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Our Instructors |
Brandi Adcock - Fiber Artist
Brandi has been a maker since childhood. In 2019 she completed a mentorship at Lowe Mill Art & Entertainment Center prior to starting the Professional Craft program in 2020. Brandi plans on transferring to James Madison University in the fall of 2023. She began her education in textiles and fiber in 2020 after being diagnosed with Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She believes fiber arts to be healing and relief from human suffering. She enjoys a variety of techniques and believes that exploration, much like making, creates freedom within that is rarely found in any other practice.
Denise Arcuri- Sewer
Retired from medical career. Presently residing in Flat Rock NC. I have been and avid garment sewer since childhood and have taken classes and studied through out adulthood. Since retiring I have extended this passion into pattern making and dying and printing the fabric I love to work with.
Cynthia Anderson -Sewing
I am a sewist/designer that wants to inspire others to be creative and more resourceful with making everyday essential clothing. I have not been sewing for a life time, yet I make nearly everything I wear. Making and doing is what motivates me and brings me the most pleasure. My goal is to help inspire others to make and do for themselves to gain self confidence and a sense of accomplishment through simple clothing they will love to make and wear.
Making and doing is simply who I am. I have always been a designer who craved work in my hands. I feel most like myself when deep in the weeds, lost in my own thoughts with a project before me. I went to art school where I took everything my encouraging father could pay for. My background is in the fine arts, yet I received a BFA in Graphic Design and photography. My interest in art history has fueled my sewing and clothing designing in ways I could have never imagined. I have worked for USDA as a designer, advertising agencies, organized and designed an international trade show for SAS Institute, ran my own dress shop, worked as a production artist for a handmade gift line. I have had the great pleasure of doing creative work for Anthropology off and on for nearly fifteen years. My knowledge of fabrics and fibers can be attributed to the time I spent working for Weachter’s Fine Fabrics here in Asheville. I continue to work at Biltmore Estate to fuel my desire to be transported to another time where my imagination is fueled with all kinds of designing and history. I learned to sew out of frustration in not being able to find the perfect item of clothing I could so easily see in my head. I have not always been a sewist, but it has become my most pleasurable skill and talent.
Julie Bagamary
Daniel Baron - Fiber Artist
Joan Berner - Sewing Joan has pursued many fiber techniques since a young girl of 7. Her underlying passion is anything that can be turned into clothing! Her current work has involved woven shibori and felted cloth with saris. She has taught at HGA's Convergence, placed first and third in their fashion show, and loves a challenge with the Asheville Community Theater. She currently teaches Sewing for Handwovens at Haywood Community College. Martha Brandon - Fiber Artist
Varian Brandon started knitting at eight. A trip to the islands of Great Britain rekindled a love of color and created an interest in the traditions of Fair Isle design and construction. Following that inspiration, she is now designing stranded colorwork patterns for several yarn companies, international magazines, and her own website. Currently living in Saluda, North Carolina, Varian has been teaching stranded colorwork and related knitting techniques at local yarn shops, regional fiber festivals, and for the past fourteen years at the Kanuga Knitting and Quilting Retreat in Hendersonville, North Carolina which she coordinates. Robin Brooks - Fiber Artist
Camille Daunno - Fiber Artist
Paula Entin - Quilter
 Mary Pavis Egbert - Spinning Mary's fiber journey began in 2005 when she and her husband raised a herd of 25 alpaca. Her fiber obsession quickly expanded to wools and silks. A physical therapist since 1995 and a natural born researcher led her on a quest to spin a balanced yarn and developed the Eszee Twist tool and Yarn Planner. Mary owns Camaj Fiber Arts and The Spinning Box. She lives in sunny Florida with her husband, three daughters and 7 grandkids.
