Thriving on the advent of zoom, and on enthusiasm for every genre of fiber art, the Columbia Fibres Guild is growing.
“There’s such a variety that anyone who has any inclination to it at all can find some skill there that appeals to them. It’s just such a wide scope that it’s really only limited by imagination,” said Nancy Skakel, Guild president.
“The majority of people in our guild are spinners and weavers and knitters,” she said. “I started out weaving and spinning. I taught myself to knit and I enjoyed it, but I knew I’d never be very good; then I discovered felting and I thought, ‘This is for me!’”
Skakel, who joined the Guild 30-plus years ago after meeting founder Fran Connolly, recalled her joy at meeting kindred artists.
With just over 100 members — several new in the last few weeks — the guild is a thriving community, stretching from Stevenson to Wishram, and from Corbett to Maupin.
The COVID-19 pandemic, while canceling in-person events, brought the guild a wider audience. “Since the pandemic, and the advent of zoom, our membership includes people from Canada, California, Texas, Michigan,” Skakel noted. Now, some attend on zoom alone.
“We certainly missed getting together,” Skakel said. “But people really just hung in there with us.” Members across North America joined for world-renowned spinning Judith McKenzie’s annual free workshops, also made possible by zoom.
Fiber art, for Skakel, resonates with history. “Until probably the early 1800s, every article of clothing, every towel and cloth, everything was hand-done. Was hand-spun, hand-woven, hand-sewn,” Skakel said. “... when I first started weaving, I’d sit down to my loom and I felt, like, this resonance through the ages. In my head, I called it the sisters of Arachne. Just this connection with people throughout the ages — because the tools, primarily, are really quite simple — they’re enormously elegant, and very functional, but their forms are just so lovely. And they really haven’t changed for, probably, a thousand years.” McKenzie’s collection of drop-spindle whorls includes stone items more than 2,000 years old.
“It puts an emphasis, for us ... to demonstrate to the broader public, and particularly young people, how much pleasure there is in this kind of work,” Skakel explained.
With June-through-September meetings, weekly “spin-ins,” and annual dues of $20 per year, the guild is open to anyone from professional designers to “people who just liked what they saw and wanted to see if might be something they wanted to try,” Skakel said.
“I would say we must have over a thousand years of experience in our group, and we’re all eager to share our passion and our knowledge and our resources,” she added. “Whatever question someone might have ... There’s gonna be someone there whose going to be able to say ‘Oh, well, I can help you with that!’”
“We have one man in the guild. The majority of us are retired women, who have been working with fiber arts most of their lives. But we are attracting more young people.”
The Guild is run by an elected board of directors, with committees for special projects and interests. It loans out a table loom and other tools to artists. There’s a library of instructional videos, too, and workshops taught by members and guests — a recent grant from Oregon Weavers Guild will enable a workshop from a well-known artist, and a member has offered to teach interlock knitting. “We share our resources very avidly,” Skakel said happily.
Every year, an annual $200 scholarship is awarded to a member, to facilitate fibrous exploration in any chosen way. A donation from a newly-defunct Trout Lake quilter’s guild is another boon for the scholarship fund.
In her second year as president, Skakel said the financially self-sustaining guild is looking ahead — with some members contemplating a local fiber festival, and growing exhibits at county fairs.
Public demonstrations include an expanding presentation on every step of weaving, from shearing the sheep through carding, spinning, and weaving an item, at the Hood River Blossom Festival.
Some workshops and classes are open to non-members.
Though many artists are quilters, the focus isn’t just textiles. “We have shepherdesses, that raise hair — and not only sheep, but like, Angora goats, Angora rabbits, and any fur-bearing animals. We have people who do spinning, ... both with wheels and drop spindles. We have people who are very interested in dyeing, ... both chemical and natural dyes. We have one member who’s been doing some extraordinary batik work... There’s felting, ecoprinting, and we’re just exploring all kinds of different avenues. There’s one person in our guild who does tatting,” an ancient form of lace-making. Many practice multiple one crafts.
Even allergies to wool don’t stop members from spinning, with silk, flax, and cotton. Fiber sculptures and collage share space with more traditional artworks.
The possibilities are endless. “It’s like any other art form, there’s no end to how much skill and knowledge you can gain,” Skakel said. “... There’s always someone out there going, ‘Oh, look at this thing I did!’ And whoa? Where did you get that idea?”
Associated fiber arts groups meet in The Dalles and Hood River, and “They’re always open to anybody who just stops by and says, ‘Gee, that looks like somethin’ I’d like to try,’” as Skakel puts it.
For more information email FibreTreasure@gmail.com or write to Fibres Guild, 80 Mt. Adams Rd., Trout Lake, WA 98650.
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