A Confession….
I was not raised in an arty/crafty environment. The macaroni collages and tissue paper flowers I made in Girl Scouts and the sewing class I failed in 6th grade nearly ruined me for life. I never thought of myself as arty and my art grades in school were very average. Nevertheless, I found that I was always playing with fibers of some sort. Needlepoint, cross stitch, and knitting enthralled me for years ( and still do). The siren song of the loom always called to me, but I was never in the right place at the right time to answer it. On a trip to Ireland in 2005, I forced my family to tour Avoca Handweavers. If they hadn’t dragged me out, I’m pretty sure I would still be there. Shortly after returning from Ireland, my family relocated to Central Pennsylvania and I ended up an hour away from the finest weaving school in the country – The Mannings. Every so often, I would look at the class schedule and come up with several reasons why I couldn’t take a class. I did have time to take a yoga class, and one of my new friends was a weaver, and a fearless one. She didn’t teach me to weave, she taught me so much more. I learned to experiment, to create and to throw out the pattern book… but most importantly to call myself an Artist and trust my instincts. With the encouragement of my family and a gift from some dear friends, I finally went to weaving school, picked up a loom 2 days later and haven’t stopped since.
My initial weaving instruction was very traditional. It wasn’t long before I started experimenting with my own takes on weaving. It was very liberating to discover that I didn’t need a pattern to create. SAORI freestyle weaving had found me. It was truly the gentle hand of the universe guiding me to where I was supposed to be. For the past six years I have immersed myself in discovery, a journey that will continue as long as I am able to weave. I have studied Saori weaving with teachers here in the US and at SAORI no mori in Osaka, Japan. I am humbled to have received the designation of SAORI teacher and registered studio owner in December 2016.
I invite you to join me on your own journey of discovery as we learn together and play in the studio.
~tara
- SAORI instructor certification
- Guest Instructor Red Stone Glen Fiber Arts Center
- Central PA Guild of Handweavers – Member and Past President
- Lancaster Spinners and Weavers Guild Member and Sheep to Shawl team member
- Lancaster Spinners and Weavers Guild – Treasurer
- Mid Atlantic Fiber Association guild representative and conference instructor