIBER ARTS

* WHAT: A basket-making business operated by Kiyoko Fiedler with help from her husband, John Patrick Gill. Fiedler also offers basket-making classes.

* WHERE: The business operates from a studio in the couple's home at N27587 Joe Coulee Road, between Ettrick and Blair, Wis.

* NEW VENTURE: In the studio, Gill offers wine-making classes. He hopes to begin selling his wine there next fall under the Tenba Ridge Winery name.

* HOURS: By appointment.

* MORE INFO: Call the studio at (608) 525-2413.