The Lakeshore Fiber Arts Guild started in Holland, Michigan, in
March of 1979 by a group of women who had taken a community class
together on hand spinning wool. We met every Wednesday evening
at each woman's house to continue to spin wool yarn and share life's
adventures. One evening, our member Judy Anthrop came into my front
door waving a paper and declaring that we were now an official guild
with the Handweavers Guild of America. The others already sitting down
looked dumb struck. Judy announced that she was the president and then
said looking at each of us, "What do you want to do?" We ended up with
positions like Vice President of Spinning (Sharon Meeuwsen, she was
the best among us). We also started out as the Fiber Arts Guild of
Holland. In 1990, we changed the name to Lakeshore Fiber Arts Guild to
be more inclusive of all the guild members from along the lakeshore
communities beyond Holland. Our group has always been diverse
with every medium from weaving to spinning, dyeing, basketmaking,
papermaking, surface design, garment construction, knitting, quilting and more.
Our first meeting had somewhere around 75 people attend (and even my
husband joined). Our dues were $10 and allowed us to have programs from
artists and craftspeople in our community and gradually from well
outside of Holland. The meetings had always been on Wednesday evening,
just like our original hand spinning group, but evolved into an
hour-long presentation from someone with a special talent (sometimes
hands-on but also often purely inspirational), a business meeting and
then show 'n tell. We've also belonged to the Michigan League of
Handweavers for most of our years as a guild.
Jennifer Gould
Please check out the meetings page for an updated schedule and place of our meetings.
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