In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: Study Groups & Show and Tell

We'll have exhibits from our study groups so members can gain familiarity and see if they want to join any of the specialized groups that meet monthly. We invite you to bring items you have made for a super show and tell called "look what I made this summer!" There will also be a table where you can show off anything you've made at, or the result of, a Guild workshop. Bring your work to share and make sure to include a tag stating where you learned the techniques.

Evening Meeting Presentation:  
Bringing the Saga Era to the Modern Era: Understanding the Njál Saga Tapestry

Claudia Pétursson is on tour with the Ferðarefill (Traveling Tapestry) of the Njálurefill Icelandic Saga Tapestry project - an Icelandic community embroidered tapestry that is believed to be the longest (90 meters!) continuous all hand-stitched embroidery on Earth. The tapestry, completed in 2020, was a community-driven project, designed as a way for locals and visitors alike to engage with one of Iceland’s most important cultural texts. The project started in 2013, while the tapestry was being made, visitors were able to participate in the creation of the tapestry by stitching parts of the design, which follows a timeline of major events from the saga. Each section is carefully embroidered to depict key moments, from the peaceful beginnings of the characters’ lives to the eventual violence and destruction, culminating in the burning of Njáll and his family in their home.

Also at September Meetings
In-Person HGB Fiber Art Show & Sale Assistance
Standards Review – Sale Tech – When To Work – Publicity

Claudia Pétursson
Njálurefill Icelandic Saga Tapestry, North American Representative

ClaudiaI has the wonderful task of bringing awareness about a monumental Icelandic embroidery project to North America. In order to do this, the community embroidered a smaller, Ferðarefill (Traveling Tapestry) that is only 5 meters long. Her My husband, Ingvar, and she will be taking this tapestry on tour around the US and Canada in the Summer and Fall of 2025. They have received a lot of great invitations to show the tapestry at the SASS Conference in Minneapolis, The Markerville Historical Society, August the Deuce in Mountain, ND, The Historical Society of Clay County, Islendingadagurinn, The New Iceland Museum, and many others.

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In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: The Perfect Red: Insects to Dye For

This talk will focus on the use of insects, notably cochineal, lac and kermes, as natural dyes. Deane will introduce these fascinating insects and talk about the historical and current uses of these insects as dyes. Examples of the diversity of colors obtained and some of the methods that can be used will be demonstrated.

Evening Meeting Presentation: Fungi to Dye For: A Rainbow of Colors from Lichens and Mushrooms

Lichens have been used as dyes for millennia; while the use of mushrooms is much more recent. Mushrooms and lichens can produce a rainbow of colors and this talk will focus on the historical and current use of these organisms for natural dyeing. It will include information on the history and methods for dyeing with mushrooms and lichens (and some of the methodological quirks) and will be a useful introduction to the workshop, but is not a requirement. Examples of the rainbow of possible colors will be shown.

Also at October Meetings
In-Person HGB Fiber Art Show & Sale Assistance
Standards Review – Sale Tech – When To Work – Publicity

Deane Bowers
Natural Dyer

Deane Bowers is an avid natural dyer, spinner and weaver and a member of the guild study group on natural dyes. As an entomologist, she began her dyeing adventures with insects, using cochineal and lac, to make wonderful reds, oranges, and purples, and everything in between. She also enjoys grinding up plants for dyeing. More recently, she has explored the vast world of fungi as natural dyes, using both mushrooms and lichens, to make a rainbow of colors. She has used her knowledge of natural dyes to develop class laboratory exercises, lectures and workshops and loves to share her enthusiasm and knowledge with others!

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Dyeing with lichens and mushrooms with Deane Bowers

Discover the fascinating world of natural dyes and learn about Colorado lichens and mushrooms.

This workshop will introduce you to the rainbow of colors possible when dyeing with mushrooms and lichens. It will introduce you to some of the Colorado mushrooms and lichens, discuss the ethics of collecting these dye materials, and talk about the methods that are used.

Each person will dye a silk scarf and we will dye a set of yarn samples for you to take home. We will dye with several different mushrooms and lichens and produce a rainbow of colors.

All materials will be provided.

• Date: Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025
• Time: 9am - 4pm
• Location: Mountain View Methodist Church, Room 215
• Class size: 15
• Workshop fee: $80
• Materials fee: $15 (payable to instructor on day of workshop)

Payment method is online only with a credit card. If you would like to pay by check or cash, you must contact programs@handweaversofboulder.org to register for the workshop.

