Allyson Rousseau is a self-taught fibre artist, weaver, designer, and author based out of Pictou, Nova Scotia. She’s been weaving for over a decade since she began her final year at the University of Guelph studying Studio/Fine Arts. She has since taught a combined total of over 1,200 students, created a plethora of custom pieces for clients all around the world, and exhibited her weavings in Canada, the USA, and Europe.
Allyson’s work has been featured in two books on contemporary weaving, and many prominent magazines, and in 2023 she celebrated her own inaugural publication Contemporary Weaving: Bold Colour, Texture & Design on the Frame Loom. After becoming a mother in December 2022, Allyson has been exploring themes of motherhood and conceptual approaches to weaving as she navigates her new role and the challenges it presents.

Natural Ewe Yarns is a mother-daughter (Andrea and Jasmine Rahmel) partnership based in Pictou, Nova Scotia, dedicated to the craft of hand-dyeing yarns using natural, eco-friendly methods. We work exclusively with natural dyes, transforming raw fibres into vibrant, unique yarns that serve as the foundation for wearable art. Each skein is meticulously dyed using flowers, leaves, bark, roots, and sometimes even bugs—many of which are grown in our dye garden or locally foraged—ensuring that every knitted piece tells its own story through rich, organic colours.
We believe that the garments created from our yarns transcend functionality, embodying the essence of wearable art. Our sweaters, in particular, showcase the harmony between traditional knitting techniques and contemporary design, resulting in timeless and innovative pieces.

Carole Anne Burris is a musician who has recently moved to the town of Pictou. Beadwork is one of her passions – she has been beading for the past 45 years. What sparked her was a box of broken jewellery that her mom gave her at a young age.

Deb Plestid plays about with fabric, thread and paint. Her heart and spirit is enlivened by the Acadian forest and farm fields which surround her home. Her eye is drawn mostly to nature, the social history of her community, mathematics, and the play of light and shadow. She explores colours, textures and the connections of nature to life.
Her work is in collections in North America, Europe, New Zealand and the Middle East. She is proud to have collaborated with Sheree Fitch and illustrated her
book “Sing in the Spring”. Deb is an artist, a gardener, a forager, a walker and a reader. Her singular pleasure is to lose herself in her work and having her work elicit a smile.

A sense of meaning and connection is fundamental to fibre artist, Heather Kellerman, who also enjoys dabbling with paint and paper. Intuition is the path she follows to create colourful raised texture, often melted and layered. Heather’s work is influenced by the creative hand of her mother and grandmothers. Her weaving apprenticeship in the 80’s followed by years of playful experimentation has produced eclectic artwork in the form of garments, bags, toys, clerical stoles, jewelry and wall art. This variety demonstrates Heather’s keen appreciation for learning through the exploration of process and of materials, often which are found treasures ripe for repurposing. Current works generally take the form of wall art.
Heather has been a member of Textile Artists Collective of Nova Scotia (TACNS) since 2018. During spring, summer and fall she creates at her cottage on inspiring Caribou Island.

Jennifer Coveyduc is a Nova Scotian artist who is inspired by her love of all nature, the forests, fields and oceans and is influenced by their simple yet intricate beauty and the treasures they hold. With a background in Art and Biology she creates using a wide variety of mediums/ art forms and strives to incorporate a combination of natural, reclaimed or recycled material into her pieces to emphasize the importance of the environment and sustainability.
She is working towards setting up a small home studio for her business ‘Fringeweed Designs’ where she can continue to create in enameling, jewellery, weaving, collage, paper making, sewing, eco friendly gardening and more. When she is not creating she enjoys teaching and excitedly hopes to bring a variety of fun, creative, art and gardening classes to Pictou County.

Kelly Sanderson is a Maritime born textile artist specializing in needle felted paintings. She was born and raised in Truro and being from Nova Scotia has always been near and dear to who she is. She was a nurse for 30 years while raising her three children. Like many of us, she left Nova Scotia for a time but as her name suggests, her heart always belonged in the Maritimes.
Once Kelly retired she fell into the felting as a theraputic hobby and was hooked from the beginning. The combination of painting and scultpting each piece appeals to her as an artist and, oh, all the colour choices! She loves the smell and feel of the wool along with how the needle can control the fibres as she creates each original piece, no patterns. Most of her pieces have a nautical feel and are inspired by life near the sea.
These days she has returned to her home and you can usually find her on Cape John, Pictou County where she is in her little studio felting her latest painting, or walking the shore looking for sea glass with her dogs.