Local Cloth is committed to helping local farmers, artists, small-scale textile processors and producers grow their businesses and increase awareness of their work. To this end, Local Cloth developed the Professional Member add-on for all Membership levels. In addition to being featured on our website, Local Cloth Professional Members are spotlighted annually in Local Cloth’s newsletter and social media.
The Professional Members below invite you to visit their websites, follow their work and fiber journeys through their social media channels (and share with your friends!), and purchase their products.
Thank you for supporting the Western North Carolina fiber community!
JONIE MARIE DAVIS
Joni Marie Davis is a wool crafter in Asheville, North Carolina. Her starting material is wool fabric from various sources: new, machine- or hand-knit, swatches of her own construction, used mass-produced knitted garments extracted from the clearance bins at Goodwill, and the abandoned projects of frustrated knitters. All are composed of wool fiber, amenable to felting and fulling. Her method is an adaptation of the techniques of the ancient industry of fulling woven wool cloth. Simultaneous heat, water, and agitation transform the original knitted fabrics into much denser, thicker, firmer material. She cuts it into pattern pieces and sews them together into wall hangings and covers for three-dimensional objects and forms such as inflatable balls, miniature yurts, large vases, and original wood and wire sculpture forms.
Camille Duanno has taught Art to High School, Graduate, and private students for over 45 years. She worked in New York City 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 New York City. She studied privately in workshops and design centers throughout her career learning fiber arts, silk painting, Shibori and others. She started her career as a Fashion Illustrator back in the 1970s but when that industry was using photography she went into Textiles. Now retired, Camille teaches private classes in her home studio in Weaverville and classes at Local Cloth and Purple Crayon in Asheville.
Jessica Kaufman is the owner and founder of WAXON Studio, an open textile dyeing studio in the heart of West Asheville. The studio teaches classes year round in real beeswax batik, ice dye, Shibori dyeing, low water immersion classic bottle tie-dyes, and more. Jessica also hosts online courses in these topics, and can customize group lessons. Jessica's studio also offers bulk dyeing services for events, gatherings, organizations and businesses! While she focuses on adult education, older children are welcome in certain classes with their parent/guardians.
Courtney LaCaria is the farmer and fiber artist behind the company, Form & Function Creative. She 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 in the Spring 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. Courtney is grateful and humbled to have been featured in Asheville Made magazine and enjoys teaching weaving workshops at Local Cloth. Courtney’s work is featured at Local Cloth and includes framed weavings, rugged totes, and functional accessories like mug rugs and bookmarks. Courtney also accepts commissions, which can be initiated by reaching out through her website.
Carol has a BA in photography/printmaking and art history from Smith College, and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Her clamped wool and jacquard work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has been published in Surface Design Journal. She has taught at RISD, Appalachian Center for Crafts, and East Tennessee State University, where she received a major research grant for her resist explorations on wool. Currently she is a professional artist and educator, teaching workshops and exhibiting her work. She teach Crafts and Western Tradition at Emory & Henry College, Art History at East Tennessee State University, and Sculpture at Virginia Highlands Community College
Mellie received a BFA with a concentration in ceramics. After the birth of her first son, she took a year long course focusing on natural cloth, dyeing and pattern making at The Fiber Crafts Studio. This steered her toward a line of plant dyed linen clothing using low waste cutting methods.
Mellie finds inspiration in the natural world. She lives with her two boys and husband in Asheville.
Kendal Nicely and Nathan Justice own and operate Woolly Mammals Farmstead, a quaint family operated fiber farm located in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. Their family of five is proud to raise and care for their animals and make their own fiber products from their fleeces. They also enjoy crafting everything fiber related, from spinning and weaving, to felting and dying. Kendal and Nathan raise and breed Suri alpacas, Huacaya alpacas, Angora goats, Nigora goats, Cashmere goats, German angora rabbits, Shetland sheep, and Cormo sheep. They also breed Silkie chickens, Polish chickens, Sebastopol geese, quail, turkeys, Guineafowl, Muscovy ducks and honey bees for hobby. They enjoy having fresh eggs, goat milk and honey available for them and to share with others. They enjoy making honey and goat milk soaps, lotions and lip balms. Their coops, fields, (and their hearts) are filled to the brim with animals and their love for them. The animals are part of the family and are treated as such. They respect their animals' natural instincts and help them thrive in their environment like nature intended. As long as the animals are happy and healthy they know they are doing things right; everything else is a bonus. Kendal and Nathan believe that we are daughters of the dirt and sons of the soil -- that everyone needs to get down in the dirt every once in a while to get back to our roots. Everyone is welcome to lay back and take in the serenity of Woolly Mammals Farmstead with Kendal, Nathan and all of the animals, enjoying their simple, carefree lifestyle (even if just for a little while.)
Martha Owen is a resident artist at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, in spinning, knitting, felt making, dyeing and surface design. Her adventure into spinning and natural dyeing began at the Folk School in 1978. She has been teaching spinning, natural dyeing and knitting design since 1984. (She taught her first class of thirteen with a one-month-old nursling in a wind-up swing as her assistant. That was over 40 years ago!) Since 1980, her extended family has included sheep (currently Corriedalex, Romneyx, and a little Blue Faced Leicester (for good measure) and Shetland) and angora rabbits (French). Also a banjo player and known to tell a story or two, Martha's interest in sheep and wool coupled with music and dance has carried her literally and joyfully around the world. Her children say she is a wool nerd, but her sheep say she is outstanding in her field!
AMY READER | AMY READER ARTIST
Amy Reader is an Asheville-based fiber artist and educator. She works primarily with wool, yarn, felt, and thread. Her work explores tiny moments of joy found in the natural world, translated through her vivid sensory experience as an autistic artist. Amy has been a professional artist since 2018. She was named one of The Rising Tide’s 20 On The Rise in 2019. In 2023, her solo show Beneath the Surface was featured on the Hello, Rose City! Artist Corner on KGW in Portland, OR. The process behind Amy's art was recently captured in "Fiber Art Inspired by the Forest Floor," and will be included in a new fiber art book by Sara Barnes, Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend and Find Meaning through Thread (April 2024). Amy splits her time between creating her artwork, teaching workshops, and creating educational content for her Patreon.
Beth 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. Beth served as the first manager of the Local Cloth Retail Shop, launching the store and Retail Committee. Beth has also served on the Local Cloth Board, teaches workshops and is currently spearheading Local Cloth's first retail booth at the annual Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair on October 18 - 20, 2024. After years in professional sales and service, Beth began her own business, Curly Furr, on Etsy in 2011, and has reached over 21,000 sales. When Beth is not at her home studio you can find her dyeing wool, spinning locks, and felting just about everything at the Local Cloth Studio as one of our Resident Artists. Her work can be found on Etsy and in the Local Cloth Retail Shop.
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. In the beginning, these spirit dolls were just for me, my way of slowing down and creating something that reflected a message I needed to hear. But I quickly found that it wasn't just me who needed these dolls. Their healing message resonated with others. I began selling my spirit dolls to people far and wide; they spoke powerfully to people's hearts. Making spirit dolls and healing dolls is now a part of my work. I love to teach people to make them. The making of a healing doll is a way to go within and create insight. It's a beautiful creative meditation and inner conversation. I teach classes both in-person and online.
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