In the very beginning we were extremely fortunate to find teachers we felt had the philosophy, foresight and personality to help develop a fiber arts school.  Basically, all good teachers must have the practical knowledge.  They must be competent and know how to impart that certain’extra’ quality:  a warm, friendly personality that wraps itself around the student in a nurturing way, encouraging confidence, sharing and trust.  The strength, growth and success of Sievers School for over 30 years is due to our teachers – there is no question about this.

Nancy Adams
Nancy’s interest in fibers and weaving ran the gamut from owning and raising her own flock of sheep, to spinning their fleece, to weaving with it.  She came to Sievers in 1986 for her first weaving class, and has returned almost every year since that time for more.  In 2002 she became an assistant instructor with longtime friend and fellow weaver Louise French for intermediate weaving classes at Sievers.  Now Nancy is excited to have the opportunity to share her love of weaving by teaching it to others.  Nancy makes her home in Rochester, MN.

Carol Anderson
Designer and owner of Cottage Creations, Carol publishes and supplies knitting patterns to over 500 shops nationwide, including the Sievers Shop.  Her illustrated booklets have particular appeal for the advanced beginner or intermediate knitter and range from scarves to afghans to sweaters, with the “Wonderful Wallaby,” no doubt, her trademark design.  A retired teacher of Special Needs students and mother of four, Carol lives with her husband on their St. Ansgar, IA farm.  “A perfect day,” says Carol, “includes at least two or three hours of knitting!”

Jo Campbell-Amsler
Teaching throughout the United States for guilds, basket conferences and art schools, Jo instructs her students in rib-style techniques for baskets made of willow and other gathered materials.  From her eastern Iowa home studio, Willow Ridge, she creates a wide range of baskets, from traditional forms to sculptural one-of-a-kind pieces.  Jo’s work has been featured in magazines and books, and selected for numerous exhibits across the U.S. including a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.  In November, 2012 she hosted her 2nd basket tour to Ireland, visiting with willow basket weavers there, and learning new skills and techniques.

Betty Glynn Carlson
Betty has been a weaver since 1972, but when she discovered Navajo weaving she felt a special kinship with this simple way to weave that invites stillness and reflection.  In the Navajo tradition it has been said, “You must spin your warp threads strong enough to hold your prayers.”  When Betty sits at her Navajo loom she seeks to honor this tradition.  Each rug grows out of her contemplative practice, and in the process of weaving, the wool yarns are woven together with the threads of life.  Betty’s rugs have been exhibited at juried shows in the Midwest, and she regularly teaches Navajo weaving at the Weavers Guild of MN.

Sandy De Master
An avid knitter since 1970, Sandy took up spinning in 1988 and soon began a life of raising and breeding Finnsheep, and marketing their wool.  Her main interest is in ethnic and traditional knitting, and she enjoys designing traditional mittens, socks and sweaters based on the patterns for Fair Isle and Shetland, as well as those from Latvia, Estonia and Finland.  Sandy and her friend and co-teacher Mary Germain co-published an article and pattern on Latvian knitting in Piecework magazine.  They have taught knitting classes at Sievers since 1999, as well as throughout the Midwest, and offered Latvian Mittens classes on both coasts.

Christi Eales Ehler
Christi enjoys exploring many different on- and off-loom fiber techniques, including weaving and basketry.  She finds inspiration in historic textile traditions from all over the world and in her love of nature, as well as contact with fellow weavers and students.  Past President of Wisconsin Handweavers Inc., Christi has taught weaving to area guilds, and at the Wisconsin Spin-In and Midwest Weavers Conference.  Her work has won awards at the WHI annual exhibit, other juried WI art fairs, and been featured in Handwoven magazine. 

Daniel Essig
Born in St Louis, MO, Daniel studied at Southern Illinois U., Penland School and the U. of Iowa.  In 2000 he moved to Asheville, NC where he maintains a full-time studio at Grovewood Gallery.  Dan lectures and offers workshops at book centers, craft schools, colleges, and artist retreats as well as privately. He has created wooden and sculptural books for over 20 years and is a recipient of the NC Artist Fellowship Grant.  His work is exhibited nationally and in numerous private and public collections, most recently the Smithsonian Renwick Museum, U. of Iowa Libraries and Topeka Library.  Many of his sculptural pieces are featured in The Penland Book of Handmade Books. 

