073: Weaving What Makes You Happy with Jane Stafford

Jan. 16, 2018

This week Felicia is joined by Jane Stafford: production weaver, teacher, and business owner behind Jane Stafford Textiles on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. For over 35 years, Jane has been exploring weaving and has built the most extraordinary career in textiles. Jane is the instructor for Louet dealers in North America and you might recognize her from her teaching on Louet’s instructional DVDs and videos. It’s also no coincidence that Jane shares her name with Louet’s newest table loom. The Jane loom is an acknowledgement of Jane Stafford’s years of contributions towards weaving loom design. Seriously, how many people can say that they have a weaving loom named after them? Jane is also the recipient of teacher of the year award from Handwoven Magazine and now teaches exclusively from her studio on Salt Spring Island and her online weaving guild.

Join Felicia and Jane this week as they discuss Jane's humble beginnings of weaving her first piece of fabric to creating an online guild so she can reach weavers all over the world!

In this episode, we talk about:

• 2:22 Felicia reminisces how she first learned about Jane from a book on a coffee table many years ago
• 3:27 Jane discusses how she first got introduced to weaving
• 9:00 Did Jane ever feel like quitting during the long process to becoming a weaver? Jane also discusses the frustration of having so many teachers with different methods.
• 11:15 Weaving is attractive to many different kinds of people. Some are very exact and precise, some are very free and unstructured. Felicia asks Jane what her personality is when it comes to weaving. Also, the method Jane used to save herself from the tedium of production weaving.
• 20:02 Is Jane still into production weaving?
• 21:32 How Jane started to teach weaving to others
• 25:20 Jane gives advice on how one can start something as seemingly-complex as weaving
• 29:04 Jane and Felicia discuss Jane’s online weaving guild she’s developing
• 34:38 The ladies discuss mistakes and problem solving in weaving and the dangers of perfectionism
• 38:02 Chatting about how weavers can find support when they are learning online
• 40:28 Jane discusses her plans for the guild for 2018
• 44:00 Felicia asks Jane what she considers is good design for weaving and how people can get there
• 47:17 Jane created the online guild so she could reach more people and have more time for her own personal weaving projects. Felicia asks Jane what she is looking forward to making.
• 51:49 Felicia’s final notes and podcast giveaway!

Links and Things

Here's where to find Jane online:

• Website: www.janestaffordtextiles.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/janestaffordtextiles
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/janestaffordtextiles
• Ravelry Group: www.ravelry.com/groups/browse/show/weave-with-jane-stafford
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.ca/janestaff