Carla has been weaving baskets and making fiber art for over 35 years. She and her husband run a full-time craft studio in the mountains of Western North Carolina. They delight in sharing their passion for Fiber Arts with school children and adults in classes of basketry of all types. Known for her distinctive random weave technique, Carla works with clients and art consultants for large interior custom commissions in corporate and residential settings.Her classes are fun, informative, non-competitive and full of useful historical tips on the rich craft history of these Appalachian Mountains.Member of the Southern Highland craft Guild and Piedmont Craftsmen Guild since 1983. Geri Forkner - Mixed Media
Geri’s mixed media fiber art is defined by life long passions to make one of everything and to save materials from the global scrapheap. She teaches and exhibits fiber arts internationally to both children and adults. As a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, Geri uses her knowledge of the traditional crafts to push their boundaries in new and innovative ways. See more at www.weavingschool.wordpress.com Experience - Weaving and felting instructor John Campbell Folk School, SAFF, Fiber Forum, Appalachian Craft and Culture Fellow Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Pam Granger Gale - Marbling
Along with my husband Brad, we run a farm in the hills of East Tennessee. The farm includes a large herd of alpacas, one very big llama, a fiber mill catering to the local fiber farms and a vineyard. Our business has grown from a herd of 18 alpacas in 2014 to almost 40 today with the main driving force being the love of the animals. They are our life and we enjoy each day with them.
Chad Alice Hagen has two big loves in her life - bookmaking and textiles, especially the resist dyeing of felted and woven wool. She has been exploring resist dyeing and surface design on felt since 1979 and exploring the book structure since the turn of the century! Combining these two interests gave her the tools to begin her exploration of making books featuring textiles, handmade or rescued, as the covers. She received her BA and MS degrees from University of Wisconsin - Madison and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her felt work has been on the covers of Surface Design Journal, Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, and Fiberarts magazines. She has written three books about feltmaking - Weekend Crafter: Feltmaking Fabulous Felt Hats and with Jorie Johnson - Fabulous Felted Scarves (Lark Books). She is currently working on a book about resist dyeing on wool or perhaps about aliens. Chad has been teaching workshops for over 40 years throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand and at her current studio in West Asheville, North Carolina
During Dr. Haas-Haseman’s professional career, she has spoken nationally and internationally to various audiences relating to clinical management, integrative medicine, and numerous healthy life style topics. Upon retirement, Marilyn returned to her passions of weaving and other hobbies. Involved in both NC and AZ weaving guilds, Marilyn has expertise in weaving on triangle looms and has taught this class to young and older adults. Marilyn’s belief is “one doesn’t always have to follow a blueprint or pattern, just follow your creative ideas and intuition and you will have your own masterpiece.” Dr. Haas-Haseman has experience with numerous crafts including weaving both on and off the loom, stain glass, and knitting. Marilyn loves to combine these skills to make wall hangings, clothing to wear, or simply fun things to play with. She loves to recycle items and bring things back to life!
My love of beads began on a business trip to NY in my 20's. I had some free time between appointments and wandered into a bead shop. They had a huge "bargain bin" of miscellaneous glass beads. A random scoop with a large coffee mug was $10, or you could choose only the ones you wanted for $15 a scoop. I went home with about 10 lbs. of carefully-chosen beads that trip, and I have spent 30+ years adding to my collection. I have taken classes over the years with many well-known bead artists, and am most fond of needle-weaving with seed beads. Most of my work is freeform peyote, brick stitch or herringbone stitch; I find working with the small beads meditative. In 2021, I entered my first juried show at the Museum of Beadwork in Portland, Maine. My piece entitled "Petalura" won the grand prize and is currently in the museum's collection.
Eileen Hallman has been spinning, weaving, and dyeing cotton for over 20 years, dyeing primarily with indigo and other natural dyes. She loves weaving white, but dyes fiber before spinning as well as after the cloth has been woven. As the owner of New World Textiles, LLC, she has developed a line of fabrics with some of the yarns treated to accept all classes of dyes without additional chemicals.
