Instructor Bios

Local Instructors

  • Image Judy Ness

    Judy Ann Ness is a tapestry artist and fiber arts teacher in Eugene, OR. She is primarily interested in color in weaving, spinning and dyeing. Her tapestry work is usually figurative with feather forms or landscapes often featured. Judy’s special interests are in Norwegian textiles and Diné (Navajo) weaving. Her students are encouraged to participate in an atmosphere of fun while exploring their unique voices and nurturing the urge to create.

  • Image Marilyn Robert

    Marilyn Robert has worked in the field of textile design and fiber art since the 1980s. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fibers from the University of Oregon. She has been the recipient of grants and awards, including a Japan Foundation Artist Grant in 1997 to travel in Japan for study of traditional indigo-dyed textiles and contemporary fiber art. Her artwork is exhibited internationally. She is the author of several articles about textiles, and enjoys curatorial work. She taught for thirteen years at Lane Community College as head of the Fibers program, and as an adjunct Fine Arts professor at the University of Oregon, both in Eugene, Oregon. Marilyn is the co-founder of Eugene Textile Center and currently travels, lecturing and teaching workshops. In 2001, she organized a textile tour to Turkey, where she returned in 2012 for the First International Textile Conference in Istanbul. She teaches both surface design techniques, such as dyeing, printing, mechanical and chemical manipulations of cloth, as well as handweaving. Marilyn is passionate about dyeing with botanical dyes and continues to teach and to learn more about this, her favorite subject.

    Visit Marilyn's website for a glimpse of her amazing artwork: marilynrobert.com

  • Image Shanna Suttner

    Shanna loves all things fiber!

  • Guest Instructors

  • Image Joanne Hall

    Joanne Hall has been teaching weaving since 1971 in drawloom weaving, tapestry weaving, Swedish weaves, band weaving, warping and beginning weaving. She is the author of two books on warping the loom: Tying up the Countermarch Loom, and Learning to Warp your Loom as well as Mexican Tapestry Weaving. She has a Masters in Textile Design from the University of Montana and Cal Poly.

  • Image Martina Celerin

    Martina Celerin is an artist by way of the natural sciences. She pushes the dimensional limits of wall art to create weaving-felting fusions that are 3D tapestries.

    Her inspiration is drawn from both nature and her imagination. All of her pieces integrate the materials, landscapes or emotions that she has drawn from her travels and experiences.

    Read more and view some of Martina's art on her website: www.martinacelerin.com

  • Image Patty Huffer

    Patty Huffer has been weaving since 1981. After graduating from Central Washington University, she took a summer weaving class. This began her almost 40 years of weaving and teaching others to weave and spin. The love of fibers and teaching others has been a life-long inspiration for her. There are new ideas coming from students and other weavers all the time. She always looks forward to the moment when each student understands for the first time how a woven piece is constructed resulting in a beautiful finished product.