Art teacher Sheri Bulluck of Nashua, left, and Taylor Martineau of Merrimack use a heating tool to shrink Martineau's palm-sized rendering of a shark into a miniature wearable as a pin. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

MERRIMACK – Men are always welcome at A Fiber in the Woods studio in Merrimack, an artsy craftsy community place where classes are most likely taught by studio owner and instructor Sheri Bulluck, a Nashua resident who opened the space in 2021 to expand her more than 25 years as an art educator.

Nevertheless, it was a talented group of eight females from New Hampshire and Massachusetts who joined her there on May 31 for the studio’s monthly Open Studio Day.

“Open Studio Day, always a Sunday, has become a chatty gathering of crafters who are inspired to see all the different creative projects brought from home,” said Bulluck, a longtime member of the Northeast Feltmakers Guild and a fiber arts practitioner since childhood.

The most recent Open Studio Day saw new projects birthed. Other women added to works in progress. Some finished one or another of their beading, leatherwork, jewelry design or needle felting activities.

The class was enamored by a novel activity that entailed felt-tipping colorful designs onto a sheet of frosted Graphix Shrink Film. Its use enables an artist to draw an image on a sheet of plastic film and shrink the design up to 70 percent of its original size by using heat.

Merrimack artist Tammy Martineau uses the heat tool on shrink film to fashion a lampshade for a doll house. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Shrinking without damage comes from using a Nicole Heat Tool — a handheld with a tapered nozzle. The artist directs an airflow of 650 degrees to impel the shrinkage of an image of a plastic sketch of a flower or a dragonfly or … a shark.

A frequent teacher of other specialty classes at the studio is Bulluck’s co-teacher, Cathy Belanger, a Hudson resident. Belanger’s specialty is sharing techniques for making custom greeting cards, projects her students often accessorize with glitter, rhinestones or photos.

Bulluck completed one of her own projects during the May session of Open Studio Day. It was a needle felted Red-Eyed Tree Frog, a winsome and exotic mostly tropical amphibian whose bulging red eyes, blue-striped torso and orange suction-cupped webbed toes beg for artistic replication.

Bulluck said of her motivation, “I don’t know why … I’ve just always liked frogs.”

Students taking classes or working on projects elsewhere find a large variety of felting wool in bright or subdued colors and needle art supplies for sale at A Fiber in the Woods, 301 Daniel Webster Highway.

Catherine Flowers of Tewksbury, Mass., sews by hand the seams on a leather purse she made from scratch at Open Studio Day. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Patrons as young as 8 years old come with adult companions throughout the year for youth programs and summertime art camps. Homeschool sessions, private group lessons, birthday art parties and Friends’ Nights Out are well booked.

“Everyone who comes to Open Studio Day is willing to teach others what they know,” Bulluck added.

“It really is the kind of community I was hoping would happen — ‘in the woods’.”

Free ample parking is available for the studio at 301 Daniel Webster Highway. The entrance is in the rear of Thornton’s Landing stores and offices at the intersection of Daniel Webster Highway and Continental Boulevard.

The studio is open, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays. Private lessons and workshops take place Tuesday from 10 a.m. to Noon. Closed on Friday. Saturday by appointment. Sundays are reserved for Open Studio Day events from 2-5 p.m.

A class in progress at A Fiber in the Woods was a part of the an Open Studio Day that included on May 31 these participants, front row from left, Catherine Flowers of Tewksbury, Mass., Diane Ganong of Groton, Mass., Taylor Martineau and her mother, Tammy Martineau, both of Merrimack, seen here sharing the class with other crafters, back row from left, Laura Vein of Londonderry, Erin McMann of Hudson, Instructor Sheri Bulluck of Nashua, Lynda Hadlock of Manchester and Ingrid Benson of Bedford. Three generations of crafters are represented here by Grandmother Diane Ganong, Daughter Tammy Martineau, and Granddaughter Taylor Martineau. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

More information on A Fiber in the Woods is available via Facebook, email to afiberinthewoods@gmail.com, or by calling 603-566-2461.

Open Studio Day offered studio owner and art teacher Sheri Bulluck an opportunity to finish a needle felted rendering of a Red-Eyed Tree Frog, a work done in wool of tropical colors. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

An intricate mandala of crochet stitches is one of the works of fiber art wrought by art teacher Sheri Bulluck, owner of A Fiber in the Woods within Thornton's Landing, 301 Daniel Webster Highway in Merrimack. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

The nozzle of a Nicole Heat Tool is activated by Erin McMann of Hudson to deliver some shrinkage to her colorful dragonfly design. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

The shrinking of an item up to 70 percent at Open Studio Day is indicated here with a before-and-after display of work by Taylor Martineau of Merrimack. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON