Teacher Bios for 2024
Anne Bowers – West Virginia
Anne is from the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia where she works in her studio designing and teaching baskets. She was a production basket maker for many years, and she brings those skills into each basket that she teaches. Ribbed basketry is her specialty, and some of her baskets have taken on a sculptural perspective in recent years. Anne has participated in many basketry exhibits, shows, and has won many awards for her work. She is a member of the National Basketry Organization. She has taught on 3 basketry cruises, teaches basketry widely and lectures about the woven form. She is in her 42nd year of weaving which still fascinates her. She is soon to have her first book, “Ribbed Basketry: Traditional to Contemporary”, in print. This coming fall will mark her 33rd year of participation in the annual Over the Mountain Studio Tour. Her goal is to make each student’s class a successful one.
Trisha Brown – East Freetown, MA
Trisha is an experienced Nantucket basket weaver from New England. Trisha grew up weaving baskets under her mother’s tutelage, and has devoted her professional life refining her craft. In addition to working for the family business, DELS Nantucket Baskets, Trisha travels the East Coast from Florida to New England teaching the time-honored craft of basket weaving. Trisha is a member of the Georgia Basket Association, The North Carolina Basket Association, The North East Baskets’ Guild, The National Basketry Organization and the Basket Museum on Nantucket, and she has distinguished herself by winning Best of Show in 2011 and 2012, and First Place in the Teacher Category n 2013 according to the Northeast Basketmakers’ Guild. Recently, Trisha has used her weaving knowhow to push the boundaries of basketry by developing new designs, such as the Cottage Sewing and Jewelry Basket. Trisha is more than a weaver, she’s also a wife and a mother. Her husband also works for the family business, and helps Trisha with her traveling classes and teaching. Trisha’s daughter is sixteen and already showing promise as a weaver herself. Even with such a busy personal and professional life, Trisha still finds time to involve herself with her community and is active as Co-Chair of Communication. www.Delsnantuckets.com
Jelena Clay – Hilo, Hawaii
Jelena is a mixed media artist and owner of the Banyan Gallery. She resides in Hilo on the Island of Hawaii. Jelena works primarily with fiber and gourds and creates gourds, fiber work and Oil paintings relating to the Island flora and culture. Jelena has worked with the Hula Arts Community for many years. The Hawaiian culture is deeply rooted in nature which is her primary influenced, and her work is a culmination of her island experiences and knowledge. www.Jelenaclay.com
Sarah Edwards-Hammond – South Carolina
Sarah is one of Charleston’s finest Sweetgrass Basket Artists, she was taught this unique form of art by her mother, the late Mrs. Estelle Singleton-Edwards. This is an art that is being passed down from generation to generation. Sarah has two daughters that have learned the craft, and five granddaughters that are learning the craft. She has forty-five years of weaving (sewing) baskets and twenty years of teaching the craft.
Sarah is listed on the South Carolina Art Commission Roster for Artists, she is an active member of the Sweetgrass Basket Association, she has served with the Hand Weaving Guild of America, and the Sweetgrass Basket Cultural Art Festival.
After retiring from the Charleston County School District, she has traveled the state of South Carolina to various schools teaching students this African experience in America vividly illustrating the beauty of a diverse culture. She also conducts annual classes at John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC). She also taught classes at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Charleston Museum, the Harn Museum of Art (Florida State), Seabrook Garden Clubs, and Wild Dunes Recreation Department. She has taught at colleges and universities around the state, and at the SC Juvenile Justice Department. The most rewarding experience for her is to see her students complete a Charleston Sweetgrass Basket. Sarah is proud to be associated with the oldest form of African origin that was brought to the Lowcountry in the late 17th Century.
Pam Hermann (fka Talsky) - Wisconsin
It started with a pine needle basket in June of 1994.
Pam has since traveled to Thailand with the Royalwood tour and has made 13 trips to Alaska since 1998, to learn Pine Needle Basketry from Jeannie McFarland and Native Haida weaving with Delores Churchill. She also goes to harvest and prepare her own western red and Alaskan yellow cedar barks and Sitka spruce root. She has traveled to Scotland and Ireland to learn from the local basket makers.
She loves everything about weaving, from the gathering and preparation of materials to creating beautiful, mostly functional vessels. The connection of weaving across the cultures continues to amaze and inspire her. Sharing her knowledge and continuing to learn from other weavers brings her great joy.
Pam has earned many awards, among them; the AMB Best Coiled for General Membership in 2003. In 2004 she won the Teachers awards for both Coiled and Naturals, for Coiled in 2005, for both Coiled and Art Piece in 2006, she won the AMB best coiled Teacher in 2009 and, most recently, the AMB Coveted Viewer’s Choice Award in 2010. 3 first place awards at the NCBA convention 2013.
