| The following guilds were awarded a $500
FiberHearts award for their efforts to create new weavers. If you are looking
for new ways to reach newbie weavers, try a few of these clever ideas. Learn
more about the annual awards or the latest
winners.
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005
| 2004 | 2003
FiberHearts 2008
Lake Charlevoix Area Weaving Guild
Handwoven’s Small Guild $500 Award
Located in the picturesque resort town of Charlevoix, Michigan, this newly formed guild of twenty members meets twice a month. The guild nurtures beginning weavers by offering them a series of eight—count them!—eight free weaving lessons! The group is small enough so that newcomers are given special attention. Linda Van Andel remembers when she was a new member, “I would sit quietly and just listen to all the inspiring weaving talk. I was always asked my opinion and included in whatever discussion was taking place.” The guild will use its cash award to help support its free lessons for beginners |
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Lake Charlevoix Area Weaving Guild member Linda Van Andel helping a new weaver, with fellow guild member spinners Karen Oliverius (at left) and Diane Strzelinski spinning in the background. Photo by Julie Hurd. |
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Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild
Handwoven’s Large Guild $500 Award
Formed in Canada in 1949, this guild of nearly ninety members supports and creates new weavers by hosting a mentoring program matching novice and experienced weavers and hosting Fun Days. Anyone can drop in and ask for help with their current project or just show off what they have been doing.
In order to ensure a future generation of weavers, the guild sponsors elementary school weaving courses including Flock to Frock and Weaving by the Numbers. The guild will use their grant money to support their numerous yearly demonstrations that are their primary method of attracting new members. |
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Mary Morrison (at right), a member of the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinning guild, guides a new weaver in the mysteries of putting on a warp. Photo courtesy of Ann Sunahara. |
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Moonspinners Guild of Edgewood, Washington, has an innovative program called C.A.M.E.L. (Creative Approach to Mobile Education Loom). This loom is always warped and members are encouraged to take the loom and finish the project in a week and then pass it on. To help increase the number of looms in circulation, the guild is being awarded a Flip rigid heddle loom from Schacht Spindle Company and an inkle loom from Bountiful. |
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Since 1953, The Rogue Valley Handweavers Guild of Ashland, Oregon, along with its local fiber shop Llamas & Llambs, has kept weaving alive in its community. Budget restrictions in both the local Historical Society and community college ended their ability to support a weaving studio, but the guild teaches on! The guild will use their award of a Louet table loom and fifty minicones of Halcyon Signature Yarn to support their teaching programs. |
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Spiritual Journeys Guild in Concord, North Carolina, is a guild of one, but that will soon change. Reverend Marion L. Rhyne is work‑ ing toward setting up a guild just for young people. To support her efforts, she is awarded a nine-inch Good Wood lap loom, a Journey Loom from Weaving a Life, and a JK Seidel tape loom. |
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Weavers Guild of Springfield hosts many public demonstrations each year. The cloth that is woven at the demonstrations is turned into cards. All those who give weaving a try are given a card to take with them. To help build the guild’s library, Gilmore Looms provided them with a book and DVD of Learning to Weave. |
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The Weavers Guild of Minnesota in Minneapolis has the enviable position of housing its guild in The Textile Center of Minnesota. The Center includes a gallery and gift shop, 300-seat auditorium, classroom space, a textile library, and dye lab. With nearly 500 members, the guild hosts numerous workshops and classes that get dozens of beginners started each year. Members will use the award of a Kessenich table loom and Golding bobbin winder to expand their adult and youth education programs. |
FiberHearts 2007
 Large
Guild Cash Award Winner: Las Arañas Spinners & Weavers Guild
Las Arañas Spinners & Weavers Guild has long formed
strong partnerships to ensure its success. Nearly forty years ago, the guild teamed
up with the New Mexico Wool Growers to create a sheep-to-shawl event at the New
Mexico State Fair. Initially held in a tiny, fenced-off space in the central barn,
the event now requires its own building-within-a-building in the barn. As a result
of this successful event, countless members of the general public have learned
how handwoven cloth is made. Currently the guild has an excellent working relationship
with Village Wools, a natural fibers shop in Albuquerque. There, the guild holds
its workshops and monthly meetings and houses its library. Village Wools gives
guild members discounts on their purchases. The guild has recently introduced
a mentoring program to match new weavers with more experienced weavers. The guild
will use its $500 cash award to sponsor workshops targeted specifically for beginning
weavers.
