Kenyon Home » Student Affairs Division » Dean of Students » Craft Center » Instructors

Instructors

Jess Goley, '12
Student Manager
craftcenter@kenyon.edu

Classes at the Craft Center are taught by community members from the Knox County area, as well as Kenyon students and staff. Interested in teaching a class or workshop? Contact us!

Robin attended school at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She graduated with a B.A. in 1984, majoring in art and studying pots under Dean Schwarz, who was a student of master potter Marguerite Wildenhien. The emphasis was on functional thrown stoneware. After graduation, Robin served two apprenticeships with professional studio potters, where she really began to learn how to make pots. Then she returned to Luther to finish her teaching certification for art, grades K-12. She has worked as a teacher at the Columbus Salesian Boys' and Girls' Club as well as a substitute teacher in Iowa, Minnesota, and Ohio.

She approaches clay as a marvelous playground for self-discovery, art therapy, and good sloppy fun. She believes that working with clay has great therapeutic benefits and is a terrific stress reliever, no matter what your technical skill level. Robin hopes that students come away from their time in the clay studio with something satisfying that they have made, but more than that, she hopes they experience a welcoming, nurturing and inspiring environment.

Back to Top

Carol has taught at the Craft Center since 1984. In alternate semesters she teaches glass bead making/fused glass jewelry and stained glass windowmaking.

Carol studied fine arts for four years at the University of Cincinnati and Kent State University. She had a two-year apprenticeship with a German craftsman. She spent three months traveling and researching in Germany, during which she documented the contemporary stained glass development of the country.

Carol has held guest lectureships at Kenyon College and Capital University. Additionally, she held a six-month Visiting Artist position at Kent State University teaching Architectural Glass in their Fine Arts Department.

Back to Top

Marilyn is a retired Kenyon community member who came to the United States from England nearly 32 years ago and has taught knitting at the Craft Center for more than 18 of those years. She learned to knit at about 5 years old and became really excited by the process of making yarn when a student teacher in one of her grade school classes took the class on a field trip to gather sheep's wool from barbed wire fences! Marilyn has knitted many projects (some of which she designed herself) for Craftsman Hill Fibers in Mount Vernon. She belongs to knitting/fiber art groups both in Knox County and in Colorado, where she spends the winter.

Marilyn is delighted that knitting is now receiving the recognition she believes it deserves as an art form, and her class at the Craft center focuses on learning the skills needed to produce a garment or project to be proud of, and to give the student the tools to think beyond a printed pattern.

Back to Top

April and her family live in Gambier, where her husband, Kent (Class of '93), works in the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs for the College. She has taught beginning knitting for three semesters at the Craft Center and very much enjoys working with the students to learn the basic skills necessary for knitting.

April is a self-taught knitter and often learns as much from her students as she teaches them. Currently, she stays home full-time caring for her two young children. Previously, April was a broker with the Huntington Investment Company and trainer with Huntington Bank in Columbus.

Back to Top

Deborah started with knitting and simple weaving at about age eight, and has been fascinated by fiber ever since. She attended Iowa State University and received a B.S. in Applied Art. At ISU, she studied interiors and surface design (dyeing and printing), but really learned to weave in the year after graduation. She spent three years in a weaving program in Denver, CO, and has taken classes whenever possible with well-known weavers, spinners, and dyers in the years since.

Deborah has worked in Chicago as a textile R&D specialist, and has raised her own sheep and angora goats. She currently owns a retail yarn store in Knox County, Craftsman Hill Fibers, and teaches knitting, weaving, spinning, and other crafts.

Back to Top

Rick attended high school at the Colegio Americano de Quito in Ecuador, then returned to the US to major in psychology at Kenyon. During his time here, he was the theater shop manager. He then went on to earn an MFA in Theater Design and Technology at Ohio University.

He gained experience in design and construction as a technical director in Kansas and Illinois, and in twelve years as a cabinet maker and furniture designer in Chicago and Champaign, IL. He now works in marketing for product management and new product development, and is currently a Business Unit Manager for new color technology in the plastics industry.

Rick has taught woodworking at the Craft Center for thirteen years. He and his wife Deborah, Craft Center weaving instructor, have just built a new house, which is dominated by studio spaces for each of them. He continues to design and build furniture for the new house and for a variety of charitable causes.

Rick can be reached at ryorde@gmail.com.

Back to Top

Caroline is a senior English major from just outside Seattle, WA. When she is not sewing, she spends her time running the archery club with her roommate Abigail Lochtefeld, or working down in the Special Collections. She learned to sew from her mom in elementary school, and has been making clothes for herself since high school. She is ridiculously geeky, and tends to get really excited and babble about things. This tendency is not helped by an extreme addiction to strongly caffeinated tea -- no coffee here!

Back to Top

Jessica is a senior history major, from St. Louid, MO. She teaches the newly added mosaics class at the Craft Center. She has taught children's pottery classes and is very into photography. She enjoys playing tennis and baking, and her favorite color is orange!

Back to Top

Born in New York, Willie is a sophomore Art History major with a concentration in Environmental Studies. He is currently the teaching assistant for the Craft Center's wood-shop and has been a part of the class since his freshmen year.

Back to Top