1970 The guild remained small until the mid 70’s when the building of the Alaska oil pipeline brought many young women to Alaska. The weaving classes flourished and the guild membership benefited from the infusion of new weavers who found weaving and spinning a pleasurable pastime during the long, cold, dark winters.

1974 The first Guild sponsored workshop was in 1974 with Hal Painter. The Guild’s dedication to education over the years has resulted in sponsoring 75 major fiber workshops by nationally and internationally known fiber artists from across America, Canada, Denmark, England, Guatemala, New Zealand and Japan. Grants from the Alaska State Council on the Arts provided assistance for twenty-five of these instructors to travel to the remote weaving guilds, some accessible only by air or sea. A teaching tour would take three weeks to cover each location, from Fairbanks to Anchorage, Wasilla, Cordova, Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. The Guild coordinated these workshops and with a grant of $1000

1980 The Fairbanks Weavers Guild changed its name and added Spinners to reflect the increasing number of spinners joining the Guild. Spinners spun everything from beaver fur to dog hair.

1982 The University of Alaska, Fairbanks symposium on Musk Ox prompted the guild to obtain musk ox fleeces to promote a spinning workshop on qiviut, to create a symposium poster and a garment display for the 1982 Convergence in Seattle, WA. Local spinners received 4 to 8 ounces of qiviut, the underwool of the musk oxen, which was quite rare and unavailable to spinners. Miles of finely spun fiber went into the creation of a broad range of garments for the Convergence display. Spin-Off magazine featured the garments and articles on qiviut spinning in the spring issue, 1993.

1985 Membership reached the highest level in 1985 with 100 members. The current average is 85. The Guild received a non-profit status as an educational organization that same year. The University weaving course was transferred from UAF to the Tanana Valley Community College curriculum and moved from ‘on campus’ site to a small community called Moose Creek, 23 miles from Fairbanks. The number of students diminished and the course disappeared within two years due to the distance, the icy highways and extreme cold.

1987 The Guild organized Fiber Alaska ‘87, the first three-day conference with weavers coming from across the state for a series of mini-workshops.

1988 An educational project called "Hands On" Fiber Day, started in 1988. The public was invited to participate in a one-day workshop for a minimal fee. Workshops included basketry, knitting, spinning and weaving. The increased interest in the program over the last decade has developed into weekend workshops that are now scheduled from September to May.

1989 A financial aid scholarship was established in 1989 with the University of Alaska Scholarship Foundation. The scholarship is funded through a $2500 Endowment fund, set up in 1989, thanks to a Carol Feist legacy and member donations. The fund provides 2 scholarships a year from the interest.

1991 The Guild’s big step into education occurred in 1991 when thirteen new members joined the guild with hopes of learning how to weave. The Guild petitioned UAF and Tanana Valley Community College to reinstate the weaving courses. The University funding and space was not available so the guild accepted the responsibility of renting studio space and providing the instructor. After the first semester the guild realized that teaching weaving was not going to meet the fiscal responsibility for the instructor and the rent.

1992 In 1992, a three-week Youth Fiber Arts Program became a financial boon. The Youth Program was so successful that it soon expanded to 8 weeks, offering 36 classes in art, fiber and textile related activities in weaving, basketry, beading, hand quilting, machine sewing, drawing, watercolor, printmaking, mask making and woodcarving. Daily 3-hour sessions are held for one week. Classes are designed to build on skills and artistic development. Registration has steadily increased each year with 331 children participating in 2001. Over the last decade 1900 youth, ages 6-15 have enrolled in the program. In the adult weaving program, 285 adults have completed the 3 credit courses in Introduction to Weaving and or one of five Woven Fabric Design courses.

2000 Website established for the Guild at www.fairbanksweavers.org to enable the public to review adult and youth activity.

2001 The latest educational project began in 2001, with the development of a Dye plant garden at the University of Alaska’s Georgeson Botanical Gardens. The plot was planted with Japanese Indigo, Madder, Navajo Sunflowers, Coreopsis and Flax, where they grow like weeds in our long summer days. Dye plant identification, yarn samples and dye demonstrations will be part of the presentation for the summer visitors.

2002 The 50^th Anniversary of the founding of the guild was celebrated from April to October, 2002. The highlight of this year of celebration was a weekend retreat of mini-workshops in mid September and a Member Recognition Tea and a public lecture with Michelle Wipplinger, former Fairbanks resident as the keynote speaker. Michele Wipplinger presented a lecture on her involvement with color and cultural development based on her Asian travels. Michelle was born in Alaska, raised in Fairbanks and has returned many times for workshops.

