Dallas Handweavers and Spinners Guild
The Dallas Handweavers and Spinners Guild is dedicated to promoting the art of weaving and the craft of fiber work through education, member activities, and mutual support. The Guild promotes fellowship among members with meetings Sept. through May, educational workshops and community demonstrations.
Dallas Handweavers and Spinners Guild is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and our mission is to educate the community about weaving, spinning and the fiber arts. Begun in 1972, DH&SG continues to bring programming and hands on experiences to the surrounding community. CONTACT US for possible demonstrations at your event.
The DHSG’s exhibits give each member an opportunity to show off their latest treasures. We invite you to join us and experience the camaraderie of our members and the interesting topics at one of our general meetings.
Guild members meet September through May on the first Saturday of each month at 9:30 am. We meet physically at The Point, Center for Arts and Education on the campus of the CC Young Memorial Home, located at 4829 West Lawther Drive, in East Dallas near White Rock Lake. We also meet virtually via Zoom for members who can’t attend in person. We enjoy friendships, old and new, and learn from speakers on a wide range of subjects and areas of interest to our members.
Benefits of Membership to DH&SG
- Make new fiber friends!
- Participate in our Study Group and learn new weaving structures and techniques!
- Have priority registration to workshops.
- Improve your skills in one of our Meet Ups, like the Spinners gatherings or Fiber Play get togethers.
- Get a mentor and have access to the expertise skills of our members.
- Attend our holiday Off the Shelf party and swap for a wonderful handcrafted item.
- Exhibit your work in one of our public exhibitions.
Another benefit of membership is having access to our wonderful library of books, magazines, periodicals, and equipment that you can rent! Click the Library tab in our menu that links to our digital library and scroll through our collection. You will find instructions to:
- Hold a book from our library.
- Search our library for the topic you're interested in.
- Do an advanced search of the library.
With your guild membership ID, you can reserve and check books out. Connect to a community that keeps growing and learning! Join today!
General Meeting - Moth Cloth - Exploring Silk
with Michael Cook
Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 10:00 am
The unwinding of a silk cocoon is a marvel of both nature and human ingenuity. Learn about how this miraculous Queen of Fibers is cultivated, processed, and utilized in a variety of forms, and see a demonstration of how the cocoons themselves are unwound – each cocoon a single, unbroken fiber up to nine tenths of a mile long.
Michael Cook has been raising and working with silk since 2001. He learned to sew, to crochet, and to embroider at the feet of his grandmothers when he was probably too short for the sharp scissors with which he was entrusted, and went on to learn to weave, to spin, and to knit. He also tramped around the woods north of Houston, and up near Conroe where his grandparents live, finding all kinds of bugs, snakes, salamanders, and wild plants to look up, study, try to keep in a terrarium, or dissect and draw (plants). The two threads of looks-at-bugs and works-with-thread came together eventually (it’s a story) and through various misadventures and explorations he’s become a steward of a great deal of the silk knowledge for the handspinning community.
Please bring a snack or treat if your last name starts with T, U, V or W for the social time before the meeting. If you have something to share for clothesline, please send your pics to by Friday, April 4 for inclusion in the presentation.
March 2025 President's Message
As we head into spring, my mind is on our volunteers. We are, as you know, an organization that is driven by and only exists because of members who are willing to donate their time and expertise. All of what happens at the guild is made possible by the efforts of our Board members, committee chairs, and those willing to help them.
In the past month alone, we’ve had a wonderful Learning Lab given by Chris Miller, who expertly guided us in an exercise that enriched our creative process. Cate Buchanan put on an excellent program, and many guild members were present at the sewing with handwovens meeting to help teach those of us who are new to the idea. Elke Giba and Lisa Hildinger spent time creating a survey to help understand how we could better serve the rigid heddle community. Linda Fleming and Martha Myre are getting ready for our upcoming community education events. And Mary Berry is busy working behind the scenes to make sure we have a wonderful workshop with Janet Phillips.
This is only a fraction of the events in which we are involved throughout the year. And, if I haven’t mentioned you by name, we see you and are grateful for you.
For those of you who aren’t involved now, we would like to know if you would be willing to donate a small amount of time to the guild. Can you, perhaps, spare an hour or two at a community outreach event ()? Can you help our historian with the very large project of organizing and archiving our historical papers? If you are willing to volunteer a small amount of your time, please let us know and we will find a place for you ().
We are also looking for guild members who are interested in taking on leadership positions in the future. If you are one of these people – please contact me.
As always, I am grateful for all of you – for our community. You are valued and important. Thank you for being here.
Happy weaving, spinning, and dyeing!
Katherine
You can find us learning, demonstrating & teaching!
We welcome you to join us!