 Small
Guild Award Winner: Williamsburg Spinners & Weavers Guild
Many weavers were first exposed to weaving through a visit
to Colonial Williamsburg. Taking advantage of the area’s rich historical
heritage, the Williamsburg Spinners & Weavers Guild maintains a very active
program of outreach to the community. The guild supports demonstrations at several
folk festivals and crafts events as well as the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. The
guild enjoys easy access to resources for beginners because many of its members
operate farms or shops that offer workshops, equipment, and supplies. The guild
will use its $500 cash award to develop goodie baskets to supply new weavers with
some of the tools that they need beyond their first loom, such as books, a shuttle
and several bobbins, reed and sleying hooks, and a guild study guide for exploring
weave structures.
Equipment Awards
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Mesa Fiber Arts Guild
Located in the heart of western Colorado in Grand Junction,
the Mesa Fiber Arts Guild has taken full advantage of regional weaving traditions.
In 2000, longtime member Gladys Miller, who has been weaving in the Navajo style
since 1973, organized a trip to a Navajo Trading post. This trip has now become
an annual event. Navajo-style weaving is particularly attractive to beginners
because of its celebrated history and pictorial format. Offering classes in this
technique has helped the guild to gain membership. The guild will put its award
of a six-inch frame loom from Good Wood and a sixteen-inch Mirrix loom to good
use.
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Duluth Fiber Handcrafters Guild
The Duluth Art Institute and the Handcrafters Guild have formed
a mutually rewarding partnership. The guild uses the institute’s fiber studio
for guild activities and keeps the guild library and equipment there. In return,
the guild provides the Institute with instructors for their fiber classes. The
Institute is the perfect venue for exposing the general public to weaving! The
Duluth Guild will proudly house their award of a Kessenich table loom at the Art
Institute.
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Mother Lode Weavers and Spinners Guild
Three years ago the Mother Lode Weavers and Spinners Guild,
based in Sonora, California, faced the challenge of replacing the beginning weaving
classes that the local community college canceled. The award of Gilmore and Montana
table looms will help the guild meet this challenge and keep weaving classes available
in its community. |
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Petawawa & Deep River Weavers Guild
Twelve members strong, this guild got big exposure by securing
a grant from the Ontario Arts Council to involve the public in weaving a tapestry
for the Petawawa Public Library. Over 500 people took part in creating the tapestry.
One of the guild members even wrote a children’s book about the project.
The guild also takes an unusually active role in education and has developed a
two-day basic weaving course for new members. Graduates of the class know how
to wind a warp and dress their looms! The guild will use the award of an eight-shaft
Louet table loom as part of their weaving classes for new members.
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Redwood Empire Handweavers & Spinners
The Redwood Empire Guild has a cooperative relationship with
the prestigious Sebastopol Center for the Arts in Sebastopol, California. The
Arts Center houses nine guild looms. The guild has access to the studio for its
workshops and so doesn’t have to bear the burden of maintaining studio space.
Because the room is used for other art classes, the guild has a natural venue
to advertise its programs and classes. This is a perfect location to put the award
of a Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom to excellent use.
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Selkirk Weavers and Spinners Guild
Housed in the Doukhobor Village Museum in Castlegar, British
Columbia, the Selkirk Guild holds its monthly meetings from September to June.
In the summer months, its meeting space is transformed into a gift shop where
members of the guild sell their work and demonstrate to the public. The guild
will use its award of a Jonathan Seidel Box Loom to show visitors how woven tape
is made.
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Weavers Guild of Pittsburgh
The Weavers Guild of Pittsburgh has held firm to its weaving
roots. A few years ago members debated merging with the local Fiberarts Guild
in which quilting is the dominant craft. The membership decided that they wanted
to keep their focus on weavers and weaving. The guild maintains close relationships
with other area guilds but keeps the needs of weavers its top priority. Twice
a year the guild offers an introductory workshop taught by member Arlene Sakmar.
She has developed beginning weaving classes that use homemade box looms that have
proved to be very popular with beginners aged sixteen to sixty! The Pittsburgh
guild has been awarded a Golding bobbin winder to use with their box looms in
their beginning classes. |
FiberHearts 2006
Large Guild Award Winner: Fairbanks Weavers & Spinners
Guild
The Fairbanks Weavers & Spinners Guild simply does not
know the meaning of the word “no.” In 1991, thirteen new members joined
the guild with the hope of learning to weave. At the time, the guild did not have
a formal education program. Members petitioned the University of Alaska, Fairbanks,
to reinstate the weaving courses that had lapsed due to lack of funding and classroom
space. The Fairbanks Guild made the extraordinary offer of accepting responsibility
for renting studio space and providing an instructor. After the first semester,
the guild realized that these classes alone would not create sufficient revenue
to cover the instructor’s salary, insurance, supplies, and rent. The guild
devised a plan to use the weaving studio during the summer for children’s
classes that would sustain the adult weaving classes during the school year. Over
three hundred adults have taken one of the two university-level weaving classes
sponsored by the guild, and countless children aged six to fifteen have been exposed
to the art of interlacing threads. The guild plans to use the FiberHearts $500
cash award to market the weaving program.
