Learn from Great Arts Teachers

Gardening host Bethany Joy Hebbard is a knitter, sewist, and dyer. Her husband is a permaculture-trained farmer, and together they keep a large garden on their suburban homestead in Jamestown, North Carolina. Bethany has a strong love of local fibers and dye traditions, and teaches classes on cultivating dye plants, fresh-leaf indigo, and more.

Flavio is the Director of Operations at Lessonface and has a bachelor's degree in music production and a diploma in electric bass performance. During his 15-year professional musician career he was frequently responsible for managing and/or producing the bands he was a part of.

I was raised in an environment steeped in textile arts, guided and inspired by my mother and both of my grandmothers, all of whom were exceptionally skilled fiber artists. I began studying bobbin lace in 2010 after encountering it at a historical reenactment, and around the same time I started creating handmade buttons while producing period clothing for family and friends.

After a long career teaching writing to people of all ages, backgrounds, and interests, I have settled in Lexington, NC, to write and live. I love to walk, particularly around my small town neighborhood or along mountain trails. I love my one-year old rescue pup Colby and my four-month old grandson Ward.

Laurie lives and works at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. As a child she was fascinated by all things fiber, particularly when visiting Colonial Williamsburg. She learned to spin first, on a spinning wheel built by her grandfather. Spinners hang out with weavers and spinning became the entry drug as she developed her fiber habit.

An adept disciple of Pt Tejendra Narayan Majumdar for the past six years, I have immersed myself in the rich tradition of Indian classical music, specifically focusing on the sarod. My musical journey began a decade ago with vocal training, and over the years, I have expanded my expertise by undergoing rigorous tabla training under the guidance of maestro Soumen Nandi.

For over 35 years, Bobbie Pell has shared her love of story with audiences of all ages through written works, storytelling performances, and workshops. Her specialty area, Celtic folklore and traditions, focuses on faerie lore, ballads, and archetypical myths. Her first book, THE HIGHLAND HEART, explores themes of true love, faerie encounters, and a hero's journey to wholeness.

I am a Venezuelan musician and music educator from Cumaná, Sucre, with many years of experience performing, teaching, and promoting Venezuelan music and cultural traditions. Throughout my musical career, I have performed and worked with guitar, cuatro, mandolin, bass, percussion, and ensemble performance.

Louie Pearlman has been an innovator and a maverick of the New York City comedy and arts scene since 2002. During his career, he's taught comedy, public speaking, and team-building across the continent with students of all ages. Louie is currently a writer on seasons two and three of Sesame Street's podcast "Foley and Friends," airing on the Audible platform.

Heather Storta has been passionate about knitting from her first lesson in 2003. As a devoted lifelong learner, the minute she learned about TKGA and the Master Knitter program, she signed up. She became a TKGA-Certified Master Knitter in 2014 and was immediately asked to serve on the MHK Committee.