Sandy Hartmannsgruber - Weaving and Knitting Sandy studied weaving at Earlham College. Next, she spent a year in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, living with textile makers and their families. She has a masters degree in literacy from Bank Street College of Education and has worked with children since 2009. Sandy moved to Asheville in 2018; she served on the Local Cloth Board from 2019-2021. Sandy can most often be found with a knitting project in hand. She has taught classes to children and adults on various topics such as Dyeing with Plants and Kool-Aid, Puppetry and Storytelling, Beginning Knitting, and Simple Bookmaking. In 2016, Sandy spent three months at Penland School of Crafts exploring textile arts with Rachel Meginnes. Sandy also enjoys weaving, spinning, and natural dyes. Ann Hord - Heatherley - Fiber Artist Ann Hord-Heatherley is a life-long dabbler in all kinds of fiber and textile arts. She discovered dolls as an art form about fifteen years ago, and has been completely enchanted ever since. She sells her work through the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, Weaverville Art Safari, John C Campbell Fall Festival, and The River Gallery in Chattanooga. She is a member of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild and Go Figure Art Guild. Sue Helmken - Weaving and Dyeing
Sue was a juried member of Gallery 209 in Savannah, GA, Fiberworks Gallery and The Potomac Fiberarts Gallery in the Torpedo Factory of Alexandria, VA, and Studio Fiberarts at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA. She has recently rejoined Local Cloth. Her work has been accepted in juried shows throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, most recently at The Blackrock Arts Center, the Creative Crafts Council, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, The Art League of Alexandria, VA, and The Workhouse Center for the Arts. She worked with the staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on the Hyperbolic Crocheted Coral Reef project. She taught weaving and dyeing at Armstrong Atlantic State University and taught workshops for The Blue Ridge Fiber Guild, The Weavers Guild of Greater Baltimore, The Piedmont Fiber Guild, Interweave Press YarnFest and more. She offers a variety of workshops as well as private & small group lessons.
Lorri has been spinning and knitting for over 30 years. Roughly 22 years ago she moved to Mars Hill, NC and acquired her fiber animals. She has Sheep, Angora and Pygora goats and Angora Rabbits. She has been teaching spinning and knitting at yarn shops in Black Mountain, weekend classes at John C. Campbell Folk School, Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival and at her studio for more than 20 years. Lorri is a member of the Spinners, Shepherds and Wannabees spinning group, TKGA, board member of Southeastern animal fiber fair and past board member of SFFA.
Judith Henry is a knitter, weaver and spinner living in Western North Carolina. When not working with fiber, she enjoys hiking, spending time with friends and family, and continuing to learn about her craft. She has been weaving for 10 years, spinning for 20 and knitting for 40! Most of her weaving is focused on techniques and color. She loves weaving towels as a way to explore pattern and color interaction.
Deb Herman - Fiberartist Deb Herman is a career-long educator. She is Professor Emeritus at Concordia University Chicago where she served as Chair of the Art Department, curator, and taught studio courses. She holds a BA degree in education from Concordia University Chicago and an MFA degree in fiber art from Northern Illinois University. While she explores the broad spectrum of fiber arts, her primary art form is hand-dyed textiles which she embellishes with hand-stitching. Nature’s life cycles serve as her inspiration. Deb is a juried member of Southern Highland Craft Guild, member of Surface Design Association and Local Cloth, Inc. Her professional website can be found at www.debhermanart.com.
Heather Hietala - Fiber Artist Heather has lectured and conducted workshops across North America and internationally. Her work is exhibited in galleries and museums and is included in many private and public collections including the Racine Art Museum, WI, Asheville Art Museum, NC, Gregg Museum of Art and Design, Raleigh, NC, Wingate University, Wingate, NC, Agnico Eagle Gold Corporation, Toronto, ON, and the Horn Collection of Contemporary Craft, Little Rock, AK. Her work is available at Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC and Oeno Gallery, Ontario, Canada.
Betty Hilton-Nash has been weaving tapestry for 30 years. She has won awards for her work from the American Tapestry Alliance, Handweavers Guild of America, the Blue Ridge Fiber show and the Australian Tapestry Workshop. She has been a member of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild since 2018. Betty Hilton-Nash started her tapestry career as a contract weaver at Pam Patrie Studios in Portland, Oregon in 1990. Over the years she has studied with leading tapestry artists Archie Brennan, Jean Pierre Larochette and Philip Playe of the Gobelin in Paris.
I have been weaving and dyeing silk yarns professionally for 30 years. In that time I have earned a living, won some awards, and made some friends. It has been a journey of learning from other fiber artists, working in solitude to translate those experiences - making marvelous mistakes! - developing my process, discovering and setting parameters that enable me to work intuitively in a craft that really isn't. I finally accept: I'll never "get it right." It's OK to share. The work is the party. My formal education includes a B.A. in sociology and psychology (Guilford College, 1973), an A.A.S. in professional crafts/fiber (HCC, 1989/90) and a certificate in theology (EFM Program, the University of the South, 2003). I'm a juried member of Southern Highlands Craft Guild (1989), Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc. (1990), and Carolina Designer Craftsmens Guild (2000).
