Marian Stubenitsky has always been curious about the possibilities in the inexhaustible field of weaving. She has enjoyed sharing her enormous knowledge, over the decades, in courses, lectures, and articles. Writing and publishing books on various themes are an added stimulus for her to continue researching. Her interests in art, nature, and science are the inspiration; structures, materials, especially colors, are the tools with which she arrives at her designs and weavings. Exchanges with other weavers, through meetings and social media, are an incentive to keep going.

Lynn Smetko has extensive experience with both weaving and Complex Weavers. She is a past president of Complex Weavers and a past editor of the Complex Weavers Journal. Lynn has presented weaving programs on design and structure at CW Seminars and for many state and local guilds. Her articles and works have appeared in the CW Journal, Eight Shafts: Beyond the Beginning, Weavers, and other publications. Currently she is concentrating on the design process and using photo-editing and weaving software to produce pictorial weaves. Lynn loves pushing the limits of her computer-assisted loom, and together they have created many award-winning works.

Giovanna Imperia has always been intrigued by the visual and tactile experiences provided by fiber and metal — including exploring the possibilities created by the interaction of structure, techniques and materials manipulation as a way of creating texture and three-dimensionality. This has led Giovanna to explore materials such as active yarns, unusual fibers and wire as means to creating objects that can be transformed by the user into unique personal statements. Giovanna’s work has been exhibited in the US and internationally. It can be found in private and museum collections, and has been published in jewelry and kumihimo books.

Beth Ross Johnson is weaver, teacher and workshop leader living in Black Mountain, NC. She learned initially from Norman Kennedy’s students, later studying with him for many workshops. She has an MFA from Georgia State University and has had two extensive stays in Japan to study kasuri (ikat weaving and dyeing) and sakiori (rag weaving) with master weavers there. Recent studies have been in the ikat traditions of Europe and woven structures like sashiko-ori and kasuri-ori.