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| Weavers are intent on their work in the Fairbanks Weavers
& Spinners Guild studio. Photograph Courtesy of Fairbanks Weavers &
Spinners Guild. |
Small Guild Award Winner: Bisbee Fiber
Arts Guild
Born of necessity, this newly formed guild has nearly doubled
its membership in the past year. The Bisbee Fiber Arts Guild was an outgrowth
of the Bisbee Fiber Arts Festival, held for the last fourteen years during Spinning
and Weaving Week. Founded by fiber enthusiasts Ana Marie Storr and Joan
Ruane, the mission of this annual event is to educate the public about weaving,
spinning, and other fiber-related arts. After a particularly successful festival
in 2002, a small group of newcomers wanted to learn to weave. The Bisbee Community
YMCA offered the use of its basement and Ruane offered free classes using donated
looms. The program continued to grow, and in 2003 it became apparent that some
sort of organization was needed to maintain it. The guild was then created by
ten founding members. By the winter of 2005, the weaving studio had become the
place to be in Bisbee. The guild is now run by a full board of officers that oversees
the publication of a newsletter, hosts a library, maintains its own meeting space
and education program, sustains the Bisbee Fiber Arts Festival, and has applied
successfully to the State Historic Preservation Heritage Fund to refurbish the
donated space. All of this was achieved in a small rural community ninety miles
southeast of Tucson. The Bisbee Guild will use their $500 cash award to host an
outside instructor. Many of their students and potential students cannot afford
to travel to conferences. Hosting nationally known teachers will provide
additional opportunity to build community awareness of their education program
and inspire this fledgling guild to continue to stretch its wings and grow.
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| Exotic animals such as this Angora goat always draw a crowd
of interested viewer of all ages at the Bisbee Fiber Arts Fair. Photograph
by Meadow Hunt |
Equipment Awards
In 2006, Handwoven welcomed four industry partners
to broaden the reach of the FiberHearts award: Leclerc
Looms, The
Kessenich Loom Company, New
Voyager Trading Company, and Schacht
Spindle Company.
Humboldt Handweavers & Spinners
Rescuing thirteen floor looms from the closure of Humboldt State University’s
textile program, the Humboldt Handweavers & Spinners opened a weaving studio
in The Ink People Center for Arts in Eureka, where the guild meets and sponsors
an education program. They were awarded a handcrafted Kessenich table loom to
promote their education programs outside of the studio.
Northern Colorado Weavers Guild
In the past twelve months, volunteers from the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild
committed over 2,000 hours demonstrating weaving to the public! The guild was
awarded five 24-inch Leclerc Berger rigid heddle looms for demonstrations.
New Voyager Trading
High Plains Spinners and Weavers
This newly formed guild was created as an offshoot of the Northern Colorado Weavers
guild to serve the rural farming communities of northeastern Colorado and westernmost
Nebraska. Among other creative outreach efforts, this small guild of fewer than
thirty people donated a bevy of beautiful wearables to Rocky Mountain PBS’s
on-air fund-raiser, garnering publicity for their small guild. They were awarded
two Kromski rigid heddle looms for their equipment lending program.
Evelyn Franklin Weavers Guild
Maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with the Backus Heritage Village
near Port Rowan, Ontario, this guild volunteers its time to demonstrate in a living-history
setting and maintain a shop in the village where they sell their handwoven textiles.
Over 40,000 visitors visit the village annually. They are awarded two Schacht
inkle looms to use for demonstration in the shop.
