About the artist in her own words…
My name is Ann Peacock Craven.
I am (after 32+ years) a retired Professor of Physical Education from Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Ct - but that was another life-time! In my current life, I am a fiber artisan. It took me a long time to be able to incorporate that statement into my identity, but it is now firmly entrenched there and has become a viable part of the real me.
Currently, I live and work on a 300-acre farm in Central West Virginia. My husband and I raise our own border Leicester sheep and angora goats from which we get most of the fibers that I utilize in my products. I will occasionally weave with other natural products but mostly my products are, if not totally, partly, made from our farm-based fibers.
When I was more gainfully employed, I took every possible opportunity to train as a fiber person. Originally, I taught myself how to spin as part of a doctoral reserach project to study what occurs when one is learning a new motor skill. That was the beginning of a long and interesting journey that eventually led my animals and us to West Virginia. Along the journey I completed the technical requirements for the Ontario Master Spinner Certification at Sir Sanford Fleming College in Halliburton, Ontario. This required my spending six summers in Canada studying how to spin a variety of fibers as well as their composition, how to best utilize them to maximize their natural qualities and how to dye them under a variety of circumstances. It is also required my spending a vast amount of time when I returned home analyzing fibers, preparing them for spinning and/or dyeing and then composing final projects which were judged by a panel of experts as to their appropriate and technically correct completion.
I trained as a weaver under the expert guidance of some of America's gifted and well-known weavers. This was done through informal workshops and small class situations. I served as the President of the Connecticut Handweaver's Guild for a short period of time but had to resign due to my retirement and our moving south.
I addition to these learning experiences, I have owned my own fiber business and shop,
Hare to Ewe for 30+ years…and, experience teaches a dear school! In my travels to promote the fibers that I grow and sell, I became acquainted with the world of art dolls and after some fits and starts have had some success with the making of my own original recyEWEbles (tiny little stuffed sheep ornaments made from my old wool clothing), sheeples (original doll creatures that feature mohair or wool), original Santas and a variety of other one-of-a-kind-art doll characters.
So it is now when I create my original clothing, handspun yarns, original dolls or just sell fiber in batts or as fiber, it seems I have completly diverged from my university training. However, as my basic training is in pedagogy and the art of teaching motor skills it enable me to do what I love best, and that is teach others the skills of spinning, weaving, dyeing, felting, dollmaking and knitting from an artist's as well as a trained teacher's point of reference.
I love the raising of our animals, the gathering of the fibers from them, the sensual qualities of handling fibers and making products from them, but my real love is teaching others. There is no greater joy for me than sharing a beautifully crafted end-product of one of my students and to know that I was the enabler.
