Instructors

Barbara Setsu Pickett, an Associate Professor Emerita, in the Art Department at the University of Oregon focuses her research and art on velvetweaving, shibori, natural dyeing, and handsewn books. Among her awards are a Fulbright Research fellowship, a Rockefeller Bellagio residency, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gladys Krieble Delmas fund,…

Brittany began her basket weaving, textile, and fiber arts journey at age ten and has been trekking that road ever since. Brittany is on a mission to make basket weaving and fiber arts accessible and easy to dive into. From weaving baskets in the bathroom next to the bathtub as a teenager, hand cleaning pounds…

Carly Jayne is a rigid heddle weaver with a focus on multi-heddle techniques and complex structures. She holds a Fine Arts degree in fibers and fabrics which focused on using cloth as a fine art medium to tell stories. Her passion is in spinning, surface design (embroidery and dye work), color, local fibers, spinning, and…

Cheri Bywater is a fiber-arts educator, writer, and co-owner of Textile Indie.She helps fiber artists build creative momentum by teaching the “behind-the-scenes” skills that make it easier to share their work with the world—photography, branding, color strategy, and simple business systems. Cheri’s workshops are practical, encouraging, and designed to give makers the tools they need…

Cydne has been an active member of the Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild and 6030 chapter of NwSFA for over 15 years, and has built a unique vending niche with Siren of the Skeins, specializing in exotic fibers and vintage tools from all over the world. She is a former president of ACHG and a trainer…

  Deborah Silver earned a BFA in Fiber from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Her woven creations have been shown in many national and international juried exhibitions, winning several prizes, including the Complex Weavers Award and First Place in “Complexity 2018: Innovations in Weaving”. She has received the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and…

Diane McKinnon is an avid weaver and spinner who especially enjoys seeing her students discover their own potential as they have fun with fibers. Her first loom was a rigid heddle loom that she bought while she was still in high school. Diane went on to study weaving during college. She did additional color, textile,…

Diane Shingledecker is a basketry artisan who lives in Portland, Oregon. She has been weaving baskets for over 15 years. She recently took early retirement from her work in higher education to pursue weaving on a larger scale. She is an active member of Columbia Basin Basketry Guild where she teaches basketry classes combining her…

Elise Webb has spent most of her life in the fiber arts. As a girl she raised goats for 4H, she learned to knit, crochet, weave, and spin, with a focus on the historical. In her adult life she took those skills to work at both a local yarn shop and the Nike fabric library.…

Erica McCurdy is a textile artist, weaver, dyer, spinner, knitter and sewist. Currently, focused on painting and weaving with natural dyes, though that regularly includes spinning and sewing as well. She’s inspired by craftswomen and folk artists who bring aspects of their current living situation into their art or vice versa: art into the mundacity…

  Hannah Watson (b. 1991, South Carolina) is a weaver, dyer, & mixed media artist whose work is driven by deep diving into the psychology of human development and connection to place, rhythm, color, and pattern. As her grandmothers were both textile artists and her parents jointlyran an architectural firm, her childhood was heavily influenced…

I have been using gourds as an art medium since 2005. Originally from Kansas, I developed a passion for vibrant colors and the diverse art techniques that can be applied to gourds. As a former oil painter, woodcarver, and pyrographer, I found that working with gourds perfectly complements my artistic skills. I particularly enjoy coiling,…

  Jennifer B Williams is an avid band weaver. She is passionate about spreading love for the craft and all its wonderful possibilities. Get her talking about inkle and you may need to sit for a while. She has spent many years exploring band weaving techniques practiced around the world and enjoys the challenge of…

John Mullarkey is passionate about teaching tablet weaving and exploring new ways to make the art form more contemporary. Tablet weaving is a primitive weaving style that creates simple weave structures, but offers great variation in possible patterns. John loves to push tablet weaving outside the normal and historical limits to create his own interpretation…

Judilee Fitzhugh is a textile artisan specializing in natural plant dyes and couture sewing. A tour of duty in Japan with the U.S. Navy sparked a lifelong affection for Japanese aesthetics, indigo, and plant fibers. She earned her Certificate in Craft from the Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2002 and taught in the…

