PALMER -- Some fiber artists focus on making the end product: nubbly scarves or a hand-dyed wall hanging full of different textures.
Wasilla spinner Deb Frost prefers an earlier part of the process -- making the yarn itself. She raises her own goats -- Angoras and pygoras, a pygmy Angora breed -- and uses their combed and sheared wool to provide the fine fibers that she spins into yarn. From that work, she produces yarns full of color and character and gets a thrill from making something from start to finish.
"Like a metal artist, you take a bar of bronze and sculpt it into a fantastic piece of art," she said. "You do the same with fleece: You take a raw product and sculpt it into whatever way you want."
This weekend, Frost's art will be on display -- literally. As part of the Second Saturday arts event, she'll be demonstrating spinning techniques at the Pandemonium Bookstore in Wasilla from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday.
Frost will be one of a handful of artists participating and showing off their work in the event, which has developed a loyal and slowly growing following.
Organized by the Valley Arts Alliance, the monthly art event is aimed at getting more people involved in creating art, along with publicizing local artists, said coordinator Carmen Summerfield.
The gatherings, which started about a year and half ago, tend to be informal and hands-on, more of an ad hoc collection of artists doing different things than a regimented tour of galleries with wine-and-cheese plates.
At a May event, for example, longtime Palmer pianist Sally Hitchcock offered classical and jazz selections for two hours at her Palmer home. Potter Dennis McKenzie and his wife, multimedia artist Vickie Cole, have also participated.
"People like to see what people are making and the process behind that. Once people understand how it works, they get a lot more interested in the particular artist and the artwork," Summerfield said.
For artists like Frost who frequently work their creative magic at home, the art event is a chance to let their inner extrovert out.
"It's so fun because you get children and adults both saying, 'How do you do that?' " she said.
Although fiber art is her current passion, Frost, a 59-year-old retired chiropractic therapy assistant, said she's always had an artistic streak. She has dabbled in a few art media, such as painting and drawing. But a few years ago, a close friend who had been trying for years to convince her to take up spinning passed away, leaving Frost her portable spinning wheel. Frost picked up the centuries-old craft and took to it immediately.
She turns her own homemade yarn, and she buys fibers like alpaca to spin into yarn at a fraction of what it would cost to buy such skeins at a store.
"I can make wonderful alpaca and silk and mohair, all these yarns which would probably cost me $30 for a 150-yard skein," she said. "And I enjoy making it, and have an end product that I could use or sell."
Frost said some spinners specialize in creating dainty, spiderlike yarn fit for making lace. Her yarn is more substantial, with an emphasis on texture and color. She's in the middle of a job making soft yarn for an heirloom baby blanket, she said. She also dyes her threads. She recently spun yarn that looked as though it was a ball of flames at a recent "Art on Fire" event in Wasilla.
"I've spun up everything from copper wire blended with homespun yarn to yarn from my Angora and pygora goats, and even spun up yarn from my dogs," she said.
Frost took part in a Second Saturday event last fall and said it was fruitful for her in unexpected ways. She met others who like fiber arts, she said, and was asked by several school groups if she would demonstrate her spinning technique to students.
Teaching others how to spin has become a great side benefit, she said, and she frequently brings small hand-held drop-spindles -- sticks that look similar to a spinning top -- for people to try out spinning on their own.
"They get so excited over making this little tiny bit of yarn," she said. "It's very interactive."
Valley Arts Alliance, the group behind recent art events such as the "Art on Fire" iron casting festival held in Wasilla in June and the yearly "Wearable Art" fashion show in Palmer, has been coordinating Second Saturday events since early 2008.
A few businesses take part regularly, such as Pandemonium and the Dorothy Page Museum in Wasilla, and Madd Matters and Fireside Books in Palmer.
Madd Matters leapt outside the traditional gallery format by asking people to submit their own art under different themes. In May, gallery owners Gregory Gusse and Pam Strahan held a juried show themed "Raven's Call," with prizes for entrants and official judges.
In June, they invited whimsy with a "Shoe Art" show, this time with judging by the public. They received more than a dozen entries, from a duct-tape-wrapped shoe with taped-on plastic legs and head that resembled a giraffe from a 4-year-old artist, to a pair of shoes neatly painted with roses by a woman in her 90s.
Gusse said the gallery spent more on show prizes than it took in, but both events did what he hoped they would by igniting people's creativity.
"Art isn't necessarily something that's old and stodgy. Art is something that's uplifting and enlightening," he said.
Madd Matters jumped on board the Second Saturday events with shows open to the public because "there's just nobody else doing it," Gusse said. The "Shoe Art" show generated buzz -- the shoes on display attracted tourists as well as a parade of teens from the nearby city skate park. Gusse said the gallery is planning another show in October, "Wild Wolves of Alaska," and will be featuring different artists at the gallery during Second Saturday events this summer.
Summerfield said Valley Arts Alliance doesn't own the Second Saturday events. The group is more interested in boosting art participation in the Valley, she said.
"All we do is organize the event. The idea is to bring people together," she said. "Valley Arts Alliance was started to provide a forum for all these different artists to get together and showcase their art and also to help each other grow."
Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call her at 352-6709.
More information
• Find out more about Valley Arts Alliance, sign up for a Second Saturday newsletter or send in an event notice at www.valleyartsalliance.com. The group meets every Thursday at Sophia's Kafe Neo between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to talk about art or learn new tricks. It's informal, Summerfield said. People sometimes bring what they're working on or try out new painting techniques.
By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com