Instructors: Becky Ashenden & Justin Squizzero

Pronouns: she/her/hers, he/him/his

Date: Saturday, September 25, 2021

Time: 9:00 am to 4:30 pm EST, lunch included

Location: 80 Bassett Road, Shelburne MA 01370

Cost (includes materials): $185 – $265 sliding scale

# of Participants: 10

Experience Level: All are welcome

Becky Ashenden’s (she/her/hers) 1981 introduction to the wealth of the Swedish textile world at Sätergläntan Institutet för Slöjd och Hantverk, a school renowned for weaving and other traditional crafts since 1922, gave her the motivation to pursue weaving as a life passion as well as a career. The following 13 years of production and sales added experience to her initial high-level training to build a unique set of complementary skills in both the theory and practice of weaving. Her use of equipment and techniques that have withstood the test of time adds to the value of what she has been offering her students at Vävstuga since 1991. Becky has also worked on a series of publishing projects for her own Vävstuga Press, which includes translating weaving books from Swedish to English and republishing Swedish weaving books that have gone out of print. She has also been the technical editor for several Swedish weaving books that have recently been published in English.

Handweaver Justin Squizzero (he/him/his) challenges modern definitions of progress by creating functional textiles that celebrate the natural world and the dignity of human labor. Echoing a time when utilitarian objects were entirely handcrafted, his work connects material, maker, and user across time and place. Squizzero’s venture, The Burroughs Garret, draws on the textile traditions of his northern Vermont home, marrying natural dyes and fibers with a reserved aesthetic rooted in early New England. Produced on his 19th-century farm using 200-year-old hand looms, Squizzero’s textiles examine the role of handcraft in a post-industrial society, questioning the human experience in a digital age.

Program Description

In this magical day, you’ll be exposed to a tremendous amount of information, demos, and hands-on experiences related to the Northern traditions of growing, preparing, weaving, and spinning with flax by two masters of their craft.

9:00 – Show and tell – wovens/plants/tools/etc.

10:00 – Picture presentation by Justin

10:30 – TEA

11:00 – Picture presentation by Becky

11:30 – Warp sizing demo/discussion – Justin

12:30 – Lunch & Break

1:30 – Flax prep demo/hands on – Becky

2:00 – Spinning demo/hands on – Justin

3:00 – FIKA (Swedish Tradition)

3:30 – Show and tell – yarns/fibers – Becky & Justin

4:00 – Weaving demo/hands on – Becky

Please contact us with any questions at office@fabric-of-life.org.

Our sliding scale fee allows us to keep these programs accessible to a wide range of individuals. The ‘admirer’ option covers the cost of the instructor fee, program support, marketing, and administration. The ‘friend’ option covers all of this and allows for a small profit margin to be contributed towards sustaining Fabric of Life programming for next year. The ‘enthusiast’ option covers all of this and allows for us to begin to sustain Fabric of Life programming for generations to come.

FOL will refund 90% of your fee if you cancel more than 30 days before the beginning of the program. 10% will be retained for administrative services. Cancellation with less than 30 days notice will automatically be rolled over as a credit for another program of your choice within the next year from the date of the original program. FOL will maintain the funds and carry them forward once you determine what program you would like to utilize them for. If there is a balance after paying for the second program, it will not be refunded. If a program does not run due to circumstances beyond our control, participants will receive a full refund of the fees paid.