The ANWG Education Committee is pleased to announce an exciting and diverse lineup of workshop and seminar leaders covering a wide range of fiber-related topics. While weaving is foremost, spinning, dyeing, felting, basketry and other fiber-related topics will also be included.  In September, a full list of workshop and seminar leaders will be announced on the website’s Education section, but to give you another preview, we are introducing four of them here.  –  Ginger Kaldenbach, Judith Rees – Education Co-Chairs

Judilee Fitzhugh is a textile artisan who specializes in natural plant dyes and couture sewing. Her finely crafted work combines natural objects with vintage fabric remnants, hand weaving, and surface design to portray a single moment in history.  A tour of duty in Japan with the U.S. Navy led to a profound Japanese influence on her work and her lifelong affection for indigo and plant fibers.  She gained her Certificate in Craft at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2002 and taught in the BFA and Studio School programs until the school’s closure in 2019.  She now teaches workshops at Oakshadow Studio in Molalla, Oregon.

In her workshop Poetic Thrift, you will learn the meditative art of hand sewing, or “slow stitching”, which gives you a chance to relax and enjoy the rhythmic dance of needle and thread.  So here’s an opportunity to enjoy all those precious fabric scraps you’ve been saving or use some of Judilee’s vintage stash by making a useful and beautiful drawstring bag.

Margaret Coe was born and raised in Bradford, Yorkshire, the center of the English worsted wool industry for 100s of years, Margaret doesn’t recall a time when weaving wasn’t part of her life. Her mother was a “burler and mender”, and Margaret, herself, worked in a mill as an office worker for a brief time.  In the United States, with no mills in sight, she became a managerial accountant—a fortuitous event because it introduced her to computers in the early 1970s. When PCs arrived, she immediately started exploring their use in handweaving.

In the late 1980’s Margaret presented the first class on computers at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. Later she studied graphic and digital design, including an independent study in integrating Adobe® Photoshop® with weave

design. Her explorations have resulted in 4 books:  Fit 2 be Tied; Designing 4 the Future; 2 be Tied or Not 2 be Tied; and 4-8 . . . Weave! More recently Margaret has launched online courses focusing on teaching weavers how to create their own designs. Her weaving and technology worlds united!

Bring your laptop computer and learn new methods to create exciting designs in 4-8 . . Weave! or the magic of combining weave structures in Parallel Paradox-The Corris Effect

Melissa Weaver Dunning, who lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, is an avid tartan & linen weaver, a skilled spinner and a compulsive knitter.  She is a traditional hand-weaver working on antique equipment to produce 18th and 19th century style textiles and has had the great good fortune to study with Scottish master weaver and singer Norman Kennedy since 1980.  Melissa is a singer of traditional ballads specializing in the music of Ireland, England and Scotland; her powerful and clear unaccompanied singing brings the old story songs to life and weaves vibrant pictures of life

in another age.   She is dedicated to carrying on some of the wealth of tradition gleaned from this apprenticeship both in weaving and in music.  She loves to share the history and context of traditional textile arts and pass on the efficient techniques of time-honored skills.

Won’t you take this special opportunity to come and join her in a workshop on Acadian Weaving, highlighting fabrics and techniques for a handwoven dowery from the early French settlers in maritime Canada that were carried along to Cajun Louisiana; or Shaker Linens, highlighting the various weave structures and fibers that the Shakers, early settlers in New England, preferred for towels?

Jane Stafford started weaving at 21, purchasing a new Fanny loom with the help of a chattel mortgage on her 1976 Chevette. Before two years had passed, Jane was accepted as an ambitious – though possibly under-qualified – student at the Banff School of Fine Arts. In another two years Jane was a teaching assistant at the Banff Centre; after a few more she was an instructor there. In the years that followed Jane has had the great fortune of earning a livelihood based on what she loves most—weaving and sharing her passion for excellence in cloth.

In earlier years, Jane was a production weaver and sought-after workshop instructor, introducing countless weavers to the possibilities of colour and design in cloth, while at the same time consulting closely in the design of the Louet Jane Loom and helping thousands of weavers learn to use Louet looms on instructional DVDs.

For many years Jane taught exclusively in her studio on beautiful Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Weavers came from all over the continent to attend JST’s famous weaving retreats, which contributed to Jane being named Teacher of the Year by Handwoven magazine in 2014.  In 2016 Jane created the Jane Stafford School of Weaving, formerly known as JST Online Guild, a stream-able weaving resource viewed by thousands of weavers around the world; allowing anyone, anywhere access to Jane’s workshops from the comfort of their own home.

Jane is one of 5 virtual seminars offered during the Fiber Connections Conference.  She will be presenting a 1.5 hour Zoom lecture on the Weavers of Sabahar Ethiopia, followed by a Meet-Up for School of Weaving/Online Guild members everywhere.  Come and visit with Jane, ask questions, and meet other weavers emersed in Jane’s School of Weaving.

Stay updated ~~ The Weaving Guilds of Oregon steering committee is very busy planning for the upcoming Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds Conference at the Riverhouse Hotel and Convention Center in Bend, Oregon June 11-18, 2023. Please continue to visit our website for information and conference updates. If you would like to receive information delivered to your inbox, please subscribe to the conference blog.