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES

The Guild’s public activities continue to promote textile techniques through demonstrations at schools, church bazaars and local activities. The supervision of the Weaving & Spinning Division at the Tanana Valley State Fair has been a fifty-year commitment. All guild members participate by providing daily demonstrations for the public and selling tickets for our annual qiviut scarf raffle. In celebration of our 50^th year, a special award was offered for any entry based on our "Threads of Gold" theme.

FUND-RAISING ACTIVITIES

Fund raising money in the early years was donated to the new hospital fund, to the Red Cross, the library, a Hospitality House for children and the military’s United Service Organization. Recent fundraising activities have included participating in fashion shows, handwoven tea towel sales and hand-cut, embossed Holiday cards with bits of woven fabric. One of the most unique fund-raising activities was "Beating out the Alaskan Highway" at the Tanana Valley Fair. Fairbanks was celebrating the anniversary of building the Alaska Highway ‘a road to America’ in 1942 and the fair theme was "The Beet Goes On". The Guild members wove rugs representing a familiar segment of the 1500-mile highway. 30 rugs were sold, raising $1500.

YOUTH FIBER ARTS SUMMER PROGRAM (Fiber Camp)

The youth program has been the most successful fund raising activity for the last decade. In 1992, we began our first summer program in fiber related classes for our future FIBER ARTISTS. We decided to try three weeks of classes and every class filled. Each year more classes were offered for ages 6-15. The year 2001, 331 youth participated in 44 classes. 2002 will show 280 youth in 36 class sessions.

The program runs for eight weeks with 2 sometimes 3 sessions scheduled for both morning and afternoon. Weaving, drawing, quilting, beading and woodcarving are our most popular classes. A session is 3 hours long, held daily for one week from 9am to 12 or 1pm to 4. Each session is $75.00 with all materials provided, including snack. Noon hour supervision is provided for a $10.00 fee for the week. Registration is open for only 8 students with an occasionally extra 1 or 2. Sometimes a long waiting list will lead to adding another class in the first available classroom space.

The program has been approved by the North Star School District Art Education office, which allows brochures to be distributed throughout the school district. Last year’s students are given the opportunity to register before it is published in the newspaper or sent to the schools. The brochures are hand delivered to each school in packets of twenty-five for the art liaison in each school who sees that each classroom teacher receives them.

Each class is project oriented and designed to develop and build on skills learn with each project, becoming more complicated as the week progresses. What seemed so hard and confusing at the beginning of the week is very easy at the end of the week. We work on building confidence, pride and "I can do" attitudes.

All Drawing and Watercolor art projects are framed and displayed in the Hallway Gallery for everyone to see, fashion shows are held for family members at the end of the week for the sewing and quilting classes. Fantasy costume productions for family and friends, present the ears and tails of a favorite animal that magically turns into royalty with a cape and crown. We are fortunate to have a small amphitheater in the downtown park, across the street from our studio. Tourists stop to take pictures of the first family statute and the fountain. The park is dedicated to the many pioneer families that donated money to have the statute built.

We are also fortunate to have guild members that quilt and donate material and fabric scraps for the sewing classes. The department stores have been very good about giving the guild their old circular display tablecloths that transform into two full capes for the students to embellish as they wish. JC Penney gave us a 9-year supply.

Instructors are guild members or friends who are interested in children and teaching. They may come up with an idea and then we sit down and plot out the sequences of development, starting with a simple concept for a project and building on that concept, ending with one that has multiple techniques and allows for the child’s imagination to take over.

The beading classes start with little samples to learn design and the techniques, then they are off. It is always amazing what they can produce in 15 hours of class time with NO TV AND REMAINING fully focused on a project.

All sewing classes teach threading the needles, needle safety, tying knots in different ways and by the end of the week, those long stitches are small and hold everything on or together.

The Machine sewing classes build on use of the machine, bobbin winding, problem solving when the machine will not sew, proper seam allowance for the project, topstitching and finished hems. Each student makes a lined nine patch pocket for a book bag, a book cover and a pair of shorts. The second class makes a reversible vest, a hat and a nine patch pillow with borders.

ADULT WEEKEND WORKSHOPS

The guild provides the space charging only 10% of workshop fee, provides newspaper advertising in the monthly calendar, prints a brochure for the newsletter and maintains a web-site listing of all the workshops and activities. The basket workshops have been quite successful as well as the parent/child classes. Anyone can introduce a new class, even non-guild members.

Return to Fairbanks Weavers' and Spinners' Guild Home Page