Classes

I have been playing with yarn since I was very young; my Nana taught me to crochet (chains… lots and lots of chains, at first) and my mom taught me to sew. I took my first weaving class at RMSC many, many years ago but didn’t find my way back until 2015. In the interim I spent several years exploring pottery and silversmithing at MAG. As a member of WGR I’ve had the good fortune to meet many talented and friendly fiber folks and to learn a variety of exciting fiber arts. My time as a member of this organization has opened my eyes to unbelievable creativity and has led me to explore numerous ways to play with fiber; weaving (LOTS of weaving) from card/tablet, floor, inkle and rigid heddle looms to kumihimo and dying fiber in various forms. I caught the spinning bug a few years ago (which I said I would never do, as many weavers and knitters say before they pick up their first spindle) and now I just can’t stop! In addition to being an eager WaFAC student, I co-chaired the Monday Evening Meeting for several years, extending the joys of WGR and WaFAC beyond the monthly guild meetings, and also served on the WGR Board of Directors.

Back in the 80s, when I was a student at Clarkson, I expressed a desire to take an underwater basketweaving class instead of Electromagnetic Fields and Waves. I still had to take the Electromagnetics class, but I received a basketweaving kit after graduation. Best gift ever as it kept my hands busy, and my brain engaged. That little flat reed basket was soon joined by countless baskets of different sizes, shapes and materials. However, once I discovered the flexibility of round reed, I was hooked. With over 34 years of weaving experience, I find challenge, and delight with basket design and creation so much so that I have created over 40 patterns.

In 2021, I experimented with acrylic paint pouring and found the “SheleeArt” method. I eventually found a way to combine acrylic paint blooms on slotted bases with round reed basketry. It has been a journey of intense focus, but deeply rewarding. Good things happen when bloom bases and basketry come together.

In 2022, I collaborated with our son to create weaving jigs that hold spokes during the initial setup. We now have 4 different jigs that we have designed, tested and used in basket classes. It has been another way to embed new technology with time-honored weaving techniques for a fresh approach to basket creation. In the last three years, my husband and I have traveled all over the US teaching basketweaving. We have also taught in Yates County and now look forward to teaching new weavers in the Rochester area. The only thing better than working with your passion, is passing that joy forward.

I am a paper maker. I have learned a lot while making paper over the years and enjoy sharing this fun and rewarding craft with others. It has been especially fun to find ways to recycle waste fibers into usable paper. I also weave baskets and have taught basic basket weaving classes intermittently as well. As a homeschool mom for more than 30 years, I had many opportunities to share these skills with others in various settings.

Lynda DeLallo has been a long time member of the Weavers Guild of Rochester and is a new instructor at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center.

I’ve been involved with fiber and textiles all my life, from the first time I played with milkweed silk at age five. Since then I’ve expanded from sewing my own clothing to hand-spinning in my teens, followed by weaving in college and natural dyes when my husband and I began gardening in our first home. There were lots of interruptions along the way — children, work and other interests — but fiber has remained an enduring love and always will.

I’ve been fortunate to study with some truly excellent textile teachers and artists: Don Bujnowski at RIT, Madelyn Van Der Hoogt and Chad Alice Hagen — among many others at EGLFC — and too many others to list here. It’s been a wonderful  journey learning to take a raw fiber and create something lasting and beautiful that also has meaning for people around me. I currently sell my own work and do my best to continue the journey by learning something new every day.

Fiber on!

I lived by the mantra ‘She believed she could, so she did’ before I knew it existed. As young adult, I was very much empowered by the women’s movement of the sixties, and the belief in my own potential has never let me down. I love a challenge and am always eager to try something new.  

My career included many years of working in the field of Human Resources. It was during this time that I realized my love for teaching, meeting people where they were and bringing them to places they didn’t know they could be. Nothing satisfies me more than a student who accomplishes something they didn’t think they could. 

I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t dabbling in the creative arts, and jewelry design has been my focus for over thirty years. Because I was fortunate to work at a local bead store for many years, I am well versed in many jewelry techniques. I see a very colorful world and am inspired by nature, my travel adventures and the people in my life, not necessarily in that order.

Susan has been weaving since 1983. Shortly after moving to Boston, she found a local yarn store that offered weaving classes. Her first class was rigid heddle weaving and she was hooked. She has been a member of Weaver’s Guild of Boston, Potomac Weaver’s Guild, Mystic Weavers Guild and most recently the Weaver’s Guild of Rochester. Her awards include two Best in Division at the New York State Fair (2019, 2023), and Third Place in the Convergence 2022 Fashion Show. She has taken many many many many classes and workshops since that rigid heddle class, but feels most drawn to rep, double weave and deflected double weave..

