Weave Along With The Art of Yarn

Modern weaver, teacher, and peasant advocate Judith Basco saw an opportunity to turn her weaving passion project into a full-time career through The Art of Yarn.

In 2018, Judith made an Instagram account to create a portfolio for her weaving projects. The rise of contemporary weaving reached a curious audience eager to learn how they could do it too.

“When I started posting about woven projects I’ve been working on, people would ask me how they could learn it too. That’s when I saw the opportunity that I could actually host workshops. That’s where the skill-sharing and skills workshops started – with people looking for hobbies,” Judith shared.

The Art of Yarn officially became a business in 2020 with more people wanting to do workshops on modern weaving. Judith collaborated with brands like Woven, Anthill, and Papelmelroti to jumpstart her commissions.

However, the lockdown restrictions caused by the pandemic forced Judith to transition to an online setup completely. 

“When the borders started opening up, I could just send them the materials. It was a challenge to set up a skills training workshop with a setup where people can actually learn. I was really relying on the physical since it’s a skills workshop – I have to be there. But then I spent the next two years doing that,” Judith said.

The transition worked in Judith’s favor as she found opportunities to hold workshops in different provinces and branch out internationally. Recently, she even had an online workshop for a class in Berlin for a banig weaving workshop to celebrate Buwan ng Wika.

“There are a lot of people who turned their passion into a business. When I started teaching, I was more excited to meet people. Allowing them to learn weaving through me was more exciting than actually doing weaving sometimes,” Judith said.

From the shift in the past two years, Judith learned that being able to teach weaving could help share the culture and tradition. Business-wise, she learned to manage her time and energy for her small business, especially in handling corporate clients.

Moving forward, Judith continues to share her passion for weaving through The Art of Yarn. Her recent Vogue Philippines feature piqued the interest of people who wanted to learn and take the workshops. She is also currently teaching in homeschool communities and taking commissions that could help promote modern weaving to kids and hobbyists alike.

Weave along with The Art of Yarn on theartofyarn.com