Register

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In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: You Can't Judge a Warp by Its Color

Often, weavers will express disappointment with the color of their warps - yet, with the right design and a well-chosen weft, they can produce beautiful results.

This presentation offers concepts and principles that can help weavers create a warp that, when combined with the right weft, can make a fabric sing. How is this accomplished? By using the principles of color harmony and color interaction, as promoted by color theorists such as Johannes Itten and Josef Albers, among others.

Further, you will benefit from learning certain principles of how our eyes perceive color, not always accurately. From Leonardo to Newton to Geothe and on, artists and scientists have observed that color can be, at times, like an illusion - that principles like optical mixing, the Bezold Effect, color blending, and simultaneous contrast can significantly alter the reality of colors by virtue of our own rods and cones.

Evening Mini Worshop: Dorset Buttons: A Heritage Craft

Denise will show us the basics to create colorful, whimsical buttons – for jewelry, surface decoration or fasteners for your handmade garments – using only curtain rings, a tapestry needle, yarn, and perhaps some beads!

Based on 19th-century patterns from Dorset, England, these buttons are easy to create and customize to match your own fiber creations. Please bring to the evening meeting/workshop a current weaving, felting, or knitting project, and yarns from your stash (and beads, if you choose!) No prior experience needed. The workshop is 7pm-9pm.

Denise Kovnat

Handweaver and Teacher of Handweaving

Denise Kovnat is a brilliant colorist, weaver, dyer, and "free-range" seamstress who loves painting warps, dimensional weaving, and extended-parallel threadings -- all to create colorful, textured cloth for teaching, shows, and sales.

Her pieces have won many awards in regional, nationwide and international shows; including juried into the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence fashion shows since 2008. She teaches at conferences and guilds throughout the United States and Canada and as far away as Australia.

Working out of her home, she weaves on a 32-shaft Louet Megado, 16-shaft Toika Eeva, a 16-shaft Germaine table loom, and a 12-shaft LeClerc table loom. Plus a lovely little 8-shaft Structo.

Gallery: denisekovnat.com

FaceBook: facebook.com/denise.kovnat

Instagram: instagram.com/denisekovnat

Blog: denisekovnat.com

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As Marian Stubenitsky has shown in Weaving with Echo and Iris, extended parallel threadings offer endless possibilities. In this workshop, designed for advanced beginners and beyond, you will arrive with your loom dressed in a two-color warp on a parallel threading. (Drafts will be provided about 6 weeks beforehand.) Working with a variety of tie-ups and treadlings, you will weave a series of designs in Echo, Jin (Turned Taqueté), Shadow Weave, Rep, and Double Weave. The takeaway is a sampler of colorful patterns and a broader, deeper understanding of the potential for extended parallel threadings and how to design them. For 4-shaft to 32-shaft looms.

• Date: see above
• Time: 9am to 5pm
• Location: Mountain View Methodist Church, Boulder, Room 215
• Class size: 18 using a loom; 15 “watch & learn”

Prerequisites/Experience: Workshop is for advanced beginners and beyond. Students will bring their own loom. Students will wind their warps and dress their looms prior to the workshop. Studenst should be ready to begin weaving the first morning. About 6 weeks prior to the workshop, the instructor will provide instructions.

For 4-shaft to 32-shaft table loom or portable loom. Rigid heddle looms are not used in this workshop.

Workshop fee: $210 for members working on a loom; $55 for "watch and learn" attendees

Materials fee: $35 printed handouts (required of all attendees and paid to instructor on day of workshop)

Register

In-Person Meetings
Holiday Celebration Buffet and Ornament Exchange

The celebration starts with food - of course!

• Bring-A-Dish Buffet - All are invited to contribute a ready to serve and easily shared food item to the buffet - along with any utensils required for serving
• Tote along your own dinnerware, utensils and napkins to reduce waste

Day Meeting: 9 a.m. Set-Up

Evening Meeting: 6 p.m. Set-Up

The HGB Holiday Celebration includes a handmade fiber-art-related ornament exchange, each participant brings one wrapped handmade fiber related ornament.

The ornament exchange is a long-standing tradition leading to many laughs and a few quick steals! Come join in the fun - or watch the commotion! The choice is yours!

Ornament Exchange

Do I need to participate in the Ornament Exchange?