I took my first textile class many years ago at the RMSC. It was a tatting class. I had no idea what it was, but it sounded interesting. I have been tatting and teaching tatting ever since. About 10 years later, I took my first weaving class at The Fiber Shop with Helen Brown. Around this same time I also decided to try my hand at pottery. For several years I audited ceramic classes through RIT’s continuing education program. I then attended SUNY Geneseo as an adult student, earning a BA with a major in Art Studio, concentrating in textiles. There I was introduced to many fiber art techniques including loom weaving, tapestry, felting, and paper making.

I continue to take classes and workshops in a variety of artistic techniques. I believe it’s important to be open to new learning experiences from many sources. I received two WGR scholarships, one toward a Navajo weaving class on the reservation in Arizona and the other toward an online workshop with Elizabeth Buckley on weaving reflections in tapestry. I am also active in online memberships for paper and book artists.

I love sharing what I’ve learned with others and have taught classes in bookbinding, box making, knotless netting, weaving—triangular loom and tapestry, marbling, suminigashi, papermaking, and tatting.

I began playing with fibers as a child. I learned to crochet from my grandmother and to sew from my mother.  I remember stitching doll clothes together by manually running my mother’s sewing machine.  (I was too short to reach the pedal.) Later, when I entered Nazareth college for Art, I discovered weaving and dyeing and have been at it ever since. Along the way, I have studied with Susan Rowley, Michele Wipplinger, Kathy Hattori, as well as other great weavers and dyers.

I have shown my work here in Rochester, Seattle, Las Vegas, Colorado, and even Italy.  I have taught weaving in Antigua with partners of the Americas.  I recently receive the HGA Certificate Of Excellence in Dyeing.

I enjoy passing on the knowledge I’ve learned to students then watching them take it and make it their own.

After a career of more than 10 years in fine arts and art education, I “discovered” fiber arts while on a sabbatical leave earning my M.S.T. in textiles at RIT. Following graduation, participation in the active and knowledgeable Weavers’ Guild of Rochester and volunteer work for the Handweavers Guild of America gave me different, but equally valuable, perspectives on the craft of handweaving.

I began my professional weaving life on the local craft show circuit, but the joy of teaching continued to beckon. I now meld my drive to create and the irrepressible urge to work with fibers with teaching. I enjoy sharing both my professional knowledge and experience-honed skills and my unique perspectives on the fiber crafts in the classes, workshops and programs I offer. I am one of the “founding members” of the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center, and in addition to a regular schedule of weaving and other textile technique classes there, I present programs and workshops for fiber-related guilds and conferences. I also produce a limited line of handwovens for sale.

I’m not sure how many years I’ve been knitting, but I do have a small piece from kindergarten, so it’s been a long time. My expertise grew over the years, from that little piece to Argyle socks for boyfriends in high school to dropped needles in lecture halls and eventually to baby clothes.

Next came the working-in-yarn-shops years. There were very few shops I didn’t work at in those days: Remember Eager Weavers? Nel Adams and I opened the Village Yarn Shop in 1984 and it’s still going strong. I now teach there, at the Creative Workshop of the Memorial Art Gallery and here at the The Weaving and Fiber Arts Center.

My most interesting adventure was developing and teaching an on-line knitting course for Barnes & Noble. Helping new knitters with their mistakes and problems on-line was challenging, but it was fun to be in contact with knitters from all over the world.

I’ve been privileged to judge the Skein and Garment Competition for the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival and the Monroe County Fair. There certainly are some very talented fiber people in this area! Somewhere along the line I was asked to write down how I did the finishing work on my sweaters. That’s how my little book Finishing Techniques for Handknits was born. I intend to update and expand it to include more techniques and maybe even some original patterns.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge with my students and promoting interest in this wonderful and endlessly challenging craft.

My interest in textiles began with sewing for myself and two little daughters, which culminated in a desire to create the actual fabric. Belonging to a craft group and meeting several weavers encouraged me to take classes in weaving. I was soon enthralled with the process and started to weave scarves and sweater-vests which I sold at the Clothesline Festival for several years.

However, I began to feel isolated weaving alone. I joined the Weavers’ Guild of Rochester, and through them started on a long journey of teaching in various venues. These included stints with the Rochester Presbyterian Home, the Psychogeriatric Unit of the Rochester Psychiatric Center, Rochester Museum and Science Center, and various fiber shops. The teaching has been most rewarding and satisfying and is definitely my niche.

I have taught at regional guilds and national conferences such as MAFA, MidWest, Complex Weavers, and Convergence, but my favorite classes have been at the The Weaving and Fiber Arts Center and the Creative Workshop of the Memorial Art Gallery. Here I have a chance to teach new students and watch their delight as they discover patterns, textures and color in weaving. I’m able to encourage returning weavers to stretch themselves and develop their creativity. Weaving is so open-ended that there is a place for almost everyone in the myriad possibilities it offers.

