_Martha Owen and Melissa Weaver Dunning
Martha Owen is a resident artist at the John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, N.C.), where she oversees the studio and program in spinning, knitting, felt making, surface design and dyeing. Her spinning and natural dyeing adventures at the school in 1978 and she has been teaching spinning, natural dyeing, and knitting design since 1984. (She taught her first class of 13 with a one month old nursling in a wind up swing as her assistant. That baby is now 38!) Since 1980 her extended family has included sheep (currently Corriedale, Romney, and Shetland) and French Angora rabbits. Also a banjo player and known to tell a story or two, Martha’s interests in sheep and wool combined with music and dance have carried her literally and joyfully around the world. Her children say she is a wool nerd but her sheep say she is out-standing in her field!
Melissa Weaver Dunning is a handweaver, spinner, and knitter with over 35 years of experience working on antique equipment to recreate 18th and 19th century home-produced textiles. She began her textile study with Scottish master weaver Norman Kennedy in 1980 and carries on this rich tradition in her own teaching. Melissa is an avid tartan and linen weaver, a compulsive knitter, and a lover of wool who enjoys sharing her passion for weaving and spinning with students.