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Instructor Biographies
Rudy Amann’s teaching career began while he was in high school and college teaching weaving at a summer camp. After college graduation he taught mathematics for twenty years and was a school administrator for fifteen years. When approaching retirement, Rudy learned spinning and nålbinding. His spinning mentor was Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and he learned nålbinding from Kate Martinson. He now lives on the coast of Maine, where he substitutes in the local high school, is a mediator for Community Mediation Services, and is Chair of the Board of Directors of Friends School of Portland.
Sue Black originally from Illinois, has lived in Sweden, Maine for almost 30 years where she and her husband, Sam, have been working on their 190 year old connected farmhouse. Her main interests include early textiles and the tools used to produce them. She has demonstrated at several historical sites as well as making hats and other items for reenactors . There is always something new to try. She has taught workshops on Kumihimo, card weaving, inkle weaving, lucet braiding, spinning, and 4 harness weaving for the past several years. What pleases her most is the opportunity to share her interests and skills with others.
Janet Conner is an avid rug maker who has exhibited at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, at the Portland Public Library, and the Local Color Art Gallery in Cornish. Her work was accepted in Philadelphia at the juried Moore College of Art Alumnae Exhibition of 2004. The same year she had a solo show at the Maine Fiber Arts Center in Topsham, Maine. 2005 exhibitions included a solo retrospective at the Bridgton Arts Guild Gallery and The Point Comfort Fiber Arts Gallery in Waldoboro, Maine. She is a member of the Saco Valley Fiber Artists, Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild, and the Maine Education Association. Recently selected as one of the 200 Best Traditional American Craftsmen by Early American Life Magazine’s jury of curators from Historic Williamsburg, Sturbridge Village, and Shelburne Museum, Janet continues to find her greatest joy in teaching and sharing rug hooking with others. Her latest venture has been the design of antique reproduction Penny Rugs. www.jconnerhookedrugs.com
Sharon Costello has been a fiber artist for twenty-five years and a full time professional feltmaker since 1995. She is well known for her needle felted dolls and felted vessels. Sharon has studied feltmaking in the US, Turkey and Scandinavia and shares her knowledge of the craft teaching workshops through national and international conferences, fiber and doll guilds, art centers and colleges. Sharon has a design degree from Syracuse University and an MBA from the State University of New York at Albany. She also sponsors “Felters’ Fling”, a bi-annual conference that brings instructors from around the world to introduce new techniques to American feltmakers. To bring her teaching to a wider audience, Sharon has produced two teaching videos; one on her felt doll making techniques and one on featherweight felting methods.
Her work has been featured in several books: 1000 Artisan Textiles (Quarry Books), Uniquely Felt (Storey Publishing), How We Felt, (Interweave Press), 500 Handmade Dolls (Lark Books), Needle Felt (Felt Crafts), Yet More Felt in the Kitchen and Felt Figures Great and Small (Ewa Kuniczak).
She has written articles on feltmaking and been featured in several magazines such as Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot (Handweavers’ Guild of America), Fiber Arts, Spin-off and Felt (Interweave Press), Echoes (International Feltmakers’ Association), North American Felters’ Network, Cloth Doll Magazine, Soft Dolls and Animals Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, and a wide range of fiber guild and doll makers newsletters in the US and abroad. Her work has been featured in one woman and group shows from New York to California, as well as on the Home and Garden Television Network.
Sharon is a member of The International Feltmakers Association, North American Feltmakers and Original Doll Artists Council of America (ODACA). Her feltmaking business, Black Sheep Designs, specializes in kits and supplies for needle and wet feltmaking. www.blacksheepdesigns.com
Michelle DeLucia has an MA in Clay/Pottery from Skidmore College but is more widely known in this area for her work as a full-time garden designer and owner of Sunshine Daydream Farm & Gardens and as a talented fiber artist. She has taken many classes over the years with prominent fiber artists and teaches a variety of fiber-related classes at her studio and at a number of fiber events and also travels to other states to teach. Always taking the organic approach she especially enjoys the process of natural dyeing from growing and harvesting the plants to creating the range of colors that only plants can give. She lives in Brownfield, ME with a collection of different breed sheep, rescued goats, Angora rabbits and a few other non-fiber animals. www.sunshinedaydreamgardens.com
Rikki Gallagher is a creative woman who gives free range to her imagination. Her rug hooking designs and all her artistic work is full of whimsy and rich in color and detail. As an energetic and imaginative teacher of children Rikki brings out the best in their work by letting them understand that they all have talent within just waiting to bloom in whatever pursuit they follow. She hooks, she knits, she spins, she dyes and takes great delight in sharing her wonder of it all.
