The Newsmagazine of Long Beach Island and Southern Ocean County

By Pat Johnson | on December 22, 2021

HANDS ON: Niki Giberson makes a gnome out of wool roving in her Swan Bay Folk Art Center. (Photos by Pat Johnson)

“It’s interesting how God designed sheep,” said Niki Giberson as she demonstrated a relatively new craft called needle felting. “Sheep’s wool fibers have little hooks on them called kertins, so when they are agitated, the hooks grab each other and bind together to make felt.

“You know how when you forget and put a wool sweater in the washer and when it comes out it’s a smaller size? It’s not the water or the heat that causes the fibers to bind closer together, it’s the agitation.”

Giberson said in the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution came to be, haberdashers made felt for bowler and top hats by running the wool through a long line of barbed needles going up and down and agitating the fibers. “Then sometime in the 1980s someone discovered that you could do the same thing with just one needle, and the needle felting craft was born.”

Giberson teaches needle felting, basket weaving and other crafts at her and her husband’s farm, Swan Bay Folk Art Center, in the woods of Port Republic. Swan Bay Art Center rose from the ashes of a devastating house fire.

“We lost everything, and while we waited for the insurance settlement, the whole town got together to help us. We only had a Depression-style bungalow, and the more we thought about rebuilding and the more generous the people were, we decided we need to give back to the community, we need to teach people things we know how to do. So we built the work room and opened up in 1988.”

Niki and Gary have been married 43 years. They met in 1975 at the Olde Village at Smithville, where Gary was the resident decoy carver and Niki worked as the village spinner and weaver.

SPIN CYCLE: Home spun wool by Niki Giberson’s own hands. The Gibersons are committed to teaching traditional craft.

Their mutual love of history and their desire to preserve many of America’s traditional crafts and heritage have been two of the things that have bound them together.

Gary Giberson’s ancestors were Dutch settlers, and Gibersons have owned the property in Port Republic since 1637. Gary was mayor of Port Republic for 36 years; this year Niki takes over as mayor – the first female mayor the town has ever had.

The rural property is big enough to house the Swan Bay Folk Art Center classroom for basketry, a barn/studio with a workshop for quilting and doll making, a carving shop, a fine arts classroom, and a 1931 Model A Ford with a replica of a gas station from the same year. The couple raise their own chickens for eggs, but most important is Niki’s flock of sheep, which are sheared annually for their wool.

Niki spins some of the wool for a homespun texture and color but also hand dyes skeins of wool that have been sent out for factory spinning to create more-uniform strands.

LITTLE LAMBS: Wool on the hoof – Giberson uses the wool from her own sheep to make her crafts and also sells hand-dyed skeins.

Niki’s day starts early. As soon as the cock crows, she’s out the door to feed the animals: the 14 sheep, the 46 chickens, the mini-donkey named Scarlet and two dogs. Then she prepares her husband’s breakfast.

“I feed them first because they yell louder than he does,” she said. Then she gathers the eggs, and if she has a class that day, she spends the morning preparing for it. She’s semi-retired in that she left her job with Atlantic County Social Services where she was an aide to special education students.

“I retired after 16 years on March 17 in 2019, and then everything was closed for the pandemic.”

Now she devotes her time to her family, her animals and teaching at Swan Bay. “I love my life,” she says matter of factly.

She teaches basket classes every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. and Friday mornings at 10 a.m. Most of the 95 different basket types she offers can be completed in one class.

“I make sure they finish because I know human nature,” she said.

Many people take more than one basket-making class, returning often enough to make friends with their classmates.

“I love the people who come here. You know when you sit and make a craft your mind can go anywhere. We solve all our problems. I make sure they are capable of doing the craft; they can just relax and make a piece of their own history to pass on to future generations.”

She teaches seven people at a time and has each one working on a different style of basket. “That way not everyone needs me at the same time. Over the years I’ve found its a good way to teach.”

Niki also teaches basket classes once a month on a Saturday through the Stockton Center on Successful Aging at Swan Bay and also teaches once a month at the Tuckerton Seaport. On Monday nights she teaches needle felting.

WINTER CRAFT: Soft needle-felted figures are fun to make and give (or get) as gifts.

Niki started teaching three-dimensional gnomes, Santas, penguins and other creatures. She also teaches needle felting pictures, preferring to copy the Impressionists, such as Van Gogh or Monet’s water garden.

She starts by making a basic chalk outline on a dark felt base. Then she chooses the colors of cleaned and dyed sheep’s wool called roving. And after laying the roving down, she starts the repetitious up and down punch of the barbed felting needle, binding the colored roving to the base.

After she has completed the picture with all the colors, she starts another process, called wet-felting.

“I take a piece of bubble wrap and lay it on the table. I wet the picture and add dishwashing detergent; then I smack it around and pound it to get the fibers to stick together. And then I rinse it off in the sink and let it dry.”

NEW TAKE: ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh was reinterpreted in needle felting by Giberson.

She has kits for those interested in doing a Monet or Van Gogh but says people can bring their own photo and try that.

“The process lends itself best to Impressionist paintings and folk art designs because you don’t want to get too detailed.” Picture-making with needle felting would take more than one class.

Niki also has items for sale in the center: skeins of dyed yarn from her sheep, knitted wool hats, cute felted creatures and tiny sheep made of their own wool. “Those are our bread and butter pieces; they sell like hotcakes.”

The farm itself is not open for touring since the COVID outbreak. Until COVID, the Gibersons would open the farm over Presidents Day weekend so people could come and hold a newborn lamb and watch them cavort in the pasture. Whether that will be possible this year – watch the website.

The classroom at Swan Bay is large enough to accommodate seven students with room to spare, and masks are recommended.  For information on availability of classes, visit the website sbfac.webs.com for Hands on History or find them on Facebook at Hands on History.

Niki will be teaching a needle felting class at the Tuckerton Seaport in February.

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