Age-old weaving methods with contemporary appeal in the North Bay

The ancient arts of spinning, dyeing and weaving are thriving in the North Bay. More than 100 artisans make up the Redwood Guild of Fiber Arts, meeting monthly to share and improve their skills in a variety of fiber-based arts that also include felting, basket-making, knitting and tapestry.

“We’re doing the very same thing that has been done for 10,000 years,” said Linda Cannefax of Santa Rosa, a weaver and guild member for over 30 years. “Our fingers are touching those fibers just like our ancestors’.”

There is both a lack of awareness of handwoven and handspun techniques and a resurgence of interest in them, Cannefax explained. The guild - which includes members from Sonoma, Lake, Marin and Mendocino counties who are in their mid-20s to mid-80s - is growing, Cannefax said, but she’s seen this before. In the 1960s and ’70s there was also a huge resurgence of interest, she said, but then it diminished.

“Now the pendulum is swinging back,” Cannefax said. “People are beginning to realize we have to use our resources, and doing things by hand is a natural resource.”

Bill Jackson of Guerneville, a weaver who joined the guild four years ago, explained that the concept of “sheep to shawl” is popular among members. The idea is not drastically different from other nature-based or agricultural movements, like the slow-food ethos, that encourage people to understand why locally sourced materials, like food and fiber, are beneficial to our health and environment.

Jackson said many guild members raise their own sheep or Angora goats, spin their own wool and use natural dyes from things like oak galls, Queen Anne’s lace (a flower) or onion skins. In fact, the guild offers workshops and presentations that teach people how to make and use these dyes and to support their local fiber-shed. “It’s kind of like a watershed,” said Cannefax, referring to the idea that, like water, people rely on the fibers that are grown within their own geographic area.

But it’s not just locally sourced elements that make handmade cloth stand out, Jackson said. “The feel of it is different - the intensity of the color, the softness, the drape, the quality of the fabric.”

The present-day guild started in 1949 and originally was called the Redwood Empire Weavers Guild. A few years later, the name changed to include spinners, and in the past decade the guild officially changed its name to reflect fiber artisans of all sorts. They meet on the first Wednesday of the month - except in summer - at the Luther Burbank Art and Garden Center in Santa Rosa. Beginners and experts are welcome. As Jackson and Cannefax explained, the guild offers a community of like-minded people who “speak the same language” and inspire one another.

The public is invited to view and purchase guild members’ work at the 65th anniversary sale on Saturday and Nov. 22, 1 to 4 p.m., at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St. The sale is concurrent with the International Fiber Arts Exhibition, a juried show held every two years in Sebastopol, that runs from Oct. 22 through Nov. 28, also at the Center for the Arts. For more information, visit www.redwoodgfa.org.