Mary Sue Fenner
A Clothing, Textiles and Design major at U. WI-Stout, art studies at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Polytechnic, England, Kansas U. and a UW-Milwaukee MFA gave Mary Sue an excellent background in fibers.  Now retired from teaching Marketing Communications at N.W. Technical College, she maintains a business, Fiber Designs, in her Abrams, WI home.  Noted for use of bright colors and her own handspun yarns, Mary Sue’s clothing and accessories are seen in area shows, galleries and shops, and featured in such magazines as Handwoven, Belle Armoire, Altered Couture, Sew Somerset and Haute Handbags.  Recently she won the HGA Award at the WHI Inc. “Loominosity” show.

Marianne Fons
A summer regular among the Sievers faculty for nearly 20 years, Marianne retired from teaching in 2001 to become co-owner and editor of Love of Quilting magazine.  Now a part-time Washington Island resident, she returned last summer to Sievers, her all-time favorite teaching venue.  Marianne is well-known among quilters as author with Liz Porter of many best-selling quilting books including Quilter’s Complete Guide, and as host of Love of Quilting nationwide on public television, now co-hosted with her “quilty” daughter Mary Fons.

Mary Germain
A knitter most of her life, Mary has taught knitting, weaving and other fiber arts since 1983, and was owner of The Wool Works yarn shop in Milwaukee from 1985-96.  Her woven and knitted garments have won awards at the WHI Annual Shows and Harrisville Designs’ Convergence Contests.  Inspired by a Latvian friend, Mary co-published a Latvian knitting article and pattern in Piecework magazine with friend and fellow teacher Sandy De Master.  Trips to Latvia in 2001 and Estonia in 2005 provided Mary with more knitting inspiration, which she enjoys sharing with her students.

Ellen Graf
In 1992 Ellen made her first quilt in a class at Sievers. Since then, she has made many more and received numerous awards, including the American Quilter’s Society Show in Paducah, KY, and International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX.  Her quilts have been seen in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine and the AQS Quilt Art Calendar, and Ellen was recently a featured guest on Mary Fons’ “Quilty,” an online program for beginning quilters.    Her year-round home on Washington Island allows Ellen to share her love of quilting in summer and winter classes at Sievers, teaching good technique while encouraging students’ individual creativity.

Chad Hagen
Chad has explored the resist dyeing and surface design of handfelted wool since 1979, with BA and MS degrees from U-WI and MFA from Cranbrook.  Her dyed, pieced, beaded and stitched felt work has been seen on the covers of Surface Design Journal, Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, and Fiberarts magazines and in major collections.  Chad writes extensively on art and feltmaking, including 3 Lark books:  Fabulous Felt Hats, Weekend Crafter: Feltmaking, and Fabulous Felted Scarves.  She teaches workshops in the U.S. and Europe, and maintains a full-time studio in Asheville, NC, where she is currently exploring the use of handmade paper for bookmaking.

Rita Hagenbruch
Rita is inspired by the textiles she has examined on her travels to Sweden, particularly those for the table.  In 2012 she was fortunate to see the 100th anniversary “Hemsjlöd Väv Show” in Stockholm’s Nordic Museum, featuring current woven work from all over Sweden.  Weaving brings joy into her busy life, and Rita loves to share this and inspire others through teaching, at conferences and workshops throughout the Midwest.  Rita’s work has been featured in Handwoven magazine, and she is currently weaving lacy plaid baby blankets in preparation for becoming a new grandma.  What pleasure it will be for her to teach weaving to a new generation!

Barbara Heike
Barbara’s background is in fiber art, but wire-worked jewelry has a special appeal to her.  Since learning and refining the techniques for Viking Knit jewelry, she has enjoyed working with this ancient art form and teaching it to others.  Recently, her work was awarded Honorable Mention at the “Artists of the New North” exhibition at the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, WI.  Barbara has taught beading and weaving classes at Sievers, throughout the Midwest and in her Green Bay home studio, Windflower Studio Arts.

Deb Jones
Living in Black River Falls, WI, Deb is an enthusiastic handspinner and has taught workshops throughout the state, including the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival.  She is the owner of The Fiber Garden, a year-round fiber arts school, gift mercantile and fiber shop that has been featured in such magazines as American Small Farm, Impressions, and Positive Thinking.  (More information can be found at:  www.fibergarden.com)   For Deb it’s a means to promote fiber arts and combine her love of spinning, teaching and country living!

Donna Kallner
In Donna's work, ancient textile techniques and old-school natural dyeing combine with new-school surface design and digital technologies to tell timeless stories. As a fiber arts teacher and writer, she helps others share their own stories in ways that are unique to each one of them.  Based in rural northern Wisconsin, Donna teaches and exhibits her work across the country, and is the author of New Age Looping:  A Handbook for Fiber Artists.  Learn more at www.donnakallner.com or facebook.com/donnakallnerfiberart.

