January 2026

In 2026, as we continue working to sustain and grow the practice of fiber arts in our community and region, here are some of EVFAC's accomplishments from this past year.

This work feels especially important in our current moment. The digital world has its benefits, but it also keeps us in our heads and disconnects us from our hands and the act of creation - the transformation of natural materials into finished objects that carry stories, embody beauty, and foster connection. The ability to work with fiber draws from ancestral knowledge across all cultures throughout human history, inherently preserving cultural heritage by passing down skills through generations. This embodied knowledge of craft cannot be transmitted through the digital age; it must be learned hand to hand, person to person.

2025 Accomplishments

Facility

• Completed our heating/cooling upgrade with a solar system. We now run almost entirely on the sun!

Adult Programs

• 54 classes offered

• 323 students served

• 244 new or returning members enrolled

Artist Support

• $21,028 paid to consignment artists via sales in our brick & mortar

• 40 artists participated in our 13th annual Fall Fiber Fiesta

Yarn Cooperative

• Established a yarn cooperative for Rio Grande weavers after the Clasgens mill closed

• Chimayó weaving galleries came together to meet large mill minimums, with EVFAC serving as the umbrella organization for purchasing and delivery

• Nearly complete with production of 18 colors matched to the Clasgens palette, with warp and Rio Grande yarn regularly available in our shop by spring

Youth Fiber Studio

• Trained 9 public school teachers and 1 youth educator on rigid heddle looms

• Ran our second annual Summer Camp with a waitlist of 15 students

• Developed community outreach weaving curriculum for public schools and community organizations by running a 10-week pilot program with middle and high school art classes in Peñasco

• Hired a Youth Education Coordinator on a contract basis

This year, we will continue to center our work around local resources, expand opportunities for youth to work with their hands and step away from screens, foster meaningful connections and educational opportunities between environment, people, and the objects we create with our hands, and contribute to sustainable livelihood creation in our community.

January’s Happenings

✨Saturday, January 10th - 12-3pm Spinning Adventures. All spindles and fibers welcome!

✨ Sunday, January 18th - 12-3pm Rigid Heddle Support Group. All little looms welcome!

✨ Sunday January 25th from 1pm-4pm - The Crochet Club! meets the 4th Sunday of each month.

at EVFAC

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our taco bar holiday party and heated light parade viewing on December 13th! Though we were too busy enjoying ourselves to take many pictures, it was a wonderful evening filled with good food and great company.

Call for Volunteers

We have several volunteer opportunities coming up. Some are ongoing commitments and others are one-time tasks. If you'd like to help with any of the following, simply reply to this email and let us know which one interests you.

1. YARN ORDER - Between late February and late March, we will receive several large shipments totaling 2000 pounds of yarn for the Yarn Cooperative. We need volunteers who can lift 50 lbs to help move and sort the large yarn orders into smaller orders for each participating gallery.

2. OFFICE FILING & SHREDDING - The Director is looking for an organized volunteer who can commit a few hours per week for about a month. Tasks include clearing out decades of papers from the office, updating the hard-copy filing system, and completing some data entry. No particular urgency, just a need to get the office in order. Timeline is flexible.

3. RIGID HEDDLE WEAVERS - Youth Fiber Studio is expanding its community programming and needs experienced rigid heddle weavers to volunteer to support our teachers as class sizes fluctuate. For those able to commit to a regular program schedule, paid teaching positions are also available.

Classes!

We have a full lineup of classes to start the year, with more on the way. Check our Classes page regularly for updates!

For January, there’s still a couple of spots open in:

- January 31st - Introduction to Punch Needle Rug Hooking with Laura Salamy

- January 31st - Zoom Workshop: Wet Felted Vessels with Andrea Dupree

February Classes:

- February 12th-14th - 1 spot left! - Rio Grande Tapestry Weaving with Mary Margaret Archuleta

- February 23rd-26th - Double Weave.. Double Width! with Karen Hampton

- February 27th - Fabric Origami: The Art of Folding Fabric with Robbie Berg

March classes open for registration:

- March 1st - Create Nuno Felted Wearable Art with Andrea Dupree

- March 5th-7th - Multi-Level Machine Knitting with Kate Jacobsen

- March 7th & 8th - Introduction to Silk Screening with Gel Lister

Around Town

We have such an incredibly active community, and we're proud to highlight a few projects our board members and teachers are involved with.

Karen Hampton, the newest member of our Board of Directors, is currently featured as an artist in Truth, Memory, Joy, Resistance: Black Expressions in New Mexico, an exhibition running through February 28th at the City of Santa Fe Community Gallery.

Roy Kady, a Diné shepherd, weaver, spinner, and dyer residing in the community of Goats Spring near Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, has served on our Board of Directors for the past two years. For many years, Roy has been running an apprenticeship program to keep the sheep-to-loom lifeway alive and thriving in Diné communities. Read more below and support his program and its youth!

The mission of the Kady Youth Sheep Camp Apprenticeship carries the heartbeat of our ancestors.

It is a path of returning to remember who we are through the lifeways of sheep and goats, our gentle teachers of patience, balance, and care.

Through the work of our hands and hearts, herding, tending the land, gathering herbs, shaping clay, and weaving fiber, we learn to walk in Hozhó, the way of beauty, harmony, and balance.

We renew Ké, the sacred kinship that binds us to all beings: the land beneath our feet, the plants that heal us, the animals that sustain us, and the people who walk beside us.

Here, the young learn the old songs again.

They learn to listen to the wind, to move with the seasons, and to keep the fire of our Diné lifeways alive, so that the stories, the songs, and the prayers of our people will continue to live and breathe through them.

Check out a few demonstrations from the program here.

Peg Ickes is one of our rigid heddle weaving teachers and a truly skilled weaver who was recently featured on the cover of Little Looms magazine. She generously shares her expertise by running the Rigid Heddle Support Group on the third Sunday of each month and leading our rigid heddle teacher training.

As a 501(c)3 organization, EVFAC strives to balance professional, living-wage compensation for our teaching artists with affordable class prices, scholarships, and free youth programs that serve our local community. Through grants and crucial member-donor support, we maintain this vital balance. Your continued generosity makes our mission possible.