The VFL Contributors Group consists of fiber artists and supporters who have thrown in their ideas, insight and expertise into enriching the fiber arts community here at Valley Fiber Life. This is the spot to learn about them and their work.
Linda Ruel Flynn - fabric dyeing, distressing, painting, marking, and contemporary quilting
Linda brings a lifetime of fiber arts to Valley Fiber Life. She began embroidering in kindergarten. Patterns were forbidden, so her life long love of 'winging it' began. She has been involved in the arts for her entire life; painting, bookmaking, sewing, teaching, administering, and selling.
Linda is now settling into a batch of fiber work that combines painting and quilting with an organic creative process. She is the former Interim Director and Retail Director of the Fiber Arts Center in Amherst, Massachusetts and has served as Art Instructor at Swift River School, in New Salem, Massachusetts.
Online gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/linda.ruelflynn
Blog: http://lindaruelflynn.blogspot.com
Joan Hastings - fiber art collector, enthusiast, weaver
Before moving to the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts in 1990, Joan owned and managed a furniture and craft accessories business in Newton Massachusetts. Her interests in women’s issues and community arts have continued as a Board member of many area organizations including The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, IS-183 art school, the Hilltown Commmunity Development Corporation. She was the President of Fiber Art Center in Amherst for many years and is currently on the Board of Snow Farm, the New England Craft Program in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.
John Hopper-writer, textile expert, art historian
John gained a degree in Constructed Textiles at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Scotland. He has a wide working knowledge of art and craft textiles and is now a full time writer with a great interest in both historical and contemporary textiles. Since 2008 he has been producing The Textile Blog, a daily insight into all aspects of printed, woven and knitted textiles, as well as carpet, rug, tapestry, quilting, embroidery, lace and basketry design. Through the blog he tries to approach textiles by viewing the subject in a broad and culturally diverse manner, including contemporary and historical articles from across the globe. He is also the editor of The Carpet Index, a regular blog that deals with all aspects of carpet and rug design and designers of the twentieth century.
Blogs: http://thetextileblog.blogspot.com/
http://thecarpetindex.blogspot.com
Linda Cortright - Editor/Publisher, Wild Fibers Magazine; spinner, knitter
Linda is the editor and publisher of Wild Fibers Magazine, the only publication that focuses on all aspects of the natural fiber industry from traveling with nomads and their camels in the Gobi Desert to working with veiled weavers in Morocco. She is currently serving on the Steering Committee for the International Year of Natural Fibres – a global initiative sponsored by the United Nations’ FAO Division in Rome, Italy.
Cortright started Wild Fibers in 1994 after spending several years as marketing director for The Island Institute; a non-profit organization dedicated to helping sustain Maine’s islands and remote coastal areas. That experience that led Cortright to understand the importance of preserving both agricultural and artisan traditions, and helping small communities developed sustainable practices. Within the world of natural fibers, the emphasis is usually placed on the garment, or end product with little thought given to the animals, their impact on the environment and the people whose lives depend upon them.
In addition to publishing Wild Fibers and traveling nearly 100,000 miles annually; Cortright enjoys giving lectures about her “wild” travel experiences when she isn’t back on the farm cleaning out the barn or looking for escaped goats. She also enjoys having her own private supply of cashmere that she spins and knits while waiting in airports in some very remote parts of the globe.
Brian Jewett – Basketmaker, artist
Brian Jewett is currently a basketmaker and studio artist working with common objects and recycled materials out of North Adams, MA. While relatively new to the arts and without much formal arts education, he has always been a “maker” in one form or another. He has worked at different times as a screen printer, a photographer, a draftsman, a machinist, toolmaker and mechanical designer.
After a creative dry spell in the late 90’s while working with his wife running a small business, Brian's creative metamorphosis started around the turn of the millennium when a friend talked him into joining an informal welding group. This opened the floodgates and rekindled his interest in creative reuse of common objects and materials. A year or so later a serendipitous discovery of basketry during an Otis School of Design open house brought all these elements together.
When he discovered basket making it became immediately obvious that this was a perfect pathway for exploring alternative material uses. This, coupled with his environmentalist perspective and love of water, form the basis for the majority of his work.
Elaine Lipson – Writer, editor, artist
Elaine Lipson is the Author of The Organic Foods Sourcebook (Contemporary Books, 2001), The International Market for Green and Sustainable Apparel (Packaged Facts, 2008. She is currently a book editor at Interweave.
Yasmin Sabur – Adire, resist dying, block printing and silk screen fabric and quilts.
