I apprenticed as a weaver and first worked as a studio artist while living in Geneva, Switzerland and afterwards in Santiago, Chile. After teaching for two years at the School of Fine Arts in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, I found the job that I really wanted, and which redefined my role as a textile artist, working to promote indigenous carftsmen/women in rural areas. I was hired as a consultant and first assigned to find ways to revive the hand-spinning of cotton, a disappearing craft done by women in the northern region, the most needy in the Ivory Coast; later I was asked to work to improve and diversify the weaving done by the male weavers and also to find commercial domestic and foreign outlets.

This web site is an outgrowth of my efforts to keep a segment of the incredibly beautiful textile expressions of the artisans I have been working with for the past 20 years alive and economically viable, so that the current generation of craftsmen/women will pass their know-how onto their children. It has always been part of their cultural heritage to learn through observation (non-formal education) and I want to fight to keep it that way - a village is a school of learning.

Since leaving the Ivory Coast I have been involved in promoting educational projects that put the talents of several traditional weavers in the forefront. They have since become the spokesmen of their entire weaving villages. Their courage to leave their villages and travel to Europe, the USA and Canada as teachers has had a positive impact. Traditional weaving is living an energetic revival and is finding worldwide recognition.