As a dedicated 4-H, Girl Scout, and Boy Scout leader, I have developed a teaching style that is patient, hands-on, and focused on building confidence. I specialize in a wide range of fiber arts, including wet and needle felting, crochet, embroidery, and machine sewing. I love helping students of all ages reconnect with heritage skills…

Kathleen has been working with fiber & fabric for over forty years, first as a theatre educator and costume designer and more recently as a fabric designer. She has been dyeing, spinning, and weaving for thirty years. Her passions include Shibori, Ikat and researching the history of the fabric arts. She enjoys making connections between…

With over 40 years experience in weaving and textiles, Kathy is a dedicated fiber artist and popular instructor. The author of You Can Weave, Projects for Young Weavers, she has taught weaving at every level for over 35 years. She loves sharing techniques and inspiration with all students, but particularly with beginners. Kathy excels at…

Kristen is the co-founder and Co-Executive Director of Pacific Northwest Fiber Connect, a chamber of commerce for the natural fiber industry in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. She has been sewing garments and quilts for 25+ years. She is a spinner, a weaver, and is utterly obsessed with regional fiber. She and her husband manage a…

Liz Moncrief is a retiree from the US Forest Service in Colorado and made the move to Washington in 2014. During her career she also maintained a small business of spinning, weaving, dyeing and loom rehabilitation. She’s exhibited several woven art pieces in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and now Washington galleries. She’s given workshops and retreats…

Mary Lane is an artist and art historian. She started weaving tapestry in 1976 and in 1982 became a founding member of the Scheuer Tapestry Studio in New York City, where, in addition to weaving for the studio, she ran the apprenticeship program. Mary’s tapestries have been published and exhibited internationally and have been collected…

  Penny is a weaver, spinner, teacher, historian, manager, learner, creator and general lover of all things fiber. With past careers as an engineer, a mom, a museum professional, combined with her hobby as a historical reenactor, her worlds interweave in the creation of textiles and the study of historic textile tools. She teaches weaving…

Rebecca Smith explores ways to make light an element of her woven art. Rebecca’s weaving career began in Massachusetts, but she has lived and worked in her home studio in San Diego since 1996. Her work has been included in juried exhibitions throughout the U.S. She is a juried member of California Fibers, a group…

Renee’s foundation in fashion design began in childhood, when her grandmother first taught her to sew. She immediately fell in love with the craft and, then alongside her mother, an artist, created many one-of-a-kind pieces to wear. She is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), and her professional experience includes…

Rio is a Portland native working with the earth to garner color through rust, plants, and found objects. For the last 20 years she has been exhibiting and developing work that is sculptural, and textile based. Her processes and techniques are in alignment with traditional practices from Japanese, Indian and Native American ancestry as well…

  Rosalie Neilson uses color and geometric design in her weaving and kumihimo braiding. As a designer and teacher, she publishes regularly in weaving and braiding journals and maintains an active teaching schedule throughout the United States, Canada, and England. Her published works include “The Thirty-Seven Interlacements of Hira Kara Gumi,” “The Twenty-Four Interlacements of…

Ruby Leslie is a full-time weaver and studio artist in Vermont, designing handwovens as Ruby Charuby Weavings. Using off the shelf commercial yarn, she has developed design techniques for creating stunning textiles that appear custom-dyed or hand-painted. Her deep-rooted enthusiasm for sampling, experimenting and designing swatches for Handwoven magazine’s ‘Color Forecast’ series, led to the…

Shannon Welsh brings decades of experience in the textile industry, specializing in sustainable fiber systems – from flax for linen to wool – connecting farmers, manufacturers, and designers to strengthen local, regenerative textile economies. She has helped lead the revival of Oregon’s linen industry as Co-Founder and Head of Operations at Coast Fibers, Co-Founder of…

I wove my first basket in the third grade and loved it but waited 50 before I actually started weaving. in the past 20 years I have taken and taught many classes and love teaching as much as weaving. Workshops:Small Sally-type Twined Bag (2 Day) Seminars:None Website: None

  Susannah Day is an enthusiastic weaver who enjoys a challenge. She weaves everything from plain weave on the rigid heddle, 12 shaft designs on her big loom, and dabbles with drawlooms and dobbys. Susannah has been teaching weaving since 2019 at the Eugene Textile Center where she works on most days. Workshops:Getting Started with…