Rebecca Winter is a self-proclaimed color and texture person, who has spent a lot of time learning about the structure of weaving. She holds two Master Certificates of Excellence from HGA, in Color-and-Weave Stars and Shadow Weave. She is the author of The Enigma of Shadow Weave Illuminated, the second book in history to include information about the method of shadow weave created by Marian Powell. As an RN, Rebecca taught medical assistants at Stevens-Henager College for six years, and is now retired. Weaving, teaching when students appear, paper weaving, and bookmaking are daily occupations. Fabric, yarn, and paper are ever-present.

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Laura discovered weaving during a fourth grade field trip to an 18th century house with an antique barn frame loom. Her first weaving lesson, fittingly, occurred at another such loom. An experimental archaeology lecture during her semester in Germany introduced her to tablet weaving; the discovery that weaving could be accomplished with minimal equipment sent her on a path of exploration that eventually led to obtaining a degree in Fibers at Oregon College of Art & Craft and acquiring a great many books. She loves to share low-tech fiber techniques at demos and workshops.

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Laurie Carlson Steger (pictured on the right in pink) is a fiber-artist.  Her weavings are inspired by atmospheric phenomenon like ethereal cloud banks.  Laurie began weaving at camp in the 1960’s, then studied at the Worcester Center for Crafts in the 1970’s.  She earned a BFA and MFA at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She explored weaving with fiber optic materials and was an engineering consultant in the field of smart textile applications in the 2000’s.  Her recent work was shown with the exhibitions, Interpreting Change: Weavers’ Guild of Boston 1922-2022, HGA Convergence, Vistas Along the Appalachian Trail and upcoming, Transformation – A Juried Exhibit sponsored by the Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild.  Her work has been seen in FiberArt Magazine, Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot, Fiberart International, Fiber Art Now: Excellence in Fibers, and her millinery work at London Hat Week. She taught Textile Science at Boston area colleges, curated exhibitions, and led workshops/lectures at weaving guilds and textile organizations. Laurie is the current Associate Dean of the Weavers’ Guild of Boston.

Norma Smayda (pictured on the left in white) is a Master Weaver, exhibitor, teacher, juror, and author, who trained in handweaving and related fiber arts in Norway. She received an MFA in Visual Design from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In 1974, she established and continues to run the Saunderstown Weaving School. Scandinavian design is an important focus of her work, as well as the contributions of Weaver Rose and Bertha Gray Hayes. She coauthored Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes: Miniature Overshot Patterns. More recently, she immersed herself in weaving with fan reeds, which culminated in her second book, Ondulé Textiles: Weaving with a Fan Reed.  She has received numerous awards for her exhibited work, the most prestigious of which are the Handweavers’ Guild of America Award for Creativity and Craftsmanship and the New England Weavers Seminar Weaver of Distinction Award. She had two pieces in the Weavers’ Guild of Boston exhibition at the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA and one piece in the show Along the River’s Edge, TIAC, Clayton, NY. She is Past President of the Handweavers’ Guild of America.

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Linda has been weaving for fifty years, learning to weave as a child from her mother (also a member of Complex Weavers). She has always been fascinated with pattern and block designs, finding ways to maximize both on four shafts before moving on to multi-shaft looms. For the last 20-plus years, she has been exploring the interaction of color and structure to develop increasingly complex designs, with the assistance of Fiberworks and Photoshop software. She shares her findings through teaching, participation in two CW study groups (Double Weave and Fabric Design), and contributing articles to the CW Journal.

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Barbara Setsu Pickett, Associate Professor Emerita, Department of Art, University of Oregon, focuses on velvet weaving, Jacquard weaving, shibori and book arts.  She researched velvet weaving techniques at ateliers in Italy, France, England, Spain, Turkey, Japan, China, India, and Uzbekistan.  She has received awards from NEA, Fulbright, Institute of Turkish Studies, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Asian Art Museum San Francisco, and University of Oregon Summer Research.  Since 2005, she and her son Michael Pickett have created highly textured scarves as Mihara Shibori Studio.  They have taught workshops in Korea and Turkey and the USA.

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Sally Orgren has exhibited, won awards, and written about weaving and related topics throughout her 30-plus years of producing fiber art. Sally belongs to four local guilds and is a member of Cross Country Weavers. Since 2014, Sally has been the Managing Editor of Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, a publication produced by the Handweavers Guild of America, Inc. (HGA).

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Phyllis Miller has been weaving since 1970. She is largely self-taught but has been a weavers guild member ever since 1977 in different locations, so she’s attended many workshops, conferences and Convergences. Presently, she has her original 4-shaft Leclerc, an 8-shaft Baby Wolf and a 12-shaft Leclerc Dorothy loom.

She has been published in Handwoven’s Design Collection 15, Handwoven JF1992, and Handwoven ND2021, where her woven sashiko-style project and inspiration articles feature two patterns from her sashiko samples collection.

She has had extensive experience teaching adults both in person and online.

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Molly’s work has been exhibited in shows across the US and has won many awards, including The Diane Fabeck Best in Show award at Complexity and the Cambridge Arts Association Artist of the Year award.