Rose Ann Hunter lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts. She has been interested in Needle Arts for the past 50 years and has been teaching workshops for the past 20 years. In 2005 she was chosen as Craftsperson in Residence at Sturbridge Village and is still teaching and demonstrating in the village. Chosen to teach at several other living history museums, Rose Ann lectures to historical societies, guilds, and conferences throughout New England and beyond. She has adapted and developed over 30 different techniques for traditional rug making. www.roseannhunter.com
Roberta McClellan is a multi-talented person. She has been weaving New England splint baskets for about 20 years and is juried with the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. In addition to the many styles of baskets she makes, Bert is a spinner, knitter and dyer with a good sized flock of sheep. Her animals and her garden give her great satisfaction. She participates as a vendor and demonstrator at many New England fairs and events with her husband, Bob, a Shaker broom squire.
Rindy O'Brien Lorinda O'Brien (or "Rindy" as her friends call her) first picked up knitting needles when she was seven and started crocheting about age ten. She hasn't been without a project since that time. In the years to follow Lorinda did needlepoint, crewel, cross stitch and sewing in addition to knitting and crocheting. In 1986 she bought her first spinning wheel and her life took yet another direction. Lorinda has been selling wheels and teaching spinning since 1990 and still delights in a new student's progress. During the past 20 years she has taken courses and master classes in spinning and knitting from local, national and internationally known experts to improve her techniques and teaching skills. www.downhomecompany.com
Laurie Sims, Laurie has always had her hands busy with something fiber or art related since childhood. For many years she stitched in private for herself and friends, but, gaining chutzpah with age, she now proclaims herself an artist and teacher. Her current passion is creating in crochet with beautiful yarns created by artisan growers, spinners and dyers. Other favorite crochet media are pre-used fabric and anything string like from the hardware store. Laurie's work has been shown regionally including Bowdoinham's Merrrymeeting Arts Center, Show Us Your Wears fashion show in Portland, and the Maine Pavilion at the Big E.
Linda Whiting grew up in a creative atmosphere, always “making things”, and has worked in a variety of mediums but her love of color brought her back to fiber. In addition to learning new techniques herself she most enjoys meeting new people and encouraging them to take pleasure in the fiber arts. In addition to teaching workshops designed to help people feel comfortable using color she demonstrates spinning, dyeing, and tapestry weaving at fiber events in Maine and New Hampshire and in schools, at fairs and local historical sites. She owns two sheep, enough to keep her in fiber. www.pinestarstudio.com
Leslie Wind has been a jeweler since the late 1960's. Working in gold, sterling and bronze, she fabricates jewelry with a purpose beyond just being beautiful, often incorporating symbols of the wearer’s choosing to enhance the meaning beyond adornment. She also recycles old 14k gold (in the form of broken chains, single earrings etc) into one of a kind jewelry from customer photos or ideas. She is a member of the Cape Ann Artisans ( www.capeannartisans.com ) and works from her home/studio in Rockport, MA. Where and sings locally with Three Sheets to the Wind, a sea shanty group and The Songbirds whose current focus is Doo Wop and Oldies. www.lesliewind.com
Julie Yarbrough is a trained studio artist who has lifted her hand in many artistic endeavors. Her work is greatly influenced by her wild sense of humor and imagination. Ideas percolate at the drop of a word, a flash of color. Always ready with an “off the wall” observation, you never know where it will lead her and what wonder it will lead her to create. Julie’s felting tools and felted critters can be found in catalogs and fiber shops. She teaches and demonstrates needle felting and other fiber arts at local events and takes pleasure in flights of fancy. www.kick-the-moon-farm.com