It’s all about connection.

MAWS is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote and encourage fiber arts throughout the state of Montana and to help fiber artists forge links to their peers.

THE organization promotes interest in the fiber arts, including weaving, spinning, felting, basketry, knitting, crochet and other fiber arts. The primary vehicle for this is the MAWS conference held every two years in a different city in Montana. At this conference members have the opportunity to study with top-quality instructors from all over the country, to participate in a number of different competitions and a fashion show, to meet people from throughout the region who share the same passion for fiber arts, and to shop with vendors who provide fiber, yarn, books and equipment.

MAWS strives to foster communication between individuals and groups engaged in handcrafted fiber arts. To further this goal, MAWS now has an active website and blog space so members can speak to each other over the vast Montana e-space! The web address is: http//www.mawsonline.org/ Members are also kept in touch through the MAWS quarterly newsletter.

MAWS approves grants to guilds who wish to sponsor workshops and are willing to open them to all MAWS members. These workshops allow you to gain skills in specific areas under the direction of excellent instructors over a short, intense period of time. Please see attached note for more information about grants.

IN short, membership in MAWS is a great way to improve your craft and meet others doing the same. In a state where people are so spread apart, MAWS brings us together.

MEMBERSHIP services include the biennial conference, MAWS web site, quarterly MAWS newsletter, financial assistance for guild-sponsored workshops, scholarships to help defray the cost of conference attendance, free advertising in the newsletter for your fiber related business, and free classified space to sell or buy equipment.

IN June of this year the state-wide conference was held in Billings, Montana. This years conference was hosted by the Billings Weavers Guild and the Prairie Handspinners.

Special viewing of Navaho Rugs at Yellowstone Art Museum