My passion for textile arts — weaving especially — began during my high school study abroad in Greece. I was fortunate to study rug weaving from a woman named Katerina, who came from generations of weavers on the island of Kalymnos in the Dodecanese region of the Aegean Sea.

Earlier, I had learned macramé, knitting, and crochet from my grandmother, Jennie Louise Wagner, and sewing from my mother. My grandmother sewed all of the clothing for her five children with no patterns, re-making and re-designing for every child based on the materials at hand. My mom, Joy Louise Wagner Saville, was an art quilter who instilled in me an appreciation for the harmony of design and craftsmanship in fiber arts.

Three generations connected by love of textiles — and our middle names, Louise.

That early grounding in family craft eventually led me to formal training in the fiber arts. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Studio/Fine Art from Oberlin College, where a winter-term project reignited my interest in textiles and set the course for my studio art major. Through the Great Lakes College Association's New York Arts Program, I spent a semester interning with fiber artist Martha Zimiles, studying floor loom weaving and how structure and fiber shape a finished design. Alongside the internship, I kept a daily journal of the work — a habit that sharpened how I thought about my own designs, and confirmed that this was the path I wanted to pursue. I also interned at the Scheuer Tapestry Studio, studying tapestry weaving in the French Gobelins manner.

I also have a Master's in Elementary and Special Education from Lesley College and a Master's in Speech-Language Pathology from The College of New Jersey. After a fulfilling career as a teacher and speech-language pathologist, I embarked on a new journey as a hand weaver. My husband and I had moved to the Berkshires from New Jersey years earlier, drawn by Tanglewood summers and a slower pace for our son to grow up in — the hiking and the change of seasons here became part of daily life, and eventually part of my work.

I am fascinated by complex, labor-intensive, intricate patterns — the kind that ask for patience and reward close attention. I find them everywhere outdoors here, too; I often photograph bark, stone walls, frost on the field, and those patterns find their way into my designs. Every piece I weave is made by hand, thread by thread, with the same intention and care passed down to me through three generations of women. That is what sets an artisanal fabric apart from an industrial one: you can feel the hand that made it.

I weave to understand the history I admire and respect.