FiberHearts 2005
Large Guild Award Winner
Peace Arch Weavers and Spinners Guild
The Peace Arch Weavers and Spinners Guild is housed in the
Hooser Weaving Centre at the Elgin Heritage Park in Surrey, British Columbia,
Canada. The guild has eighty-eight members ranging in age from their late thirties
to late eighties. Located minutes from the U. S. border, twenty-five percent of
guild members live in the United States. Last year the guild spent over 4,000
hours demonstrating weaving and spinning. The guild gets most of its new members
from these public demonstrations. Interested bystanders are asked to leave their
contact information and receive a follow-up phone call from a guild member letting
them know when the next meeting will be held. New members are given a personal
tour of the center and then matched with a mentor to help them get started. The
mentor program emphasizes an informal, easy approach to teaching. Many formal
weaving classes are taught (many by guild members) in the area. Once the student
has mastered the basics, their mentor helps them find the right class to continue
their learning. In 2005, the guild launched a new partnership with the textile
program in nearby Capilano College. Students from the college are invited annually
to give a one-and a-half hour program on their work. The sharing between generations
of weavers is remarkable.They will use their FiberHearts award to create a tapestry
for the new Surrey Museum. It will be woven in public by members of the guild
and the community at large in the lobby of the museum.
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| Ann Dumper weaving a tapestry at the Hooser Weaving Centre.
Photograph courtesy of the Now Newspaper. |
Small Guild Award Winner
Lethbridge Handicraft Guild of Weavers
Established in 1949, the Lethbridge Handicraft Guild is housed
in a studio in the Bowman Arts Centre in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. With a membership
of thirty-six women ranging in age from twenty-five to eighty-six, this small
guild does extraordinary work. They provide the only weaving classes in their
town. As part of the class fee, students are given a membership to the guild.
All guild members have access to the weaving equipment and guild library located
in the art center. This is a valuable perk of membership—a loom and a room!
To attract new members, the guild volunteers time in a wide array of community
events such as the town’s Art Walk and a province-wide event called Science
Alberta, designed to teach children about the interplay of science and the arts.
And if this tiny guild didn’t have enough on its hands, in 2004 it hosted
the annual conference of the Hand Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers of Alberta.The
Lethbridge Guild plans on using their FiberHearts award to create a resource kit
for new instructors that will include teaching guidelines, printed and audio-visual
material, and teaching aids such as dry-erase boards and markers. Members will
use these tools to teach a friend to weave.
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| The Lethbridge Handicraft Guild of Weavers sponsors many
study groups including one on tartans. Displayed here is the City of Lethbridge
tartan that was designed by members of the guild. A tartan sash was presented
to the mayor, and ties and scarves handwoven by guild members are available for
purchase from the city hall. Photograph courtesy of Frances Schultz. |
In 2005, an honorable mention was also awarded. The winning
guild received a bevy of books for their library.
Honorable Mention
Prairie Fibers Weavers and Spinners Guild
You just have to sit up and take notice of a guild that almost doubled their membership
in two years, from forty-four members in 2003 to its current membership of seventy-five.
How did this happen? The Plum Nelly, a weaving shop, opened in their town. The
guild and the shop created a symbiotic relationship. The Plum Nelly is centrally
located to attract many non-weavers and the guild meets in the shop to encourage
their membership to support it. Nice going!
FiberHearts 2004
Large Guild Award Winner
Weavers’ Guild of Rochester
When the Rochester Museum and Science Center shifted its focus in 2001 and ceased
to offer weaving classes, the Weavers’ Guild of Rochester acted swiftly
to ensure that the classes would continue in the community. They immediately arranged
for long-term loan of the museum’s loom, spinning wheels, and related equipment.
They found studio space in a centrally located complex of lofts, artists’
studios, shops, and restaurants, made the necessary business arrangements, and
opened the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center in January 2002.
Class fees are kept affordable. Teachers are paid, but volunteer guild members
do the administrative work. The center is open seven days a week and offers classes
morning, noon, and night. Since May of 2003 they have taught over 425 students
ranging from guild members to home-schooled children. Thirty of the guild’s
course offerings are on shaft loom weaving. Other classes include tapestry, simple
loom techniques, felting, beading, knitting, crocheting, kumihimo, surface design,
dyeing, spinning, wheat weaving, coiling, fabric and finishing for garments, and
basketry.
In the meantime the guild still manages to do all the things that guilds do: demonstrate,
hold open houses, maintain a library and website, publish a newsletter, provide
rental equipment, and host programs. They plan to use their award to organize
a fiber festival in the courtyard of the building complex that houses the center.
The festival will include demonstrations, “make it and take it” opportunities,
and exhibits.