Judi is a spinner, dyer, weaver and fiber-activist who likes yarnbombing and creating with friends in the Asheville, NC area. An economic developer with a love for rural areas and small towns, she created a rural initiative for the US Small Business Administration, consults internationally on community revitalization based on arts, founded and co-ran a fine craft gallery in Tampa’s Ybor City, served as Economic Development Director for Handmade in America, and established Local Cloth, a nonprofit to grow the fiber economy in her region. udi has taught at the John C Campbell Folk School, Haywood Community College, University of North Carolina-Asheville, various fiber guilds and at the Local Cloth studio.
Gregg Johnson - Sweater Design Gregg Johnson had a corporate career in Computers before getting into his right mind. He took a sabbatical year to learn to weave and never went back. He apprenticed with Randall Darwall and then wove for him for 4 years before opening his own textile business. Gregg returned to the Peace Corps after 9/11/2001 working to give business help to a woman's textile cooperative. He did a second tour of service with them because he enjoyed the work, the people and the country so much. Since returning to the US, he has taken the coop president and products to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market five times. Gregg managed the textile studios at Penland School of crafts for 9 years and was registrar there for 2 years. He is now retired and working on his second hundred hand knit adult sweaters since 2010. |
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Born at Biltmore Hospital, which dates me! I left Asheville at age 8 but have returned in my retirement. Married with 1 married daughter here with her family that includes 3 grands and daughter #2 living near Aberdeen, MD with her spouse-equivalent and a draft gelding. 
Robin enjoys spinning, quilting, sewing garments, knitting and crochet. Weaving and natural dyes have also recently entered her creative mind. So many wonderful fiber inspired arts, it’s hard to only have one! Robin is a native of Asheville and lives on a small farm in East Asheville with her husband, Larry. She enjoys her angora and pygora goats, chickens and 4 cats. She also enjoys gardening and growing natural dye plants. She is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, Spinners, Shepherds & Wannabees and serves on the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) Board. 
Camille has taught Art to High School, Graduate and private students for over 45 years. She worked in NYC in Textile Design and has worked for several designers and fabric companies to include, Schumacher, Waverly, Donna Karan, Carole Little, Randolph Duke and more. She studied Art in Italy and New York and worked in design studio for 10 years in NYC. She studied privately in workshops and design centers throughout her career learning fiber arts, silk painting, Shibori and much more. She started her career as a Fashion Illustrator back in the ‘70’s but when that industry was using photography she went into Textiles. Now she teaches in 2 studios, private and group lesions and is happy to now be a member of Local Cloth.
Fiber artist and quilter for many years, have had many art quilts in juried shows, including American Quilters Society. Recent exhibition at NC Arboretum. Multimedia and odd materials are my passion, and my work veers into the strange, on occasion.
Pam Granger Gale is a National Board Certified Elementary art teacher, a profession she has loved for thirty one years. Marbling came into her life in 1988 at a short one time workshop. She taught marbling classes on Hilton Head Island to many tourists and built a loyal following with many returning year after year. She has perfected her technique by attending classes with Ginny Moreland, Anne Murray, Judith Beers and Regina & Dan St. John. 
Sue Helmken is a textile artist with 40 years experience in weaving, dyeing and teaching. Her journey in weaving began at East Carolina University and she has continued learning new techniques by experimenting and by studying with fiber artists such as Madelyn Van der Hoogt, Alice Schlein, Barbara Cooper, Donna Sullivan, Jozef Bajus, Laura Sims, and Holly Brackmann. She also studied at the Penland School of Crafts and the Corcoran College of Art and Design.
| Courtney LaCaria - Farmer & Fiber Artist Courtney is a farmer and fiber artist, and lives with her family on an alpaca farm that focuses on regenerative practices and provides the fleece that she spins into yarn and weaves into fiber art. She is grateful for the opportunity to be part of the entire process from raising their alpaca to shearing them and preparing their fleece. Finding inspiration in nature and stories, Courtney's work reflects her love for art as both product and practice, creating fiber art that embodies the elements of joy, connection and gratitude. Although weaving is her primary passion, she also spins, sews and embroiders. When she is not making art, she is in the kitchen baking or outside getting lost in the woods. You can follow Courtney's adventures on Instagram by clicking this link. |
Judy Levine - Felting, Color
What has fueled my work for the past 20 years is my fascination of how color and texture play together. Uniquely mixing them in each of my pieces gives me great joy. Each piece is further inspired by playing with fibers that shrink against others that do not. I love the magic that occurs in the finishing process when you get to see the results which cannot be seen when creating the piece. In the end it is alchemy: each one a canvas of color and texture with the wools allowing the silks to pucker and drape creating one of a kind works of art.
