MAWS 2016 Conference – Instructor Photos and Bios
Sarah Anderson: Fascinated by all things fiber since childhood, Sarah
Anderson is the author of "The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs". She has
contributed to "The All New Homespun Handknit" book and Spin Off,
Handwoven and Ply magazines. Sarah's enthusiasm for spinning
techniques and constructions has driven her to create an extensive library of
different yarn constructions that she loves to share with other spinners. She
is a regular at Madrona and has taught at SOAR, Fibre East in England,
Golden Gate Fiber Institute, CNCH, NWRSA's Spinner's conference and for
many guilds and shops. She has also filmed a few videos with Interweave
Press including "The Building Blocks of Spinning". Sarah lives, spins, knits
and weaves in the Pacific Northwest with her husband in a small house
FULL of fiber, wheels and spindles.
Carole Baginski: Primitive or Appalachian style baskets are Carole’s
favorite although she weaves baskets of all sorts and styles. She uses
traditional natural walnut-shell stain to give baskets a warm rich earth tone
and accents them with colored reeds and sometimes foraged forest objects
to add interest. These color combinations go well with any décor. Carole
has been weaving baskets for 30+ years and most recently has been
teaching classes in the Kalispell area. Over those many years she has
learned numerous tips and tricks to make basket weaving easy and fun and
she enjoys passing those tips along for the benefit of beginners through
experienced weavers.
Kara Basko: Kara loves helping new or out-of-practice spinners gain
confidence and skill in spinning. A knitter since childhood, she’s been
spinning since 2007 and continues to be thrilled that there’s always more to
learn.
Judith Colvin: Judith’s interest in fiber goes back about 30 years, during
which she raised angora goats, Shetland, Bluefaced Leicester and Gotland
sheep. Of course, all that fiber demanded some attention. After many years
of spinning and a bit of knitting and weaving she discovered that felting is her
passion.
Judith has been fortunate to be able to pursue her interest and has taken
many felting classes from national and international felters. Combined with
her experience in the studio she has made slow but steady progress. Judith
is hopeful that she will be able to continue taking classes as the felting world
seems to have exploded with creativity since she began and she knows there
is much more to learn.
Joan Contraman: Joan has worked in fiber arts since 1970 and holds a BA
in fine arts from the University of California at Davis. Joan has been spinning,
dyeing, weaving, felting and knitting for over 45 years. Joan owns a small
sheep ranch in Montana and delights in raising sheep for hand spinners. She
has been developing domestic spotted sheep for the last fifteen years. She
was honored with the Montana Association of Weavers and Spinners Living
Treasure award in 2012. Joan has owned and operated her spinning fiber
business, Crosspatch Creations for the last 18 years. Her fiber blends are
sold nationwide in over twenty stores and internationally and are seen at
most of the major spinning and weaving conferences in the USA.
Joan loves to teach and talk about her favorite subject - fiber! Joan is
constantly experimenting in all facets of her art. She loves to pass on some
of her best results to students.
Katy Duncan: Katy describes herself as a “Knitter for Life”. She is an
accomplished hand and machine knitter. Katy found her first Circular Sock
Machine at an auction and was soon cranking out socks and mittens. Katy is
truly amazing: she can give you a massage, treat your pet to a deluxe
boarding experience, and groom your dog. She is a long time member and
treasurer of the Great Falls Weavers and Spinners Guild, and serves as
Assistant Superintendent of the Weaving and Wool Department at the
Montana State Fair. And yes, she spins and weaves too!
Vicki Faulkner: As a child Vicki collected abandoned bird nests and studied
the small structures in an effort to discover their ability to withstand wind and
rain. To this day she sets out short thrums and is delighted to discover the
“accent weavers” in a well-feathered nest. Through a MAWS antler basket
class offered a dozen years ago, Vicki learned how to incorporate naturally
harvested treasures into her own basket creations.
In the Zulu culture, one’s bride price is based on the ability to weave an
intricate watertight basket, which is then filled with homemade beer.
Whereas we aren’t promising to share the Zulu secrets of their skilled basket
weaving or their microbrew recipe, we will offer a fun-filled open-air, lake front
workshop with kits and hands-on instructions to make your own Garden Gate
Basket which is designed to hold seasonal decorations, flowers or gatherings
from your latest hike.
Jane Fournier: Jane is a native of New Zealand and grew up spinning wool.
Since moving to the United States over 30 years ago she has enjoyed and
explored the wealth of other fibers available here. She holds the Certificate
of Excellence in Handspinning, with a special study of handspun yarn for
lacemaking, and has written for Spin-Off and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot.
Jane and Nola Fournier, her mother, are co-authors of the book In Sheep's
Clothing: A Handspinner's Guide to Wool.
Jane’s yarns take full advantage of the huge range of color, texture, and
character available to those who create their own yarns. With extensive
experience in a wide range of fabric construction techniques, she focuses on
encouraging spinners to create yarns that are truly useful and will excel in
whatever textile they are destined for.
Cindy Hackenberg: Cindy is a Montana native and grew up in the Flathead
valley. She has been teaching pine needle basketry for over 25 years and is
currently offering a class at Flathead Valley Community College. She has
sold numerous baskets through out the years. She enjoys teaching and is
looking forward to sharing her knowledge with students who love to weave.
