Damascus Fiber Arts School

Winter Term begins Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 10am.

Bad weather days may mean closure.

We will have new baskets, spinning classes

And Artist’s Talks this term.

Call us or stop by.

Tapestry and Navajo Weaving, Knitting, Spinning, Ravenstail Twining, and Dyeing

Housed in a two-room schoolhouse over a century old, the Damascus Fiber Arts School offers continuing classes in the art and craft of handwoven tapestry. Students weave on Navajo style looms, using traditional wooden tools and on various frame and pipe looms. Tapestry artist Audrey Moore, who owns the School, has taught Navajo weaving in this building for over thirty years. Audrey and Terry Olson teach Tapestry and Navajo Weaving on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Claudia Standley, popular local knitting instructor, helps students with any knitting project on Wednesday afternoons. Claudia knits wonderful sweaters, socks, mittens and more- some offered for sale in the school shop, along with her handwoven kitchen towels.

Joane Duncan teaches two spinning workshops each term. She is highly experienced spinning with many different fibers. She can help any student with their spinning issues. One class usually focuses on beginning to intermediate skills. In the other you might learn to ply or spin designer yarns.

Ravenstail twining weaver John Beard meets monthly with students working on their own projects and has scheduled a beginner class for Thursdays this fall. Many people have seen John demonstrate Ravenstail at local events, but he usually only teaches this class once a year for beginners.

Coming down from the mountain, Shelly Tarbet offers two baskets each term. Shelly researches unusual, often Native American style baskets, makes each one, and then offers the class. This year she will give classes during the day on Wednesday.

Audrey Moore began weaving on the Navajo loom in the 1970’s and began teaching others soon after. When the Damascus Pioneer Craft School closed in 2005, Audrey wasn’t ready to retire, so she reopened as the Damascus Fiber Arts School.

Audrey Moore’s tapestries have been seen in galleries public and private, exhibitions juried and unjuried, and in two of the FiberArt books. Audrey and rep weaver Rosalie Nielson were featured in the Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery in Portland, Oregon in 2006.

Presently Audrey continues her tapestry series of lively dresses known as “The Ladies”. In May 2009, the Avenue West Gallery in Spokane, WA, exhibited this series in conjunction with the ANWG (Weaving) Conference. In 2010, ten of the Ladies were in the William and Joseph Gallery in Madrid, NM, during HGA Convergence.