In 2001 she donated 3 weeks and over 200 hours of time to weave a family of willow Tepees for the Ronald McDonald house, which are still used by the kids today. Pam has taught all over the US and India. She now offers an online Mentorship and only teaches at a handful of select events through the year. Pam completed three baskets for the Hoard Museum of Fort Atkinson, which are permanently displayed in their Mystery of the Mounds Exhibit, opened April 2009.
Pam traveled to Dharmashala, India for 2 ½ weeks in November of 2010 to teach the local women pine needle basketry so that they may have an industry to earn a living and make use of their long leaf Cher pine needles.
Her work has been featured and on the cover of the Wisconsin People & Ideas Magazine. Vol56/NO 4 2010, the National Basketry Organization’s Quarterly Review Summer 2015 as well as in Fiber Art Now in 2015.
Her work has been on exhibit at the Phillip Dickel Museum in Amana, Iowa as well as the National Basketry Organization’s ‘All Things Considered’.
pjhermann37@gmail.com
Karen Kotecki- Wisconsin
Weaving has been my passion for almost 3 decades now. My license plate holder was true when I started weaving, and remains true now that I've retired - It says "I'd rather be basket weaving". Those visions of still unmade baskets continue to take up as much space in my mind as my many woven baskets take up in my house. I wouldn't have it any other way. Figuring out the process behind the more complicated designs that I love take up many hours of those cold, dark, winter nights that we have far too many of here in Wisconsin. Teaching at conventions - and cruises! - and bringing those designs to light in the basket weaving world is what I enjoy the most.
Peggy McCarson - Florida
I love colors, embellishments, and different weaves. After weaving for over 30 years and teaching for 25 years, I am still learning from taking classes and teaching students. Even in a class with a pattern, the final basket can be different depending on the skills, likes, and methods of the weaver. I have plenty of tricks to help make weaving a basket easy. Contact me for more information about any basket – mccarsonp@gmail.com
Billy Owens -Missouri
Billy is the second generation of the “Owens’” White Oak basket makers. His dad, Dale Owens, was self-taught and the first basket maker in the family. His wife Theresa helps with the weaving, as well as the children and grandchildren (the third and fourth generation). “Owens Oak Baskets”, has been around for over 30 years in the Ozarks of Southwestern Missouri. All the material used in their baskets is made from White Oak timber grown here in the Ozarks, which Billy selects, cuts and prepares by hand using a homemade hand tool which was made by his Dad called a "Split Knife". Billy has taught at conventions and workshops all over the United States. In his classes he enjoys sharing with his students everything about the Ozark and Owens method of "White Oak" basketry, from selecting the right tree to how he prepares the material for weaving. It is his goal when he teaches, that first and foremost everyone leaves with a finished basket that will last a lifetime and they can be proud of, as well as have a fun time learning about the process of White Oak basket making. He wants to ensure the Tradition of Ozark White Oak basketry lives on. billy.owens@ymail.com
Marilyn Parr- Michigan
When Marilyn was introduced to basket weaving about 40 years ago, little did she know the journey it would take her on! She started out as a student, attending the conventions organized by the Associations of Michigan Basketmakers. Five years ago, she was approached by the Crossroad Weaving Guild in Okemos, Michigan to present and teach a couple of her designs that she made for a local quilt shop. From the encouragement that is received, and adventure has begun! She really enjoys working with wood bases and designing unique leather handles for her baskets. This has also brought her in touch with local Amish gentlemen that take her ideas from paper into reality! She feels that it is an honor to be able to spend time with other basket weavers and hopes to share her experiences and knowledge that she has gathered with others. www.4loveofbaskets.com
Mary Price
Mary is a fulltime traveling basket weaving instructor. In 1996, she wove her first basket, taught by her sister, and was instantly hooked! Since then, she has continually advanced her skills by attending basket weaving conferences throughout the US while building her business, Sunset Ridge Basketry. Teaching basket weaving has become her passion, specializing in practical, functional reed baskets. Mary enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for the art of basket weaving with others. She offers classes at basketry conventions, on a basketweaving cruise, campgrounds, retirement communities, churches, libraries and community park districts, civic centers. She is now in her 26th year of teaching and loves it more & more with each class she teaches.
Eric Jon Taylor – Tennessee
Eric lives in middle Tennessee and has been involved in traditional basket making for over 30 years. His love for working with wood and the Black Ash tree inspired him to experiment further in the art. He started creating his own contemporary designs that combined the elements of Shaker and Nantucket baskets. He has won several awards and has been featured in multiple publications. One of his baskets was shown in The Cole Ware Collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.