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Zoom Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: Discovering Felt (Mandy Nash)

Mandy will talk about her love of feltmaking, how she encountered the technique and began her experiments with wool. During her twenty year relationship with this material, she has been constantly surprised by its versatility, infinite variations can be achieved by combining different wools, colours and patterns. She will explain her fascination with multiple resists and differential shrinkage to create texture and three dimensional shapes.

Watch the presentation here. (will be posted after presentation)

Evening Meeting Presentation: Corespinning: Simple to Complex (Charan Sachar)

Exploring core spinning to make thick, airy, puffy yarns and also how to make neater and smoother yarns. In addition, enhancing your core spun with auto wrap thread and creating complex yarns with a combination of plying techniques.

Charan will live-demo on Zoom creating art yarn for the 45 min and then Q&A.

Watch the presentation here. (will be posted after presentation)

Mandy Nash
Jewelry and Textile Designer Maker

Mandy is primarily a jeweler, however, over the last twenty years, she has been slowly introducing textiles into her practice and it has now become her main focus. Traditional and contemporary textiles have consistently been a major influence, so the transition from creating colourful, non-precious jewelry to textiles is not a large step.

Mandy’s main technique is feltmaking, which combines her three passions of colour, pattern and process. Wool is a natural, sustainable and versatile material that can be transformed into wonderful, tactile objects. The different characteristics of the wide variety of sheep breeds offer endless possibilities to create both functional and nonfunctional pieces. Mandy enjoys the challenge of transforming a flat material into a three dimensional form, she finds sanctuary in the mediative, feltmaking process, which allows time for reflection. The tactility of felt offers great comfort - touch something that feels good, you feel good too.

Website: mandynash.co.uk

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Charan Sachar
Textile Artist and Potter

Charan Sachar is an artist whose work reflects his passion for the fiber arts, like knitting, spinning, weaving, quilting and he uses it as an inspiration for his clay work. In all the fields that he works in, he loves to accept challenges and approach the making with a “what if..” attitude. Charan specializes in creating art yarns with textures, using traditional spinning techniques and pushing them an extra step to create unique yarns.

Website: creativewithclay.com

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Zoom Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: Ply-split braiding (Helen Leaf)

Ply-split braiding is a unique textile technique, unknown in the West until the 1970s, and then explored fully by Peter Collingwood, whose 1998 book, The Techniques of Ply-Split Braiding, opened up all understanding and possibilities, and described the structures and techniques that are in use today.

From this book, people learnt, and experimented with structures and patterns that took ply-splitting from its origins, to become a contemporary craft. Ply-splitting is still evolving today, with each active ply-splitter discovering new innovations, and with new thoughts and concepts being expressed. This presentation tells the story of this, showing examples of traditional and contemporary work.

This presentation will not be recorded.

Evening Meeting: The Backstrap Loom & Weaving on Simple Looms in South America (Laveren Waddington)

From the coastal plains to highland valleys, up to the dizzying heights of the South American Andes and down to the tropical lowland jungles, indigenous and mestizo weavers create intricately patterned cloth on a variety of simple looms.

Laverne will share stories of the weavers with whom she has studied in these regions, her love of the basic, yet often surprisingly complex, backstrap loom and show us how she has used all she’s learned in her own work.

Watch the presentation here. (will be posted after presentation)

Helen Leaf

Ply-splitter (braiding)

Helen Leaf is a UK ply-splitter, exploring color, pattern and structure, and passionate about tradition. She has taught and exhibited internationally, and is the creator of www.plysplitbraiding.com. When not ply-splitting, she’s in the forest with ancient trees.

Helen is actively researching Peter Collingwood's collection of traditional ply-split camel belts from Rajasthan, in a UK archive, studying the patterns and structures used by traditional nomadic camel herders. This is the largest collection of work outside of India, and actually, the tradition has faded in its native land, with few skilled practitioners remaining. The quality of workmanship in archive pieces shows a height of sophistication and accomplishment that is not available to study by any other means.

Website: helenleafdesigns.com

Website: plysplitbraiding.com

Instagram: instagram.com/helenleafdesigns/

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Laveren Waddington

Backstrap Weaver

Laverne Waddington has been learning to weave on various kinds of simple looms with indigenous teachers in South America since 1996. In her home in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, she combines elements of ethnic design and her own original patterns to create unique pieces on a backstrap loom using the various techniques and structures she has studied in South and Central America as well as with backstrap weavers from Vietnam and Myanmar.

