A Place To Weave is a studio for weavers dedicated to creating a community committed to working harmoniously as each expands her/his knowledge of weaving based on personal goals.
The studio features:
-Community environment small enough to meet the needs of each weaver
-Instruction in theory for weavers who desire further knowledge and a place for practical study
-A place and time for project-oriented students to weave
-Access to patterns, equipment and supplies to meet the needs of project-oriented weavers
-Beginning Weaving Lessons
-An Open Studio Model
-Many Workshops for Adults and Children
-Connections with Schools, Museums, After-School Programs and Girl Scout Troops
-Open Studio for Rigid Heddle, Multi-shaft looms, rug looms, band loom, Inkle looms, and triangle loom
-Year-round Dye Room
-Day, evening, after-school programs and weekends
About Founder, Beth Guertin:
“When I was nine my grandmother gave me a 4-harness table loom and told me that my great grandmother in Sweden was a weaver, and she said I was to be a weaver. It was the beginning of my weaving life.
I couldn’t start weaving however until much later in life after I completed my undergraduate degree in Home Economics and Early Childhood Education at Simmons College. I began teaching as a Vocational Child Development and Home Crafts Teacher when I was introduced to The Batik and Weaving Suppler Store in Arlington by a colleague. I was finally able to use the loom my grandmother gave me years ago. I was hooked!
Later, I took an assistant teacher position at a private school to complete my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education, and at the same time I was taking every weaving class that Batik and Weaving offered. In the Spring, the store went up for sale and on May 3, 1982, I purchased it and began learning to operate a retail store and to teach weaving. Soon, I moved the store to a larger location with more classrooms, but with increasing costs and high rent, unfortunately I was forced to close the school in 1990. For the next 15+ years, I taught out of our house, for Lexington Community Education, for Danforth Museum School, and various weaver’s guilds. In 2007 we moved to Waltham where I operated a successful studio offering fiber arts classes and supplies. Then Covid changed everything. We sold our home in Waltham and moved the studio to our current location at 170 Arlington Street, Leominster. Our new facility contains over 5000 square feet of teaching and retail space. This new location allows me to offer a wider variety of classes taught by myself and other talented teachers both locally and nationally known.
If my great grandmother and grandmother were here to see the new location, I’m sure they’d agree it truly is a dream come true.”