Learn from Great Arts Teachers

Laura is a life-long knitter and former engineer and math teacher. She enjoys combining all the best of her experience in her favorite career, knitting design and education. Her designs feature innovative construction with clear instruction.

Rachel Snack is a weaver, educator, and textile artist based in Philadelphia. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fiber & Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her Master of Science in Textile Design from Philadelphia University.

About Me & My Teaching Approach Professional Background With over 30 years of professional performance and 25 years of teaching experience, my musical journey has spanned across Mexico, Canada, and Brazil. I am a multi-instrumentalist (Bass, Guitar, Piano, and Drums) and a composer currently preparing for an international performance contract with Disney.

Kelsey Wiskirchen is WARP’s Executive Director, a weaver, embroiderer, indigo dyer, and teacher. She has volunteered with weaving cooperatives in Bolivia and South Africa, and has worked in a number of community outreach programs focused on textiles with art educators, underserved youth, and the refugee community.

Roiana Buckmaster lives in Mt Pleasant, TN, working a small farm with her husband to build a registered flock of Icelandic Sheep. She was given knitting needles at age six (to keep out from underfoot), embroidery at ten (to sit still) and plunged into the rabbit hole of the fiber arts world from there.

Bex grew up in her mother’s (Carol Leigh Brack-Kaiser) Hillcreek Fiber Studio. She started to learn weaving and dying at a young age and has traveled the country for over 40 years with the family business vending and teaching at fiber, weaving and knitting Shows.

I have been teaching classical piano for thirty years. I believe in solid foundations. Playing with a free arm and wrist and touching the keys in right way are all essential for expressive playing and mastery. For this there are exercises, which include scales and arpeggios.

I’m a touring and recording musician with years of real-world experience playing live, writing songs, recording in the studio, and developing my own sound as an artist. I have had a song I wrote featured on the hit tv series, Yellowstone.

Joan Sheridan is a weaver, knitter, spinner, fiber explorer, and owner of Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion, Michigan since 2000. She confesses that every room in her house holds fiber tools and projects, and “bored” is absolutely not in her vocabulary. Joan has taught and presented at conferences, festivals, for guilds and shops, and on tour in Norway.

Sheryl Kessler attended the University of the Arts and graduated from Philadelphia University (Jefferson University). She has taught privately and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Continuing Education program. Sheryl has been working with textiles since 1984 beginning with machine knitting.