PAST MONTH'S ARCHIVES
This month we are pleased to present...
Thread Technique Team (T3)
Ann Caswell, Beth Robertson and Suzanne Howren
By Rita VainiusClick here for FREE PATTERN Think three's a crowd? You won't anymore after making the acquaintance of T3. Now that's about as pithy a name as one can imagine, but the venture it refers to sure packs a wallop of talent. When Ann Caswell, Beth Robertson and Suzanne Howren decided to team-up to produce designs, they wanted to incorporate their combined expertise in stitches, threads and techniques. The result was T3, an acronym for the name of their business: the Thread Technique Team, initiated in August '97. Individually each is skilled and talented in her own right. As a triumvirate, they truly make up a design force to be reckoned with!
Ann Caswell's expertise is an extensive knowledge of threads, working with over 150 different types. Her goal as a teacher is to provide a wealth of information on the variety of threads available, recognizing their properties and demonstrating how they work in combination with each other. She has taught for needlework shops, companies and guilds across North America and England. From 1986 to 1991 Ann functioned as Shop Manager for the ANG after which she served as its national president from 1994 to 1996. Ann's focus for the ANG Shop was to develop it as an educational, as well as a fund raising resource for the guild. She has also been on ANG's Correspondence Course Faculty for 8 years. Ann produces all her own teaching materials and project instructions, as well as instructional material for other teachers. Her work with shops includes customizing thread classes and merchandising material to a shop's specific thread inventory and future goals and providing projects and teaching aids which can be used by the shop in display and for classes. Ann's hallmark is her relaxed but enthusiastic approach that enables her to disseminate a vast body of knowledge while simultaneously encouraging students to apply what they learn according to their individual avenues of endeavor.
Another of Ann's keen interests is developing needlework graphics on the computer. She appeared as a guest on The Embroidery Studio to demonstrate the use of today's technology in needle arts. She is currently working as design coordinator on a book for Interweave Press scheduled for release January 2001. She was also the design coordinator for Metallic Thread Embroidery: A practical guide to stitching creatively with metallic threads by Jacqueline Friedman Kreinik, due out this fall. Her own designs have appeared in numerous magazines and books and she is among the designers featured in Shay Pendray's Needlecraft Projects. Her background before needlework was in office management and research psychology and she has worked additionally as a crisis counselor and a licensed private investigator.
Beth Robertson was born and raised on the North Shore of Long Island, NY, also known as the Gold Coast. Both of Beth's parents influenced her creative side. Beth spent considerable time with her father who enjoyed woodworking and she learned to swing a hammer before learning to thread a needle. Beth's mother taught her knitting, sewing, needlepoint and embroidery. Later she did machine sewing and crewelwork. Growing up Beth immersed herself in numerous sports. In high school Beth's interests broadened to include photography, serving as a photographer for the school yearbook. Other artistic interests Beth has pursued include quilting, watercolors and rug hooking. Many of these pursuits fell by the wayside during college and for several years thereafter
Beth attended The American University in Washington, DC, her initial career goal being to land a job as photographer for National Geographic, but after a year her focus had changed to broadcast journalism. Her first job out of college was with the Sheridan Broadcasting Network. In less than a year, she was selected as the producer for Black College Football. After this, Beth moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Upon moving back to New York, she took a job with the RKO Radio Network. She loved the job, but hated NYC, so back she went to DC and began working in Telecommunications for MCI, first in the Engineering Division and later managing the technical support department.
In the 80's Beth rediscovered cross-stitch and needlepoint. By 1990 she had joined the ANG and took up counted needlework on canvas, building up her repertoire of needlepoint stitches. She immersed herself in workshops and seminars. Beth remarks, "I guess this is where my intensive hands-on work began." While working for MCI Beth was engineer by day, needlework designer by night. When in 1995 an opportunity to pursue a needlework career full time presented itself, she grabbed it.
Suzanne Howren was born and raised in Norfolk, VA, the oldest child of 4 and the only girl. Suzanne's mother taught her to knit and needlepoint. She attended Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk but graduated from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC with a degree in Communications. She also received a nursing diploma from the Helene Fuld School of Nursing and worked as a nurse at George Washington University Hospital in the postpartum and neonatal intensive care units. Thereafter she worked for Hospital Temporaries in different locales and followed this with selling pharmaceuticals for the next eight years before becoming a "stay-at-home mom." It was while working part-time at the Needlewoman East in VA that Suzanne made the acquaintance of both Beth and Ann.
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DESIGNER ARCHIVES Click below if you missed our previous Designer Spotlights and FREE patterns Rosemary Drysdale
Too Sisters
David McCaskill (revisited)
Carmen Wyant
Janet Fenton
Carolyn Hook
Thea Dueck
Deborah Wilson
Karen Buell
Orna Willis
Linda Wyszynski
Jean Smith
Libby Sturdy
Emie Bishop
Stephanie Novatski
Rosalyn Watnemo
Linda Reeves
Carol Tinson
Julie Pischke
Catherine Reurs
Charland Garvin
Martina Weber
Cassandra Prescott
Mary Duckworth
Claudia Dutcher
Leslie Levison
Judi Kauffman
Linda Connors
Sue Kerndt
Dawn Lewis
David McCaskill
Linda Barry
Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum
Pam Davenport
Sue Stehle, of Sekas & Co.
Diane Evans, of Something Different
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