Since 2010, she has published eight instructional manuals on the various woven structures and finishing techniques that she has studied and produced a dvd on Operating a Backstrap Loom. Her articles on backstrap weaving and indigenous textiles have appeared in Handwoven magazine, Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, Piecework, Tiny Studio Creative Life and Spin Off as well as in the published proceedings of the 2012 and 2016 Braid Society conferences.

She has shared her skills and experiences with many visitors to Bolivia over the years and now reaches a global audience with her weaving tutorials and travel tales on her blog. She provides online advice and support to weavers through forums such as Ravelry and Facebook groups and teaches and speaks via Zoom to weavers around the world.

Website: ​backstrapweaving.wordpress.com

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February Workshops - Inkle Weaving with Sienna Bosch

In-Person Workshop 1 : Introduction to Inkle Weaving

Learn to weave on an inkle loom! Whether you're interested in inkle weaving for personal projects or are wanting to help out at HGB community engagement events, this workshop will get you started. We will work with pre-warped inkle looms to practice and learn the simple techniques. We will also discuss the warping process.

• Date: Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026
• Time: 10-11:30 am
• Location: Mountain View Methodist Church, Boulder, Room 215
• Class size: 15

Prerequisites/Experience: All levels - No weaving experience is necessary.

Workshop fee: Free to Members (mini-workshop)

Register

In-Person Workshop 2 : Weaving Letters on an Inkle Loom

Explore weaving letters on an inkle loom! This class is perfect for you whether you have a favorite saying or want to make bands for the special people in your life. We’ll begin by practicing upper and lowercase letters. You’ll walk away with a sampler and the skills to make any letters you’d like. Please bring inkle loom warped and ready to weave on.

• Date: Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026
• Time: noon- 4pm
• Location: Mountain View Methodist Church, Boulder, Room 215
• Class size: 12

Prerequisites/Experience: Weavers should be familiar with inkle weaving and confident with weaving plain weave and/or pick-up.

Materials to Bring: 5/2 (you could also use 3/2 if that is all you have) perle cotton in two colors (200 yds of each). Please use colors that are contrasting. One light and one dark.

Equipment Required to Bring: Inkle Loom warped according to the pattern provided using string or texsolv heddles that are the correct length for your loom.

Workshop fee: $75

Register

Sienna Bosch

Weaver

Sienna holds a BFA in fiber art and art education from Colorado State University. She has taught at various locations across the United States, including HGA Convergence, John C. Campbell Folk School, the Schacht School of Textile Arts, the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild, and the Boulder Public Library. Currently, Sienna works as the Content Developer and Education Specialist at Schacht Spindle Company, where she conducts classes, produces educational videos, works as a graphic designer, and handles marketing on social media, as well as print and digital advertising, among other responsibilities. Sienna finds joy in teaching people of all ages how to weave and witnessing the positive impact it has on their lives.

Website: ​feuer-und-wasser.com

FaceBook: ​facebook.com/FeuerUndWasser/

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In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: The Value of Color

It takes practice to identify where a color falls in this dizzying array of options. The more you use color theory and the value of color the more it will reveal its mysteries. The morning presentation will explore the different perspective on studying color as it relates to weaving:

• Quick Basic Color Theory 
• The Importance of Value 
• The Value of Color Gamps

Evening Meeting Presentation: Playing with color (mini-workshop, free to members)

A deep look at color theory, with special consideration for how it intersects with fiber arts. An introduction to the 7 principles of contrast that affect how our textile projects are perceived. This is a quick guide to choosing the yarns to make projects what YOU want. Samples, slides, color exercises and more to make playing with color fun!

Michele Belson

Fiber Artist

Michele Belson, weaver, stitcher, business owner, teacher, and general Lunatic, has played with bits of string and cloth for over half a century. She learned to sew sitting on her Grandmother’s lap before her feet reached the pedal on the floor. She weaves, sews, knits, knots, dyes, but more importantly, she teaches. From preschool story hour and to a beautiful group at the Long Beach (California) Senior Center, from University Graduate students to 4H Club, through articles in weaving publications, at weaving conferences across the country, and on Zoom. 

