Classes & Workshops
Our Instructors
Heather Allen-Swarttouw
Heather Allen-Swarttouw is a studio artist, writer and educator living in Asheville. She received her BFA in painting and sculpture from the University of New Hampshire and her MFA in textiles from the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth. She has exhibited and taught throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Nepal, Thailand and Singapore. She has published numerous articles and reviews on textiles artists, creativity and journaling. Creating a personal reference library of creative journals has given her insights and propelled her in her current creative explorations.
» Artist's Web site: "Architectural Textiles" (Southern Highland Craft Guild Member Page)
Sara Beth Black
Sara Beth Black's grandmother taught her to hook. Together they spent many hours finding clothing, taking the garments apart and washing and cutting them into strips. She started to hook “for real” when her son was born 17 years ago. While taking care of her son, she learned to appreciate that hooking allowed her the enjoyment of not having to worry about losing count or dropping stitches. “Hooking has become my passion,” Sara says, and she shares that passion by creating her own patterns and teaching the art of rug hooking to others.
Norma Bradley
Norma is a multi-media quilt artist and Director of Art Education for HandMade In America. She creates fiber quilts and quilt-inspired gardens and has been a visiting and teaching artist for over 25 years, integrating the “art quilt” into school curriculum. Her goal is “always to inspire personal creativity while keeping the spirit of the quilt.” Norma is the creator of the internationally recognized Earth Quilt Project featured on HGTV's “Simply Quilts.” Her vibrant fiber quilts, informed by a background in painting, sculpture and art history, have been exhibited in galleries and museums and are in personal collections.
» Artist's Web site: Norma Bradley Earth Quilts
Eric & Janet Chavez
Eric Chavez Santiago, a 4th generation weaver, was born in Teotitlán del Valle, a Zapotec community about 20 miles outside of Oaxaca. He learned to weave from his parents and grandfather when he was eight years old and wove his first rug at age 12. When he discovered that his father used synthetic dyes (as do 90% of the village weavers today), Eric started to research the natural dyeing techniques used by weavers over a century ago. He studied chemistry, talked with older weavers, and experimented with plants and insects using different minerals and mordants to replicate the ancient methods. Eric's vision is “to help people understand our legacy, teach the natural dyeing process, inspire young people in our village, and preserve the traditions for the coming generations of weavers.”
Janet Chavez Santiago, Eric's sister, is a student at University Regional del Sureste in Oaxaca and has been a weaver since the age of 15. Janet has been collaborate-teaching lectures, weaving and natural dyeing workshops since 2007 in the US.
Margaret Couch Cogswell
Margaret Couch Cogswell is currently a Resident Artist at Penland School of Crafts. She creates mixed-media artist books while also indulging her passion for making and sending mailable art. After receiving her BA from Rhodes College in 1981 she has continued her education at Rhode Island School of Design, Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Book Works.
Martine House
French artist Martine House has worked with fabrics and threads her whole life and has developed her own style using techniques such as embroidery, quilting, beading and mixed media to achieve unique textures. A strong emotional or spiritual message is embedded in her often three-dimensional pieces. Martine started teaching in the late 1980s, mostly in the USA and France, and has published articles in various magazines. She is also the author of three “how-to” quilting books published in France. Her work is included in a number of books by other artists.
» Artist's Web site: Martine House
Lisa Klakulak
Lisa Klakulak's creativity was nurtured at a young age by her mother's interest in art, good public-school art programs in the suburbs of Detroit, and classes at the local art association. With this experience and exploration in fabric dyeing, sewing, and off-loom bead weaving, Lisa began her BFA studies in 1993 at the University of Colorado and graduated in 1997 from Colorado State with a BFA in Fiber Arts. From 2002–2005 Lisa was an Artist-in-Residence at The Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, Tennessee. There she taught workshops and served middle Tennessee public schools in ACC Outreach Programs. Lisa also completed post-baccalaureate studies at Tennessee Technological University, acquiring a K-12 Visual Arts certification.
Currently a studio artist, Lisa creates and exhibits wearable textiles, accessories and non-functional sculpture. She also teaches adult workshops throughout the United States and and seeks to work with children to integrate fiber art into the Visual Arts curriculum and raise their cultural awareness and appreciation through sharing her international travel experiences.
