Weaving
The Folk Art Guild weaving studio produces practical, useful garments and homegoods with a palette that reflects the natural landscape of East Hill Farm and the Finger Lakes.
“I love coming back to the weaving studio each autumn to work with the colors and textures of wool after the gardening season. For many years I worked only with the natural undyed wool from the flock of sheep that we raised at the Guild, all shades of gray and brown. Later, I felt I had to incorporate color into my work. I didn’t know where to start, so I went outside to nature. I observed the colors of the trees and the autumn landscape and developed a color palette based on what I saw in the natural world, which I love.”
— Artist’s Statement from the Folk Art Guild Weaving Studio
Weaving
has been a part of the Folk Art Guild since the late 1960s. The spacious second-floor weaving studio was built in the late 1970s, where large windows on three sides flood the space with natural light. We have two Swedish Glimakra countermarch floor looms, one Gilmore jack floor loom and one Kyra jack floor loom. The space is shared with the Natural Fiber Studio.
There have been up to six weavers at work here for decades. Each craft worker finds their own focus, we have produced a wide array of items over the decades: blankets, rugs, ponchos, tapestries, wall hangings incorporating dried flowers, and fabric for sewn garments woven from wool, cotton, silk, linen, tencel, rayon, chenille and more.
Our work is available in the East Hill Gallery and at Guild Open Studio Events.
Meet Truus
Since the early 2000s, Truus Radin has been the head of the weaving studio. She came to the Folk Art Guild as a weaver, gardener and mother in 1976. She has participated in every aspect of fiber work at the Guild including shepherding, spinning, dyeing, felting, knitting, weaving and constructing garments from handwoven cloth. Truus works mainly with wool to make blankets, jackets, shawls, hats and our popular Folk Art Guild ponchos with colorways inspired by Finger Lakes vistas. She also uses chenille, rayon, silk, and tencel for scarves. Her past students have become prolific, award-winning weavers, including Susan Szczotka, who learned to weave from Truus at Craft Weekend in 2011 and is the primary instructor for the 2024 Craft Weekend.