Michele loves nothing more than sharing her love of all things fiber. As the Co-owner of Lunatic Fringe Yarns, she helped design and use kits and projects to ‘teach’ while her customers aren’t even looking! (Lunatic Fringe Yarns kits are specifically built to build skills in weaving.) Her students have noted her ‘no man left behind’ style. When she isn’t helping steer Lunatic Fringe Yarns, weaving, or sewing, she enjoys cooking, spending time with family and friends, yoga, and, on rare occasions, sleeping.

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The Value of Color with Michele Belson

2-day off loom class Playing with Color! Explore Color Theory and the influence of Value in weaving and beyond through color exercise, paper and pencil work, yarn wrappings, your Smart Phone and Lunatic Fringe’s super fun Playing with Color cards. Bring an idea for a project and play together to find a perfect plan. Or just play!!

• Location: Mountain View Methodist Church, Room 215
• Class size: 25

Workshop fee:  $135 (both days)

Materials fee: $15 materials fee

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In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: Let’s Move the Needle - Craft as a Tool for Activism

Shannon Downey, author of Let’s Move the Needle: an activism handbook for artists, crafters, creatives, and makers, will introduce you to the powerful world of craftivism. She will pull lessons from her book and share exciting case studies, both historic and modern. Most importantly, Downey will leave you inspired and ready to level up your own brilliant craft work for the greater good.

Evening Meeting Presentation: Let’s Move the Needle - How YOU can engage in craftivism

In this second talk, Downey will guide you to ways to leverage your creative brilliance into meaningful action in service to social, cultural, and political change. Pulling from the major concepts of her book, Let’s Move the Needle: an activism handbook for artists, crafters, creatives, and makers, she will walk you through actionable steps for igniting or amplifying your inner activist.

Shannon Downey

Embroiderer, Artist, Activist, Craftivist and Community Builder

In addition to being an artist, activist, craftivist, and community builder, Shannon likes to blend politics, activism, and art into projects and work. The purpose is to inspire others to take action, think, discuss, engage with democracy and their community, and find some digital/analog balance. To move people from passive consumers of art into engaged creators. To leverage craft-based art forms to bring people together and offer them opportunities to transition from makers to change makers. Their work is about telling the truth and confronting harsh realities while simultaneously inspiring radical hope and a vision for what is possible. They are queer, anti-racist, feminist, anti-capitalist, highly political, and committed to growth, learning, honesty, and doing whatever they can to make this an equitable world. Their art generally tackles “the big three” systems of oppression: white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism. They’ve lived a million lives so far and all of them have brought them to right now - doing EXACTLY what they're supposed to be doing in this world. They live for community, equity, art, and adventure.

Shannon’s work is meant to disrupt. They disrupt via the medium, the application of the medium, the projects that they build, and by living and making outside of the rules. They also LOVE embroidery. It is an amazing tool for: creating digital/analog balance in your life providing the opportunity to express yourself slowing down creating space to think substantively about real issues using your hands much in the same way you use your devices, thereby bypassing the tactile need that our digital addictions demand. Plus, it’s easy to learn, fun to do in community, the material cost is minimal, and most importantly. It is joyful to use a medium that has historically been used as a tool of subjugation as a tool of subversion. 

Website: badasscrossstitch.com

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April Workshops - Embroidery with Shannon Downey 

In-Person Workshop 1: Introduction to Embroidery

Join Shannon Downey aka Badass Cross Stitch to learn everything you need to know to start stitching staggering works of genius. Shannon will teach you about embroidery materials, how to get set up to stitch, working with patterns or designing your own pieces, and a handful of stitches to get you off and running. This workshop is designed to make your experience as a beginner accessible, fun, and pressure-free.

• Date: TBD
• Time: TBD.
• Location: Mountain View Methodist Church, Boulder, Room 207 (most likely)

• Class size: 20

Prerequisites: Knowledge of knitting and purling, knitting in the round

Materials the attendee must bring: 

• Embroidery hoop (5-7" is usually best but any size will do)
• Piece of light colored cotton fabric (e.g  tea towel or old sheet)
• Tapestry, chenille, or embroidery needle
• Pair of scissors
• Embroidery floss (whatever colors you like)
• Water erasable marking pen, transfer pen, or friction pen (don't have that? don't worry we can work with pencil, chalk, ballpoint pen, whatever you got) - 
• it will be extra fun if you bring some random materials to play with: fancy yarn, sticks, buttons, ribbon, etc. The more random the better! 
• Another option is to buy all of the materials you need in this handy bundle that Maydel set up for us. The cost of the bundle is $13. Maydel is an ethically-sourced, women-owned business and I am a big fan. Here's the link https://maydel.com/product/intro-to-embroidery-bundle-by-badass-cross-stitch

Workshop fee: $ TBD

In-Person Workshop 2: Embroidery 2.0

Got the basics of embroidery down but want to level up and move beyond the same 5 stitches? This is the spot. Shannon Downey aka Badass Cross Stitch will introduce you to some fancy ass stitches and help you grow your confidence in creating your own designs. It will be a stress-free embroidery adventure.