Jaana Mattson
Jaana Mattson is an award winning artist and instructor specializing in needle felted wool landscapes. She holds an MFA with a focus in fibers from UW-Seattle and has been traveling the country to show her work and teach for 20 years. Her new book "Jaana Mattson's Landscapes in Wool, the Art of Needle Felting" was recently released by Schiffer Publications. In 2020 Jaana moved from Minneapolis, MN to Marshall, NC in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, where she now spends her time with her two dogs in her home studio.
Barbara McGuire - 
Polymer Clay
I've been an artist all my life loving every medium I encounter. It is the act of creating, the discovery of voice that intrigues me to continue. I feel privileged to share what I learn with my colleagues and students.
Barbara has been a professional in the polymer clay medium for over 25 years. She has written instructional books and developed stamps for the art, clay and fiber industry. Her portfolio includes works in polymer, ceramic, metal clay and encaustic.
Sandi Moore
Sandi Moore is a Retired Business Analyst with Pratt and Whitney Aircraft and Small Business Owner. Former Alpaca Farmer. Fashion Fiber Artist with experience producing Fiber to Fashion Shows. Works with all Fiber media and specializing in Alpaca Fiber.
Louise learned to knit and sew at an early age but didn’t find her passion for fiber art until she established Dry Creek Alpacas in 2007. Since then she has added hand-spinning, dyeing, felting, and weaving to her repertoire. In 2010 she co-launched “Only the Finest,” a line of alpaca yarns and fiber preparations that she sells to other fiber enthusiasts at farmers markets, fiber festivals, and select yarn shops. She lives and makes her art in Johnson City, TN. You can find her on Facebook @nuttlefiberart.
Louise is a member of The Knotty Ladies fiber guild, the Overmountain Weavers’ Guild, the Handweavers Guild of American, and the Alpaca Owners Association. She has been a member of Local Cloth since its inception.
Martha is a resident artist at the John C Campbell Folkschool (www.folkschool.org) in spinning/knitting/crochet/felt making/surface design and dyeing. At the school she looks after the studio, finds and invites teachers and does some teaching herself. Her adventure in spinning began at this very school school in 1978. Since then her extended family has included sheep (mostly Corriedale, Shetland, Romney) and Angora rabbits (French). She is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild (www.southernhighlandguild.org), was co owner of Yarn Circle in Murphy, NC, a small retail venue that catered to fiber enthusiasts which closed in 2016. She offered a talk for the WNC Textile Study Group: From Sleeping Beauty to the Industrial Revolution and to her great delight she won recognition at the Project Handmade fashion show for best use of local fibers! She told the sheep! They chewed and said, "Aww, you got to love her, she's trying her best...baaah!"
Nica Rabinowitz - Natural Dyer
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Nica is an artist, designer, and educator working at the intersection of biological design, social justice, farming and textile creation – exploring handcraft from farm to fabric and from soil to soil. She is the Founder and Director of Fiberhouse Collective. Nica's practice is rooted in the restorative properties of natural dyes and locally foraged, found, and farmed materials.
Deborah Robertson - Shoemaking
Deborah Robertson comes from a long line of knitters, weavers, seamstresses and embroiderers. It’s no wonder she took to shoemaking once she found a teacher upon her arrival in Asheville. In her Asheville studio Deborah makes bespoke, custom, handmade shoes and boots using hand-welted, pegged and cemented shoe construction methods. At Footwear Symposium 2018 she earned a “shout out” for her hand-welted Balmoral button boots. Deborah is interested in making custom shoes for folk dancers, as well as historical footwear for the stage and for everyday. Deborah has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from the University of South Carolina. She has also worked as a potter and a fiber artist.