Like many surface textile designers, I learned to sew, knit and crochet as a child. In a high school art major course I was taught to batik, silk screen and block print.
Before marriage and family, a successful career as a batik artist brought museum and art center exhibits, juried art fairs, owning a boutique, collaborating with interior and fashion designers, selling to major retailers and teaching classes.
Currently in my studio PhotoShop and Illustrator collide with fabric and dye. Slow cloth is layered with technology. Dreaming in patterned colors. Can’t wait for morning to arrive and check the dye pots.
Convergence, culmination, fulfillment, joy, life is exciting and good.
Online shop: http://yasmintoo.1000markets.com
Blog: http://yasmintoo.blogspot.com
Meg Black - paper pulp painting
Meg Black is an experienced painter, having been a practicing artist painting with pulp and handmade paper for over twenty-four years. As one of a handful of painters working in this exciting medium, she is something of a pioneer, internationally recognized by galleries and collectors. Her focus on nature and the environment yields stunning landscapes, seascapes, New England scenes and garden views. Her paintings are acclaimed for their wonderful color, freshness and luminosity.
Meg received a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the State University of New York, a master's degree in studio art from the Massachusetts College of Arts, and a doctorate in educational studies from Lesley College. She has extensive teaching experience at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, including a term as a visiting instructor on artist books and paper and print making at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy. Meg has had many exhibitions in New York and New England. Her original paintings have has been acquisitioned into numerous private and public art collections, including Fidelity Investments National and International, General Foods, and Bain Capital. Her artist books can be found in the collections of the Houghton Library of Harvard University, the Rhode Island School of Design Print Library, the Boston Public Library and the Smith College Library.
As a pioneer artist and recognized painter, Meg has been asked to contribute to several art publications including The Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, and Hand Papermaking Magazine. She has appeared several times on Home and Garden TV. Meg lives with her husband and two children in Topsfield, Massachusetts.
Blog: http://megblackhandmadepaperpaintings.blogspot.com/
Website: www.megblackprints.com.
Virginia Spiegel - mixed media artist
Virginia Spiegel's artwork is known for its evocative use of color and its focus on the beauty of everyday nature as well as the complexity of human nature. She hopes to inspire others to notice and take action against the current devaluation of the natural world. The thirteen trips Spiegel has taken with her sister in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness have greatly influenced the subject and direction of her artwork in recent years.
Website: www.virginiaspiegel.com
Blog: www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/
Tweets: http://twitter.com/vspiegel
Figen Cakir - yarn, knitting, traditional crafts, creative entreprenuer, supporting local crafting women
Born in London, Figen studied interior design at the London University of Arts, and after her marriage in 1993 she moved to Turkey where she still lives with her husband and two children. She was taught by her grandmother to knit, crochet and sew from the age of five and her training in the arts gave her a wider insight into colour, fiber and texture. Being an expat afforded her the opportunity to discover her brand new environment in terms of crafts and textiles. By coupling these discoveries and the need of local women to make a living with her love of knitting she created an online yarn and knitting shop. Besides designing knitting patterns for her enterprise, The Knit Box, she is working on expanding her shop and blog which promotes natural Turkish yarns and accessories such as buttons, bags and knitting needles made using traditional arts and crafts techniques.
Creative Consulting: www.intarsiaconcept.com
Creative Excursions: www.behindthebazaar.com
Owner/Designer: www.theknitbox.com
Blog: www.knitbox.blogspot.com
Pamela (PJ) Kite - knitting, dyeing, spinning, weaving, fiber artist and teacher
Fiber artist who absorbed the basics during an Appalachian childhood spent in the company of life-long practitioners of sewing, quilting, embroidery, knitting, crochet and tatting. Building on this foundation, she has explored spinning, weaving and dyeing over the past two decades, designing and creating hand-woven ecclesiastical paraments on commission that incorporate various elements of fabric design. More recently, her focus has been on creating knitted lace patterns utilizing both handspun and commercial yarns.
A former member of the board of directors of Foothills Craft Guild, Pamela now spends her free time teaching many of the fiber arts she practices in local East Tennessee venues. She is a vocal proponent for designing one's own creations, and incorporates design tools into each of her classes.
Blog: http://fiberlife.blogspot.com
Mary Lawler - quilting, calligraphy, paper arts
Most of my paper quilting utilizes my own painted papers using paste and a variety of pigments. The compositions are abstract and reflect my graphic design background. Collage gives me the ability to layer together complex, rich, images in combination with text. The collage work incorporates images of my family, botanical and historical images, blended with my own poetry and prose. Other works in the Portfolio represent the broad variety of paper, design and calligraphic projects I do on commission.