• Date: April 12, 2026
• Time: TBD
• Location: Mountain View Methodist Church, Boulder, Room 207 (most likely) 

• Class size: 20

Prerequisites: Knowledge of embroidery in any form

Materials the attendee must bring: 

• Embroidery hoop (5-7" is usually best but any size will do)
• Piece of light colored cotton fabric (e.g  tea towel or old sheet)
• Tapestry, chenille, or embroidery needle
• Pair of scissors
• Embroidery floss (whatever colors you like)
• Water erasable marking pen, transfer pen, or friction pen (don't have that? don't worry we can work with pencil, chalk, ballpoint pen, whatever you got) - 
• it will be extra fun if you bring some random materials to play with: fancy yarn, sticks, buttons, ribbon, etc. The more random the better! 
• Another option is to buy all of the materials you need in this handy bundle that Maydel set up for us. The cost of the bundle is $13. Maydel is an ethically-sourced, women-owned business and I am a big fan. Here's the link https://maydel.com/product/intro-to-embroidery-bundle-by-badass-cross-stitch/

Workshop fee: $TBD

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In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: Art It’s a Process

Each artist has their own unique process. Some artists plan meticulously, and others are more spontaneous. Each of us has had our own journey. My artistic journey started in Minnesota growing up on a farm where I was surrounded by nature. My love of art and creating lead me to pursue an art and music degree in Minnesota.

My introduction into basketry came later after moving to St. Louis where I began weaving traditional baskets in my basement and beginning to explore weaving more sculptural baskets. It was our move to Sedona where I expanded my exploration of materials and shapes delving into raku, gourds and other natural fibers to create my art. It was when I started working with gourds that things changed for me.

I will walk you through the many steps and thought process I take to a finished piece of artwork, starting with choosing the gourd and allowing it to “speak” to me and embrace the earthy nature of the gourd. After making sure I have all the materials I need to create the final sculpture or gourd basket, I begin the process of preparing the base, cleaning the gourd, and adding the color. Once that is done, I then begin my weaving which is a very intuitive process.

Evening Meeting Presentation: Continuing the Process

What I do is much like what a weaver does when creating a woven piece. Each artist has their own process, whether you are a weaver, painting or ceramist. I think it is important for artists to share this with people, so they understand what it takes to create a work of art.

Shirley Eichten Albrecht (she)

It’s understandable if the term “basket” doesn’t automatically come to mind when you see one of Shirley Eichten Albrecht’s sculptural works of art. That’s because Shirley has made a name for herself – first in St. Louis, where she became intrigued with basket weaving, and now in Sedona, where she is known fondly as “the basket lady” – reimagining her chosen medium. Her sculptures incorporate gourds, raku pottery she creates herself, stones, and antlers, all inextricably intertwined with natural fibers in ways that are new and fresh. Look closely and your mind’s eye might spy a Native American maiden or an artifact from an ancient pueblo. Shirley allows her materials to dictate form, elevating what is often considered craft to fine art.

“When I begin working with a gourd or raku, I take time to explore its shape, examine its colors and the feelings it evokes, and listen to the story it wants to tell,” says Shirley. “Only then do I begin to weave. My raku and my gourds are my canvas, and my weaving is my paint. And each finished piece takes on its own voice.”

Shirley grew up on a farm in Minnesota and graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in art and music. She taught in Minnesota and Texas before moving to St. Louis in 1987. Shirley cofounded a basket-weaving guild there and, when she moved to Sedona in 2001, she cofounded one in Red Rock Country. The artist has won numerous local, regional and national awards, and has been juried into prestigious shows in Arizona, Colorado, Ohio and Missouri. Her work has appeared in Phoenix Home & Garden, Discover Tlaquepaque and other local publications.

Website: redrockbaskets.com/

FaceBook: facebook.com/RedRockBaskets

Instagram: instagram.com/basket_lady21/

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