Alyssa Sacora - Paper
Alyssa Sacora is a maker who explores plant based mediums in the form of papermaking, book arts, basketry and natural dyes. By staying in tune with her natural surroundings, she finds inspiration and innovation while connecting with tradition. She brings clear instruction, patience, and creativity into the classroom, while inviting students to develop a relationship with the materials being used.
Alyssa holds classes at her studio, The Patchwork Underground, in Fairview, NC. She has also taught for The Organic Grower's School, Villagers, Gathering of Artisan's conference and other venues in the greater Asheville area
Alyssa Sacora is a maker who explores plant based mediums in the form of papermaking, book arts, basketry and natural dyes. By staying in tune with her natural surroundings, she finds inspiration and innovation while connecting with tradition. She brings clear instruction, patience, and creativity into the classroom, while inviting students to develop a relationship with the materials being used. Alyssa holds classes at her studio, The Patchwork Underground, in Fairview, NC. She has also taught for The Organic Grower's School, Villagers, Gathering of Artisan's conference and other venues in the greater Asheville area |
ElizaBeth Sellers - Felting
Beth Sellars is a self-taught fiber artist focusing on working with wool and natural fibers. Most of her felting pieces are 3-D animal and whimsical figures but she also enjoys felting landscapes, making art batts and spinning art yarns. Using fibers that are hand dyed, each piece utilizes multiple shades of wool, mohair locks, silks and bamboo fibers. "After years in professional sales and service, I began my own business on Etsy in 2011. With over 18,000 sales and 6,200 excellent reviews I take pride in offering great products, quick shipping and personal service that keeps customers coming back time and time again. My husband and I settled in Asheville over four and a half years ago from Greensboro. We have one son and four dogs."
Elizabeth Searle - Fiber Artist
I am a self taught fiber artist, dressmaker, creative sewing instructor and author. I have been exposed to and worked in all of the arts only to find my passion was fiber and art to wear. I have spent years doing custom sewing, teaching classes in basic sewing skills as well as the creative aspect of wearable art. My work has been published in 11 books and I have authored a book on making fabric flowers. My goal now is to share my fiber passion, skill and knowledge with others and especially the next generation of fiber artists.
Krista Skrede
From a young age I always loved to make things and now my passion is to teach others how to create and experiment with different art media. I am also a farmer and have a small farm with my family in Franklin, NC. Other passions are cooking, traveling, and learning new things. have taught art for 25 years to children and adults. I have a B.S. in Art Education and a M.A.T in communication. I have lived and taught in the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Belgium and now North Carolina.
Lisa Smith - Textile Printing
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In addition to working as a textile print and embroidery designer for international companies including Gap, Osh Kosh, Carters, Land of Nod, and Land’s End Kids, Lisa is the founder of POEM CROWN, a company that focuses on printed pillowcases, especially eco-friendly digitally printed fabrics.
@poemcrown
Jamie Sparks - Spinner
Jamie is a spinner, felter, jeweler , massage therapist and herbalist. She got hooked on felting over 15 years ago, when studying and living at the John C Campbell Folk School. Since then Jamie has been found studying, creating and teaching fiber based experiences varying from Earth Skills events, Echoview Fiber Mill, Penland School of Craft, John C Campbell Folk School and any empty horse trough or bath tub she finds. Her passion lies in connecting threads from past times into our western lives, so that we may have more tradition, connection and passion for life. She teaches children and adult programs, wherever there is curiosity in the craft. Find her on Instagram, FaceBook,
Mari Stuart - Spinner, Natural Dyer
Mari Stuart (Ph.D.) is an ecological landscape designer, carbon farm planner and educator living in Asheville. She is project designer at Carbon Harvest, an emerging regional carbon management platform that facilitates the adoption of edible agroforestry practices for farmers and landowners in Southern Appalachia, and connects them with local individuals and businesses who want to invest in climate-friendly farming practices. Mari is also a natural dyer and fiber crafter, and writes about local food, fiber, and homesteading at makegathergrow.com.
Jen Swearington is the founder and chief designer of Jennythreads, a small Asheville-based artisan fashion line, and author and illustrator of "Printing on Fabric," a comprehensive textile design manual.
