Stories from the Edmonton handweaving community.
The Weaving Stories Project
Through interviews with local weavers, Weaving Stories shares the joy, resourcefulness, resilience, and creativity of the weaving community in Edmonton. These stories explore how weaving connects Edmontonians to each other, to our varied cultural heritage, and to the tradition of the craft.
The weavers we talked to represent the diverse and vibrant handweaving community in Edmonton. Some have woven for two years, others for sixty. Their weaving is grounded in community, from Ukranian, Métis, and Filippina cultural traditions to the shared learning done in guilds and groups. These weavers contribute to our city’s craft landscape by making, teaching, building businesses, and volunteering.
We hope that these interviews shine a light on the incredible work and passion of Edmonton’s weavers, and that they provide inspiration for current and future weavers to contribute their own unique voices to the ongoing story of weaving.
Why Weaving?
Weavers share what drew them to weaving and why they love the craft.
Elizabeth Holinaty
Elizabeth reflects on decades spent weaving traditional Ukrainian clothing for dancers and choirs.
Métis Sash Weavers within Alberta
Krista, Anna, and Chris discuss how weaving sashes connects them to their Métis culture.
Edmonton Weavers' Guild
Members of the Monday Morning Study Group talk about how the guild keeps weavers learning and growing.
Pam Cypher
Pam shares how weaving connects her to both her Filippina roots and to the weavers from around the world who she meets while volunteering at Fort Edmonton Park.
Shannon Nelson
Shannon talks about building a small textile business and the beauty of Canadian wool.
What Keeps You Weaving?
Weavers look forward to the future of the craft and what’s next on their looms.
Project Goals
Weaving is a key heritage activity in Alberta: we have looms hiding in basements across the province, and weavers ranging from beginners to nationally-recognized experts weaving away. Yet despite weaving’s rich history where we live, it often goes unnoticed and undocumented. Partly this is because of a lack of attention paid to crafts that are largely “women’s work”; partly it’s because the objects created by weavers are often made to be used until they wear out. Weavers make dish towels, table cloths, baby blankets, scarves, and more. These works circulate in domestic spaces and are often extremely well-loved and well-used and, as a result, not well-preserved. The Weaving Stories project seeks to document the cultural significance, community life, technical expertise, and individual life stories that make up the hand weaving community in Edmonton.
Our ambition for this project is that it will be more than a record of past activity: it will be a site of connection and inspiration for the continued creative work of local craftspeople. We hope telling the story of how weaving communities have thrived in Edmonton’s past will give new weavers models for how weaving communities can continue to contribute to our vibrant local craft culture.
Many thanks to the Edmonton Heritage Council for funding the project, and to Evan Isbister of Tailored Craft Media for his filming and editing work.
Jamie Hurlburt & Kim McCollum
Kim holds an MFA from the University of Alberta and a Master Weaver certificate. She owns and operates Gather Textiles, a studio, store, and workshop space that is a major site of connection for Edmonton’s weaving community. Kim creates and delivers courses through Gather as well as the Edmonton Weaver’s Guild.
Jamie has taught at Gather for the past five years. He has also initiated and facilitated a number of community weaving events. He is a regular contributor to WEFT magazine and gives presentations to weaving guilds and conferences.
Together, we have extensive experience developing written and video content; collaborating with professional videographers and photographers; and telling the story of weaving in accessible and engaging ways.
Oh, and we just published a book!
