Help Rebuild Judith's Studio

My first experience with Judith MacKenzie was in November 2008 when she paid a visit to our spinner guild.  She was good friends of the woman who owned our Local Yarn Store, and "came for a visit" - being a newbie spinner, I didn't know that when you said "Judith" - choirs of angels sang in the background. 

After that, I took two different classes from Judith - and always learned lots, but something more important - to be encouraging of new spinners.  Even if what they were spinning looked "less than desirable" Judith would have something good to say - and a way they could do it better. 







She is also unfailingly generous with fiber - you always get good things to spin when you take her classes. 


One of my spinner guild pals once said "I'd take a class from Judith even if she was teaching how to spin belly button lint"  After I had taken one of Judith's classes, I knew what my pal meant. 











Judith is also an exceptional fleece judge - here she is in 2010 at Black Sheep Gathering.  Listening to her judge fleece is like taking a class on how to pick out the very best fleece to spin.

A couple of years ago, Judith moved to Forks, WA - which seemed like the end of the world to me, was a haven for her.  As artist in residence at the Rainforest Arts Center, she had built up a wonderful studio to share her talents with the world.

Yesterday I received an email from the same friend who I quoted above about spinning "belly button lint"  She told me about "the fire" - on October 29, a catastrophic fire destroyed the arts center building and everything in Judith's studio.  I had heard about the fire - they only said that it burned the store where they sold all the vampire stuff. (Forks, WA is where the Twilight series was based out of)

They didn't say anything about destroying the Arts Center.  When I read her email, I cried. 

A web site has been set up -  Rebuild Judith's Studio   Do what you can to help.

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