Joyce Krueger
Joyce is a fiber artist teaching Traditional Rug Hooking since 1980, at national and international rug schools, for private rug groups, and in her Waukesha, WI home studio.  An accredited McGown Teacher, she is an active member of the Assoc. of Traditional Hooking Artists, McGown Guild, and Cream City Rug Hooking Guild.  Joyce enjoys personalizing commercial patterns as well as helping students with original design ideas.  She writes articles for and has had her work featured in the ATHA and McGown Newsletters, Rug Hooking magazine, several rug hooking books, and has received awards for her rugs.

Daryl Lancaster
A handweaver and fiber artist known for her award-winning handwoven garments, Daryl has been creating and constructing garments for more than 45 years.  From her home in New Jersey she travels widely, giving lectures and workshops to guilds, conferences and craft centers all over the United States and Canada.  The former Features Editor for Handwoven magazine, Daryl frequently contributes articles to various weaving and sewing publications as well as maintaining her own blog (www.weaversew.com/wordblog). 

Kay Normann
Starting in 1994 with Jeanette Biederman’s Beginning Basket class at Sievers, a passion was born for Kay.  She now has a studio in her Arizona home, where she teaches friends to weave baskets.  And, her friends bring their friends…  After spending 22 summers on Washington Island, Kay and her husband sold their vacation home.  She now returns to the Island and Sievers to weave in classes with fellow ‘basket babes’ she has met at Sievers, continuing their mutual love of basketry, and to teach Beginning Basketmaking with her good friend (and former Island neighbor) Drew Tibbetts.

Carol Huebscher Rhoades
Living in Madison, WI, Carol has researched traditional knitting in Scandinavia, with a special interest in the wools and techniques for traditional handspun and knitted garments, particularly those of Scandinavia and England.  She is Technical Editor of and frequent contributor to Spin-Off magazine, writes for Piecework, and translates Swedish, Norwegian and Danish knitting books into English.  Carol’s teaching has taken her around the U.S., including SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat) and the WI Sheep & Wool Festival, as well as to Canada, England, Norway, Denmark and New Zealand.

Carol Riedner
As a retired K-8 Art teacher, Carol brings her love of and talent for working with color to her life as a fiber artist.  Over the years, she credits classes at Sievers for having inspired her work in silk painting, batik, fabric design and garment construction.  Nuno and wet felting are ongoing creative pursuits for Carol in recent years, and art to wear is her passion.  Carol sells her work in galleries, shops and shows in Wisconsin and North Carolina. She and her husband, who enjoys woodworking, make their home in Fond du Lac, WI.

Mary Jo Scandin
Mary Jo's students are motivated in their surface design work by her enthusiasm for color and design, plus her sense of fun which she readily shares.  She and her husband recently began a new chapter in their lives by moving to Minneapolis, where Mary Jo has been busy creating a studio in their new space and continuing to work with fibers and surface design on a regular basis.  She has licensed and marketed her designs as posters, notecards and plaques, and 3 children's books feature her painted silk illustrations. Mary Jo’s original work can be seen at the Seasons On the St. Croix Gallery in Hudson, WI as well as the Blue Dolphin shop in Door County.

Deb Sharpee
Deb’s interest in weaving was first sparked as a small child, watching her grandmother weave rag rugs.  She now can’t believe it has been over 30 years since she wove her first rag rug.  Many miles of warp later, Deb has much to share with her students.  Her work has been published in Weaver’s, Complex Weavers Journal, Crafts Report and Handwoven magazines, as well as in the book Weaving Contemporary Rag Rugs.  Deb and her husband live on a small farm near Madison, WI, where she maintains a herd of angora goats.

Robyn Spady
Robyn is a fiber artist and master weaver who has been weaving for over 40 years. In 2004 she completed HGA’s “Certificate of Excellence.”  Weaving has always been a part of her life, beginning with the baby blanket woven for her by her great-grandmother on a loom that Robyn now has and uses daily.  She teaches throughout the United States and Canada, and has authored many articles and publications.  (See www.spadystudios.com for more information.)  Robyn is committed to turning the weaving world on to four-shaft weaves, uncommon weave patterns, double-faced fabrics and narrow warp weaves. 