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Students hard at work in Joyce Robard’s weaving
class at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center in Rochester, New York. The Center
is run by the Weavers’ Guild of Rochester. Photograph courtesy of the weaver's
guild of Rochester. |
Small Guild Award Winner
Waterford Weavers Guild
The birth of this guild is a familiar story. Thirty years ago ten weavers in Northern
Virginia founded a guild to share their passion for the craft with the larger
community. Three years ago the guild got the bright idea of establishing a grant
program for teachers to expose children to the fiber arts. Their first grant enabled
nearly 500 elementary students in grades one through five to participate in creating
a tapestry mural depicting a mountain lion, the school’s mascot. The grant
program for teachers is designed to supplement and enhance the curriculum of area
schools so that children can come to appreciate weaving as an interesting and
viable part of their lives. The guild encourages teachers who are creative and
innovative in their use of fiber arts to engage both children and parents in the
craft.
The program generates a lot of publicity and is supplemented
by the guild’s annual fund-raiser at the Waterford Homes Tour and Crafts
Exhibit, a three-day fair that features juried crafts exhibits in which participants
wear period dress and demonstrate their crafts. Volunteering in this event is
a condition of active membership. At the Waterford fair, guild members demonstrate
spinning, natural dyeing, card weaving, tatting, and bobbin lace. Their pre-warped
4-shaft and rigid heddle looms allow fairgoers, especially the children, a chance
to try weaving a part of a larger piece or to take home a bookmark they wove themselves.
Their FiberHearts award will be used to support and expand the grant for the teachers’
program.
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At Mill Run Elementary School in Ashburn, Virginia, teacher
Lynn Padgette’s students stand before a partially completed tapestry. Each
student contributed a tapestry square before the project was passed onto the next
class. The resulting tapestry hangs in the school cafeteria. Photography by
Lynn Padgette |
FiberHearts 2003
Large Guild Award Winner
The Philadelphia Guild of Hand Weavers
The Philadelphia Guild of Hand Weavers boasts 190 members. They cleverly sponsor
a weekend program open to the public called “Walk In and Weave.” For
a nominal fee, anyone can drop by the guild house and weave a scarf on a prewarped
loom. The best part of this outreach effort is that the guild has not stopped
with this first step. They have built a network of opportunities to keep new weavers
weaving. Anyone who expresses an interest in continuing to weave is immediately
signed up for a six-week beginning class. But did the guild stop there? No! These
innovative thinkers also offer a class called “The Next Step.” This
one-day class helps combat the frustration that beginning weavers often experience
after taking their first class, when they find they still can’t quite remember
what goes where. New weavers can wind warps at the guild house or in members’
homes; the guild offers equipment rental (to members), and many experienced members
offer ongoing mentoring services. Once a month the guild conducts a lunch-hour
program called “Design and Discuss” where rank beginners and pros
alike share ideas. The guild is fortunate in having an ideal location. They own
a building in the artsy Manayunk section of Philadelphia and regularly host open
houses on weekends and during community events. They intend to use the FiberHearts
award to offer more “Walk in and Weave” programs.
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Pam Pawl (at right), current president of the Philadelphia
Guild of Hand Weavers, demonstrates weaving at an open house. |
Small Guild Award Winner
Foothill Fibers Guild
Serving the rural areas of Nevada County in California, the Foothill Fibers Guild
recently reached an all-time high of sixty-one members. Established formally in
1980, this guild felt it was important to establish a “fibers” guild
that includes the crafts of weaving, spinning, and knitting. The increased popularity
of knitting has attracted many new members since the mid-1980s, and the guild
takes the opportunity to expose these new or experienced craftspeople to weaving
by regularly offering programs in cardweaving and inkle weaving. Both techniques
are easy to learn and don’t require a large outlay of funds. The guild offers
ongoing support to new weavers with a “Dial-A-Mentor” program that
matches a new weaver with an experienced one to provide encouragement, advice,
and, we suspect, a few laughs. The guild also brings newbies into the fold through
“The Project.” Teams of five to six, combining old and new members,
are each given a pound of wool roving and a year to create a project. This year-long
endeavor keeps new members connected to the guild and the craft, and it offers
both learning opportunities and the satisfaction of completing a project. The
guild also maintains an extensive library, hosts an impressive website, and demonstrates
at many local community events to attract new members.
The guild will use the FiberHearts award to offer a new beginner’s weaving
workshop. In order to sustain the program they will design a community weaving
project that will result in a pile rug. The rug will be auctioned to fund continued
weaving workshops.
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Foothill Fiber Guild members Marjorie McConnell (in blue)
and Sue Habegger (in headband) demonstrate at the Draft Horse Classic in Grass
Valley to attract new members. Photo provided by the Foothill Fiber Guild |
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