Joanne Hall: Joanne is a weaver, teacher and author with a Masters
Degree in Textile Design from the University of Minnesota. After teaching at
the University of Montana and Cal Poly in California, Joanne started the
Elkhorn Mountains Weaving Studio in Montana City, Montana, where she
weaves and teaches weaving classes.
She wrote the books Mexican Tapestry Weaving, Tying up the Countermarch
Loom and Learning to Warp your Loom. Joanne is very knowledgeable
about looms and weaving. She teaches classes for beginners and classes
for different types of weaving, including drawloom weaving. She travels to
teach for conferences, art centers, weaving shops and guilds.
Cathy Marquard: Cathy is a spinner, weaver, dyer, that is proficient in hand
and machine knitting. Cathy has been machine knitting since 1982. She
found her first Circular Sock Machine at the Goodwill in Missoula. She is
president of the Great Falls Weavers and Spinner Guild, and Superintendent
of the Weaving & Wool department at the Montana State Fair. Cathy has
taught classes for NWRSA, and BSFAF. Her hand-cranked socks can be
found at Gallery 16.
Steve McEwan: Steven's interest in spinning wheels began in 2010, when
his mother asked him to make some bobbins for her guild in Great Falls. His
carpentry skills, developed from the family remodeling store, gave him the
background to educate himself on the engineering of spinning wheels. At the
insistence of the spinning guild, he learned how to spin in order to test his
restorations and creations. His education in Art and Behavioral Science has
sparked an interest in the culture and creation of wheels from all over the
world. Steven shares this interest with others by teaching all levels of
spinners about the mechanics of their wheels and their origins.
Steven currently lives on the 9 Mile Creek, in Huson, MT, on a small hobby
ranch with his wife, Deborah. He works full time at his wheels, restoring
antiques and creating his own wheel and accessory designs, which are
customized to the individual spinners' needs and abilities.
Marilyn Moore: Marilyn's first love is basketry. Since 1979, she has taught
her basketry techniques for guilds, conferences, conventions and craft
schools around the country and has written numerous articles and been
featured in many publications. Having lived and worked in Seattle,
Washington for many years, she now resides in Iowa City, IA. Her most
recent work is focused on working with wire in her basketry and basketryrelated jewelry.
Mary Sale: Mary Sale, MFA, has been teaching weaving since the early
1970's. She studied weaving at the International Weaving School in
Glimakra, Sweden.
Presently Mary is the weaving instructor at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo,
Montana.
Annette Swan Schipf: Annette has been weaving since she took a
beginning weaving class in 1980. She fell in love with yarns, drafting and
everything about weaving during that first class. She started teaching
beginning and intermediate weaving classes through the Adult Education
Program in 1989 through 2013 and has enjoyed her students more than she
ever could have imagined!! Annette has had pieces in juried shows
throughout the state and sold her pieces in Montana and in galleries back
east. Annette learns every time she teaches a class. She loves weaving
because the possibilities are endless! New yarns, new equipment
breakthroughs, combined with color, texture and threadings mean there will
never be enough time to weave all the ideas!
Jo Anne Voirin Setzer: Jo Anne graduated from Colorado Women’s
College in 1971 with degrees in Art and Psychology, as well as a teacher’s
certificate. She began weaving in the 1980s and realized a dream of a
studio for teaching weaving in 2000. Working mainly on 4 and 8 shaft looms,
she very much enjoys helping other weavers discover their creative weaving
potential.
Robyn Spady: Robyn learned to weave over 40 years ago and completed
HGA's COE-W in 2004. She is committed to turning the weaving world on to
double-faced fabrics, four-shaft weaves, uncommon weave structures,
narrow warp weaves, and the many forms of passementerie. Robyn is a
well-known instructor and speaker. She is also the editor of the weaving
magazine Heddlecraft.
Tammy Thompson: In her 25 years of designing, Tammy has enjoyed all
types of traditional knitting. Her two favorites are Aran and Fair Isle knitting.
Tammy has extensively researched both the techniques and history of Fair
Isle and Aran knitting. From this research, she has taken the traditional style
and updated the concept of the design.
She enjoys working in the round and steek for almost every sweater she
knits. From her classes she has found, if you give your knitters confidence
they are willing to try anything and succeed. Tammy starts beginners with a
simple hat. After this class, we jump right into color strand knitting. They
learn everything from the unique aspects of putting color together with fiber
and how they relate to each other in different proportions to trapping yarn,
when using both hands to knit. Having a knitting shop for over 18 years has
given her the unique perspective of what yarns work well in many different
types of garments.
Mary Warner: After moving to Montana 20 years ago, Mary really became
immersed in the fiber world. Fencing in a small pasture and obtaining 7
Shetland sheep (as lawn mowers) she started the journey into what would
become a passion and a never-ending source of delight and satisfaction.
Those “lawn mowers” would become a costly expenditure but one that
brought a continual source of learning and education. Shearing, lambing,
spinning, rolag, top, plying, micron count were just a few of the words that
became everyday vocabulary.
As a very young teenager Mary taught herself to knit. It has been a part of
her life ever since. She has designed, written patterns and tested new yarns,
and has taught classes in knitting, crocheting and spinning all as a part of this
wonderful world of fiber. Please join her in this wonderful world.