I am a graduate of New England School of Art and Design, Boston. I designs paper craft projects for the trade, and teach calligraphy and mixed media techniques. My work has been published in Somerset Weddings 3&4, Altered Couture, The Adventurous Scrapbooker and Sew Somerset.
Gallery: www.artid.com/marylawler
Blog: www.artid.com/calligraphy/blog
Sharon McCartney - paintings, collage, fiber art, artist books
With a master's degree in art history from Boston University, McCartney draws from the influences of both Asian and European art with natural themes.
Her collage paintings, fiber pieces and artist books and been exhibited throughout the country, and have been included in corporate, university and other public & private collections. Her work has been featured in Mixed Media Collage and in Altered Books, Collaborative Journals and Other Adventures in Bookmaking, by Holly Harrison (Rockport Publishers); in 500 Handmade Books (Lark Publishers); Collage Journey by Jane Davies (Watson-Guptill); Collage, Assemblage & Altered Art by Diane Maurer- Mathison (Watson-Guptill) among others. Recent articles about her work and studio have also appeared in American Craft, Fiberarts, Surface Design Journal, Somerset Studio, and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. In 1999, McCartney co-founded Boston Book Arts and served as its coordinator for five years. She has also served on the board of The Fiber Arts Center in Amherst, MA, and on the Massachusetts Cultural Council in her town. McCartney teaches workshops in collage, painting and book arts.
Website: www.sharonmccartneyart.com
Annie Foley - knitting
Annie Foley learned how to knit after her first son was born in 2003 and has been obsessed ever since. Inspired by Elizabeth Zimmermann's approach to knitting, Annie empowers her students to think about and understand what they are knitting and gain the skills necessary to adapt and move beyond following a pattern.
With a Master's degree in Consulting Teacher of Reading and a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, Annie has the tools necessary to help students learn and grow in their knitting in a comfortable and positive way. Becoming as obsessed with knitting as Annie is not required but is strongly encouraged! Annie is fearless in her knitting and has explored color work, lace, cables and steeking. Annie has been a knitting instructor at WEBS in Northampton, MA since fall 2008. Teaching knitting classes at is away to incorporate two of Annie's favorite things – teaching and knitting. Now if only she could incorporate chocolate...
Becky Ashenden - spinning, Swedish weaving
Becky studied attended the well known Swedish craft school, Sätergläntan Hemslöjdens Gård (don't make me try to pronounce it!). Twenty + years later, she still maintains the traditional methods and is an expert weaver.
In Becky's words, "My experience in Sweden inspired me to become a professional weaver and for the next thirteen years I earned my living in the United States as a production weaver, selling my wares at national juried shows such as the Crafts at the Castle in Boston and the WBAI Crafts Show in New York. In 1993 I reduced production weaving and began to teach classes out of my weaving studio, Becky's Väv Stuga, in Shelburne, Massachusetts.When I am not teaching, I am working on a series of publishing projects for my own imprint Vävstuga Press, including translating weaving books from Swedish to English and republishing Swedish weaving books that have gone out of print."
Becky is the owner of Vavstuga Swedish Weaving and Folk Art School in Shelburne, Massachusetts.
Susan Conover - spinning, weaving
Susan is a talented fiber artist who connects her spinning, weaving and dye processes to fiber's historical roots. History directly connects to her real passion, reproduction of historical weavings. Having raised sheep for nearly 15 years, she is well versed in the entire fiber process, from animal to finished cloth.
Susan and her husband Ernie Conover have run a successful craft school, Conover Workshops, since 1980. In 1995 Ernie instituted the Conover Workshops Apprenticeship Program for his woodworking classes, and that program has served as a model for our own Vävstuga Apprentice Program.
Susan has partnered with Vävstuga, Swedish Weaving and Folk Art School in Shelburne Massachusetts, and is applying her organizational and business skills as our operations manager. When she's not at Vävstuga, you might catch a glimpse of Susan zooming by on her motorcycle.
Ruth B. McDowell - art quilts
Ruth Graduated fromthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 with a B.S. in Art and Design, Ruth spent several years working as an illustrator, while simultaneously expanding her interests in fibers and nature. She began her quilting career in 1972.
Since that time, she has become a full-time professional quilt artist, with over 500 quilts to her credit. Her wall quilts have been exhibited nationally and internationally in many galleries and museums, as well as in juried, invitational and several solo shows. They are also represented in many public, private and corporate art collections worldwide.
Ruth’s very active career includes teaching design workshops and lecturing about her work throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. She has also written many books.
Website: www.ruthbmcdowell.com