I started Craftsman Hill Fibers, a retail yarn shop in 1999 in a little space on north Main Street in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Over the years, it grew and changed.  It has now grown into a weaving studio and is located out in the country, just a short drive north of Mount Vernon.  

While my primary interest is making hand-woven accessories for art shows and galleries, I still find time to provide helpful advice, good quality  materials, and, by teaching, encourage you to create wonderful hand-made things.

There is something fascinating, almost magical, about making cloth.  You create cloth by taking individual threads and one by one interlace them together.  You first put the warp (the foundation) on the loom and then throw the shuttle one pass at a time to build the cloth.  It is a process with many steps that has a life and rhythm all it's own.  I started weaving in 1970 and all these years later, I am still intrigued with this process.

In addition to weaving the cloth, there is first the process of dyeing the threads.  In many of my pieces,  I paint the thread before it's placed on the loom.  There are nuances that happen when the painted colors merge that cannot occur in other ways.  The rich complex colors, combined with an interesting weave structure make for unique cloth.  

I love the warmth and depth of fiber and the way it creates a tactile human response.  I love color and texture and how it can affect the senses.  And I love the way working with my hands brings me joy.

-Deborah Yorde