Melissa Lusk

Melissa Lusk is a hand weaver working from her home studio in Clifton. She is interested in the intersection of technology, machinery, mathematics, and ¬cloth. She weaves on a computer-driven loom at home and seeks out opportunities to weave on the TC2 Jacquard loom, the most recent innovation in hand weaving. Her work in partnership with DAAP professor emeritus McCrystle Wood has been exhibited internationally and featured in award-winning publications. Their work can be found at wood-lusk.com.

Amber Rose Ostaszewski

Amber is an artist, educator, and author who has been fascinated with textiles and fibercraft since childhood. She draws on her heritage to inform her practice and enjoys making work that is whimsical and inspires re-enchantment with one's everyday life. With a formal background in art history and museum studies, she approaches her work through a research-based lens, while living an intuitive life through her magickal practice. Her work has been published with the New York Botanical Garden’s Steere Herbarium, Wovenutopia, and Piecework Magazine. She is the President of the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati and a board member of the Rust Belt Fibershed.

Judy Dominic

Judy is a native of southwest Ohio. She has been weaving in some fashion since 1979 and indulges in all sorts of fiber techniques. Her use of naturals and odd materials has become her signature, and she teaches and exhibits locally, nationally and internationally. Judy has been honored locally for enhancing the quality of community life through art. She lives with a wonderfully supportive husband and claims three handsome sons, two lovely daughters-in-law and six lively grandchildren.

Pat Maley 

Patis a spinner, teacher and a dabbler in any area that uses fiber. While teaching textiles, clothing construction and related classes at Edgecliff College and the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, she studied weaving and eventually spinning. Her teacher and mentors at Edgecliff introduced her to the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati, where she has been a member for over 50 years. Pat has attended Spin Off Autumn Retreat, Convergence® and many fiber festivals and conferences, both teaching and learning spinning techniques. She achieved her Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning, levels I and II, and she has been a judge for the COE and is currently the mentor for the Handspinning COE. As a dabbler, besides spinning and weaving, Pat collects and fixes antique wheels, makes spindles of all types, dyes fiber, yarn and cloth, knits, crochets, sews, quilts, does sashiko and punch needle embroidery, ply splitting, and has raised cotton, dye plants, and Angora rabbits. 

Janie Yates

Janie has always had a very deep need to learn about and do everything related to yarn and fabric. She started bugging her mom to teach her to sew when she was seven, learned to crochet and macrame when she was nine and added tatting, knitting, embroidery, beadwork and braiding to her skill set before finishing high school. Janie learned batik, shibori and weaving at Berea College where she earned a Bachelor of Art with an emphasis in textiles.

Janie's grand plan was to attend graduate school and then teach textiles at the college level. The universe however, had other plans for her: Janie married soon after graduating college, had her son and daughter, and for the next 24 years was very fortunate to be a full-time mom. While Janie's children were growing up she continued to acquire new skills and perfect existing ones through study, research and workshops. Quilting, clothing design, basketry, jewelry making, spinning, kumihimo, bobbin lace, several forms of band weaving and shoe making were added to her repertoire. In addition to continuing to learn and create her own art, Janie has also taught numerous and widely varied textile related classes to children and adults at the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati, in local school districts, through a United Way funded agency and in local yarn stores for the past 25 years.