Hawks Nest State Park Will Spin on August 30, 2008 

Ann Peacock Craven will teach a Drop Spindle Spinning class at Hawks Nest State Park on August 30, as Hawks Nest continues to add art and craft programs to its already world-class scenic view attraction. The class is limited to 10 individuals and is offered at the park’s nature center at the base of the aerial tram. 

“What a treat to have Ann Craven join us on our traditional arts programs at Hawks Nest,” says Willa Grafton, Park Naturalist and Programs Coordinator. Grafton recently featured a basket making class and demonstrations with Alan Miller and Martha and Kelly McCourt in June, and plans to add more artisans as part of the landscape at Hawks Nest.  “Our nature center and lodge are perfect settings for smaller hands-on learning programs.  Artisans like Alan Miller and Ann Craven are great to work with, they enjoy people, and more importantly, they appreciate introducing folks to their art or craft.”

Hawks Nest is located in Ansted in Fayette County. A year-round destination, the park features a lodge, restaurant, picnic shelters, nature center, special events and a nine-hole mountain golf course. The picturesque view from the lodge aerial tram or the older park area developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s has welcomed visitors and photographers to one of West Virginia’s most outstanding view sheds.

For more information about Hawks Nest State Park, overnight opportunities and special programs such as Ann Craven and Drop Spindle Spinning classes, you may call (304) 658-5212 or go online to: www.hawksnestsp.com

About Ann Craven

Ann Peacock Craven, (after 32+ years) is a retired Professor of Physical Education from Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Ct. In her current life, she a fiber artisan.

She lives and works on a 300-acre farm in central West Virginia. She and her husband 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,” states Craven.

Craven has taken every possible opportunity to train as a fiber person. “Originally, I taught myself how to spin as part of a doctoral research 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 her journey, Craven completed the technical requirements for the Ontario Master Spinner Certification at Sir Sanford Fleming College in Halliburton, Ontario. This required spending six summers in Canada studying how to spin a variety of fibers as well as their composition, how to best use them to maximize their natural qualities, and how to dye them under a variety of circumstances. It also required a vast amount of time analyzing fibers, preparing fibers 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.

Craven 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. She served as the president of the Connecticut Handweaver's Guild for a short period of time.

            Her fiber business and shop is called  Hare to Ewe.

Craven states: “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 completely 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, doll making and knitting from an artist's as well as a trained teacher's point of reference.”

Craven is a teacher. Craven shares a skill.  For her, “There is no greater joy than sharing a beautifully crafted end-product of one of my students and to know that I was the enabler.”

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