Recently I have expanded my teaching of textiles to include paper making, felting, and marbling. The exploration of new techniques constantly intrigues me and I try to combine this with my continual fascination with weaving.

I am a life long fiber artist.  I began teaching myself sewing at about age 12 on an old treadle sewing machine by making clothes for myself, my brother and my sisters without patterns.  Sewing eventually grew into quilting and making dolls.  Knitting became a passion of mine from about age 15.  Now my day is not complete unless I knit at least an hour.   My first exposure to weaving was in college where I had the opportunity to work on a large variety of big and small looms.   My love for weaving has been rekindled through the Weavers’ Guild of Rochester where I have been taking classes for many years, found kindred spirits and have advanced my weaving skills with the help of  teachers and friends.  I am also a self taught caner.  There is nothing more special than finding old chairs and bringing them back to life with freshly caned seats and backs.  

I have a life long passion for teaching and sharing my skills with others.  I believe that working with your hands, especially with textiles, is healthy for your mind, body and soul.  I am an interpreter at the Genesee Country Museum where I demonstrate weaving and quilting techniques and sell my finished products at a variety of sales.  

I learned to weave in the early 1970’s in Syracuse City School adult education classes.  That led to a purchase of a 42” loom which arrived in the midst of a raging snow storm.  Once inside, that loom helped me create all sorts of weavings, from yardage for clothing and curtains, Rya rugs, wall hangings, and table linens.  I joined the Syracuse Weavers Guild and have been president of that Guild twice.

Trained in child psychology I taught at Syracuse University, Onondaga Community College, then as a kindergarten teacher in the Syracuse Public schools. I call the time when I was teaching kindergarten and had two school age daughters the dark ages of my hand weaving. However, small band weaving, both inkle and tablet weaving, was portable and easy to pick up and put down.  The best part about tablet weaving was to thread up the cards and attach myself to the dock post at our cottage in the summer.

When I retired the looms came back out of storage and I acquired various others.  I taught a long term weaving class for seniors at a local adult recreation program, a weaving class for elementary children and various workshops, but my main fascination has remained with tablet weaving.  I love how playing with the cards gives you such flexibility in patterning and with simple equipment provides endless variety of weave structures and designs.  Discovering tablet woven calligraphy I “found my voice” in weaving, especially in combining TW calligraphy bands with on-loom weaving.  Using tablet weaving is one of the most satisfactory methods of weaving letters and once learned, the system is quite simple to understand although it takes good concentration.   I look forward to the chance to help others “find their voice.”

I have operated my Anderson Alley Studio since 1989, specializing in weaving and textile art for use in homes and businesses. Creating with a variety of fibers and materials has been the focus of my work.

I earned my B.F.A. in Weaving and Textile Design from RIT in 1988, where I created damask-woven fabrics with Plexiglas forms. I’ve continued to work with materials for three-dimensional play. Weaving and embroidering with wire, using traditional fiber techniques, is an important segment of my work. I enjoy the complex images and the sculptural effects as well as the natural beauty of copper and brass.

I create a variety of hand woven items for sale — commissioned work, craft/art shows, in shops, and through the Oxford Gallery. Some of my work can be seen at Strong Memorial Hospital and the Summit at Brighton. I also teach as a visiting artist in area schools and enjoy working with adults and youth.

Jennifer B. Williams is a band weaver who finds endless joy in her inkle loom, her favorite tool for creative exploration. Inspired by both tradition and innovation, she explores techniques from around the world and adapts them to the inkle loom. She strives to expand the possibilities of inkle weaving through her original project designs. Her mission is to spark curiosity, encourage experimentation, and inspire others to explore band weaving in fresh ways. Passionate about sharing her craft, Jennifer teaches at guilds, conferences, and just about anywhere. She’s even been known to weave on airplanes and in waiting rooms to spark the question, “What are you making?” She is a frequent contributor to Handwoven Magazine’s Easy Weaving with Little Looms, and she shares her projects on Inkledpink.com, and Instagram @inkledpink.

Marcia Weinert (UndeniablyLoopy@gmail.com) has been addicted to turning fluff into stuff ever since sneaking her 9-year-old daughter’s spindle and fiber after their first class together, in 1997!

Marcia is trained as a wool classer, wool handler, and shearer by the American Sheep Industry, and acts as a wool broker and yarn designer for shepherds and hand-dyers. Her award-winning knitwear designs have appeared in print and online. She teaches spinning, knitting, felting, and crochet in outlets across the northeast. Marcia’s aim is to teach using methods that encourage students to reach beyond mere technique into the arena of their own creativity.