» Artist's Web site: Strong Felt
Meg Manderson
Meg Manderson is a fiber artist who uses a combination of hand-painted and hand-dyed fabrics and applique to create cloth landscapes. Born in Yonkers, New York, she now lives in the beautiful mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Meg is a member of the Asheville Area Arts Council Artist's Roundtable, the Asheville Quilt Guild and the Surface Design Association, and is co-founder of the WNC Fiber Arts Alliance.
Caroline Manheimer
During the 1960s Caroline Manheimer made tie-dyed curtains. In the seventies she taught tie-dye and batik at the Danish evening school and in her garage when she lived in San Diego. She continued to dye fabric and take art classes in the midst of a library career and raising a family. After workshops with Nancy Crow in 1995 and Joy Boutrop in 1997, Caroline started making quilts and dyeing cloth using increasingly complex surface design techniques. In 1999 she was juried into the Southern Highland Craft Guild and the following year into the Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc. Since 2005 she has been pursuing a graduate degree in fiber art at East Tennesse State University.
» Artist's Web site: Caroline Manheimer
Trish Marshall
Trish Marshall discovered her love of fabric while learning surface design techniques in one of her classes in the fashion program at Chamberlayne Jr. College in Boston. Though she didn’t finish the program, her passion for making, and remaking things, and working with fabric creatively and intuitively has remained. In 2004 she opened her shop Rags Reborn Eco Chic Boutique, which celebrates creative reuse in art, fashion, and life-style. She delights in thinking outside the box and inspires students to do the same.
» Artist's Web site: Rags Reborn Eco Chic Boutique
Nathalie Mornu
Nathalie Mornu’s first sewing project, a purse assigned in a 7th-grade home economics class, languished unfinished in a closet for years, but as an adult she’s become much better at completing her stitchery. An editor at Lark Books, Nathalie is the author of A Is for Apron and Cutting-Edge Decoupage, and co-author of Survival Sewing. She has designed (and finished!) many, many projects featured in Lark books, including beaded jewelry, gingerbread houses, and a wide assortment of sewn items, among them pillows, curtains, embellished garments, potholders, purses and, yes, aprons. She’s currently messing around with embroidery and simple leatherwork.
Valerie Shrader
Valerie Shrader made her first pair of pink culottes at age 11 and has loved fabric ever since. She recently celebrated her mid-life crisis by purchasing three sewing machines in one year. Varlerie is a senior editor at Lark Books in Asheville, specializing in textile and needle arts books, and has authored many books on sewing, including Fun & Fabulous Pillows to Sew.
Liz Spear
Liz Spear has been working with her hands full-time since 1978 and in western North Carolina since 1992. She is primarily a weaver of cloth and a maker of fine garments and accessories. Liz feels that teaching and demonstrating for North Carolina craft schools and organizations is an important part of her continuing to master her craft.
Janet Taylor
Janet Taylor has been a recognized artist, speaker and educator for nearly four decades. Janet holds a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA from Syracuse University's School of Art. She has taught at Philadelphia's Moore College of Art, Kent State University and the School of Art of Arizona State University. Janet's work has been featured in almost 30 exhibitions from 1970 to 1995. Her tapestries and other fiber arts have appeared in numerous publications including American Craft Magazine, Phoenix Home and Garden, and Laurel of Asheville.
In 1990 Janet opened her own studio and currently is producing pieced wall hangings and silk scarves. She recently completed her eighth year as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Penland School of Crafts, where for over 30 years she has been a guest artist and instructor. Janet also served on the Standards Committee for the Southern Highland Craft Guild in Asheville. She now resides in Spruce Pine.
» Artist's Web site: Janet Taylor Studio
Barbara Zaretsky
Barbara Zaretsky is a fiber artist and the director of Cloth Fiber Workshop. Originally from the Chicago area, she studied textile design at Northern Illinois University and the Art Institute of Chicago, and Art History at the University of Illinois. In 2001 she moved to Asheville, became a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and continued her education at Penland School of Crafts. Barbara has operated BZDesign, a textile design and manufacturing company, for over 20 years. In her line of home furnishings and wearable accessories she incorporates organic and sustainable materials.
» Artist's Web site: BZDesign