Karen Tembreull
As an artist focused in basketry, Karen is continuously inspired by the abundance of natural material that surrounds her Upper Michigan home studio.  She has made baskets since 1983 and taught since the early 90’s, primarily with locally gathered barks, roots and fibers.  Her work has won many awards, including “Best Teacher’s Natural Piece” at the 2011 AMB Convention and “Best Professional Mixed Media” at the 2010 NCBA Convention.  Inducted into the MI State Univ. Museum Heritage Program’s “Heritage Basket Collection” project, 3 of Karen’s baskets will be permanently housed, exhibited, and featured in its accompanying book.  Her work is also seen in Lark’s book, 500 Baskets.

Drew Tibbetts
20 years ago Drew took her first basket weaving class from Jeanette Biederman at Sievers.  Since childhood she had enjoyed all types of handcrafts, but after making that first basket, Drew knew she’d found her favorite.  She feels so lucky to have summered on Washington Island for a number of years, giving her the opportunity each year to take more classes and improve her skills.  Drew and husband Jim have now retired to the Island, and she looks forward to sharing her love of basket weaving and Sievers with aspiring new weavers, co-teaching with her friend and former neighbor Kay Normann. 

Connie Westbrook
Connie discovered weaving at a local art fair and immediately knew that sitting behind a loom was where she belonged.  She has passionately pursued handweaving since her first Beginning class at Sievers in 2003, patiently and diligently studying the work of some of the most respected weavers in the country.  She felt truly lucky when she was asked to join the Sievers staff in 2007.  Connie is a volunteer weaver at the Island’s Farm Museum, active in study groups, has been published in Handwoven magazine, and recognized for her outstanding abilities as an innovative weaver.  She believes weaving is meant to be shared, and is eager to teach others what she has learned. 

Heather Winslow
As a fiber artist Heather specializes in nature-inspired, classical handwoven clothing.  She envisions her garment designs as 3-dimensional sculpture, using subtle simplicity to adorn the body in a positive way and make the wearer feel “special” by the very act of putting them on.  Heather loves teaching and does so locally at The Fine Line in St. Charles, IL, nationally, and internationally.  She is the author of More On Moorman: Theo Moorman Inlay Technique Adapted To Clothing, and numerous articles in fiber magazines such as Handwoven, Spin-Off and Weavers.

Ken Workowski
While paging through Mother Earth News magazine in 1977, Ken came across an article on building willow furniture—the perfect opportunity to combine his carpentry skills with his love of nature.  Thus began a home business for Ken and his wife Michelle, The Nature of Things, building home furnishings that use such materials as willow, birch and poplar bark.  They craft furniture, baskets, lamps and shades, brooms, mirror frames, and one-of-a-kind pieces, selling their creations through art shows and shops across the U.S., and enjoying their self-sufficient lifestyle.

Judith T. Yamamoto
Judie enjoyed her Beginning Weaving class at Sievers in 1981 so much that she just kept coming back for more.  Now she teaches and lectures nationally, and writes about weaving and related topics for magazines.  Notable for its use of color and blending, her woven work and polymer clay jewelry have been featured in Handwoven magazine and seen at a variety of fiber shows, galleries and shops.  Judie lives on Washington Island and demonstrates handweaving at the Farm Museum on an antique loom she and her husband Dave restored.

Our Staff

Howard & Ann H. Young, Owners
Ann’s involvement with Sievers began in 1979, when founder Walter Schutz asked her to be General Manager of the school.  She soon became an enthusiastic weaving student and later a basic weaving instructor.  Over the years she was more and more involved in the school’s operation and, when Walter retired in 1987, Ann and her carpenter husband Howard (Butch), became the owners of Sievers School and Sievers Benchwork.  In 1989 Ann added a retail consignment shop, selling the fiber arts and fine crafts made by the teachers and students.

Cindra Hokkanen
In 1986 Cindra began working in the office for Walter Schutz and hasn’t strayed since!  She thoroughly enjoys the variety of her duties at Sievers, such as writing and editing the school brochure and web site copy, registering students, working with the consignment artists and inventory, processing mailed and online inquiries and orders, and interacting with the many Sievers visitors.  Cindy and her husband Tom, who teaches at the local K-12 school, are both active in a number of Island organizations and groups.  Her favorites are singing and community theater.

Carolyn Foss
Carolyn has worked at Sievers since 1990, even returning in the summer when she and her family spent six years in Washington State.  Besides bookkeeping, Carolyn is the Sievers photographer whose pictures are seen in the brochure, online newsletter and Facebook page that she created and maintains.  She is responsible for the yarn, book and supply purchases for the shop, and sometimes has the pleasure of giving an impromptu knitting lesson to a visitor.  In addition to knitting, Carolyn enjoys reading, and walking or jogging her way through quiet Island mornings.

Many of our instructors have their own web sites not mentioned here.  Check out our 'Links' page on the Sievers web site for the full list.