Throughout her career, she has also actively exhibited her fine art in galleries and exhibitions and taught at Arrowmont, Penland, UNC Asheville, and the Savannah College of Art and Design. She also travels periodically to art residencies in Europe and Latin America to develop new drawings, papercut artworks, and textile designs for Jennythreads products.
Jessica Wilson - Thille
A self-taught macrame artist, Jessica picked up the trade in South America and has been knotting away ever since. For the past 15 years she has dedicated a piece of her life to creating unique macrame jewelry and accessories that inspire and make people ask “how did you do that?!” See her work at www.anthropolocastudio.com
Joyce Tromba - Knitting, Dyeing
After living and teaching around the world for 30 years Joyce is happily settled into life in lovely Western North Carolina. Her travels have exposed her to many fiber traditions and she has always found groups of fiber folks wherever she was to share her making with. Joyce has 20+ years teaching design, sewing, knitting, quilting and bookmaking to High School students and adults. She has studied fiber and book arts at Penland, Arrowmont and the Center for Book Arts in New York City. She dyes and sells plant dyed yarn and eco printed bags at her Etsy shop: FreehandFiber You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook as Freehand Fiber and Book Arts.
Vasanto - Felting
I have been working with wool and color since learning to knit as a child. I use wet-felting techniques for hat-making, bags and wall hangings. I use nuno-felting to make flexible fabrics for scarves and clothing. I also dye my own wools and silks to use in my work.
I have studied with Beth Beede, Chad Hagen, Jean Hicks and others. I have taught in many settings, including the Southeaster Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF). I also teach in my own studio.
Stacy Vajta
I'm Stacy, an intuitive artist, creative healer, and spirit doll maker. I like to make beautiful things full of energy & healing. Things for your spirit. Things that change you. I make all kinds of little spirit dolls. Some out of sticks or clay or fund objects. But mostly out of wool, as needle felting soothes my soul. Making spirit dolls is a way for me to process my thoughts, feelings, and what is happening in the world. They come alive often by surprise as intention and creativity meet. They are representations, or the embodiment of, archetypes, ideas, and parts of our being that we either wish to heal or empower. And, with so much change afoot, there's much to feel and heal.
For more info on Stacy visit:
Peace Weaver choose her “artist” name at age 24 after falling in love with weaving. She started making clothes when she was 3 years old and at 12 made her whole wardrobe. She went on to study Textiles and Clothing Design at Cornell University and many fiber arts. A natural teacher, she loves to share her joy in craft as a timeless meditation. Peace Weaver has worked in or taught a variety of fiber art skills, including knitting, sewing, pattern making, spinning, basket making, batik, tie-dye, beadwork, and embroidery, her favorites are weaving and crochet. Peace also invented the world’s first production tablet weaving technique, and has a current book and exhibit project called: The Psychedelic Twill. Local Cloth is one of the sponsors.
Joanna White - Silk Painter
Joanna is a professionally trained teacher and loves to share her techniques with others. She has taught at the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts, Winston-Salem, NC John C Campbell Folk Art School, Brasstown, NC, Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN with the Silk Painters International Festival and has been a visiting teacher at High Point University, Senior Centers, public libraries, home school groups and Mission Hospital, Asheville, NC with Arts for Life. Joanna, also, mentors individuals in her studio who would like to pursue a career as a fiber artist. Joanna is a self-taught artist who has taken classes from well-know silk artists across the United States and in the UK. Professionally, she is a Juried Guild Member of Piedmont Craftsmen Guild, Winston-Salem, NC; Southern Highlands Craft Guild, Asheville, NC; and Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild in Raleigh, NC. Her work can be purchased at art shows in the Southeast, art galleries and by appointment at the Fiber Visions Studio, near Asheville in Leicester, NC. Joanna has servedon the Board of Directors and 2018 Festival Co-Chair of the Silk Painters International, and a member of Surface Design Association and the American Craft Council.
Melanie Wilder - Weaving, Dyeing
Melanie is a weaver, natural dyer, and fiber artist, that has dedicated the past 20 years to learning and teaching the fiber skills she so loves to people of all ages. Studying Sustainable Agriculture and Weaving in college, she has spent that last 8 years reviving the weaving program at Warren Wilson College, where she supervises the Fiber Arts Crew. She is most interested in how process crosses into our daily living and how these choices can help shape our footprint on the future. She helped set up Local Cloth's Fiber and Dye Studio.