Our purpose is to promote, encourage, and share handweaving and spinning.
- The guild is dedicated to continuing the love of fiber arts through workshops, programs, a library, and community to its members.
- Through outreach of various communities and events, we aim to connect skilled fiber artists with new and budding artists.
- We also reach out to the public on the importance of handweaving and spinning by participating at different events. At these events we do demonstrations and provide free activities that are fun for all ages.
Now that August has arrived, it’s time to gather again, share our summer adventures, admire one another’s projects, and perhaps enable each other with ideas for just one more skein of yarn or one more fleece.
Sharon Farrar – President
Current Officers
- President – Sharon Farrar
- Vice President – Monica Rook
- Secretary – Laurie Kim
- Treasurer – Amy Dixon
Standing Committees
- Audits: Lindsay Dion
- Historian – Historical Committee
- Library – Juliet Vitz
- Membership – Sophie Britten
- Newsletter – Sophie Britten
- Publicity – Nikki Crain
- Programs – Monica Rook
- Refreshments – Charlotte Pavelko
- Show & Sale – Monica Rook
- Sunshine – Charlotte Pavelko
- Workshops – Monica Rook
- Website – Mike Rook
- Facebook – Lisa Takata
- Instagram – Hannah Rook
History
The guild was founded in 1953 in Delano by Cora Kyte with six members with the purpose of promoting, encouraging, and sharing handweaving and spinning. By 1955, the guild had grown with members from Springville, Porterville, Bakersfield, Wasco, Buttonwillow, Visalia, Hanford, and Riverdale communities. In 1958, a library was established that is still alive today through periodic additions and donations of books, magazines, and DVDs. Starting 1959, weavers set up looms for the Porterville State Hospital; continuing into the 1990s. Members also donated their time, and yarns to workshops at the local high schools.
Today, the guild is made up of approximately 65 members mostly from Reedley/ Yokuts Valley south to Bakersfield, with some even further than the Central Valley. We continue our purpose through outreach in various communities and events, such as: Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Spinning and Weaving Week, International Ag Expo, Tulare County Museum’s Jamboree, and at our own annual guild show, Harvest of Handwovens each October. We come together to uplift and continue the love of fiber arts through extracurricular meetings and study groups and support each other as artists and people.
More Guild Information
