2013 Faculty

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Marie-Therese Baker, Director, Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts
Marie-Therese Baker has been a student at Callaway since 1994. For six years she was a member of the Seminar Faculty Committee for the American Needlepoint Guild, coordinating classes and faculty for the national seminars. She is a member of ANG, EGA and NAN and has held offices in both ANG and EGA local chapters. A native of Kansas City, she holds a Master’s Degree in Reading Education and taught in the classroom for twenty years. In 2006 she, along with Kate Gaunt, founded the Shining Needle Society, an online educational site for classes in the needle arts.

Jody Adams
Jody Adams is the past Director of the Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts, retired. She is an international teacher, designer, lecturer and judge and holds certification in canvaswork from the Valentine Museum, where she served as Director of Education and Director of Teacher Certification. Jody has been a faculty member of NAN, the Valentine Assembly, the Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts and the Elsa Williams School of Needle Arts. She has taught at national seminars for ANG, EGA, the Council of Embroiderers, the Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts, NAN’s Assembly for Embroiderers and at many regional and chapter seminars for ANG and EGA across the country. In 1997 she was honored with NAN’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award .

Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn
Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn are internationally known textile artists, authors and tutors. They belong to the prestigious 62 Group of Textile Artists and have exhibited their work throughout the world. Their work is in private and public collections. For many years both have written books on design and stitched textiles and have presented ideas on television and for video. In 1997 they formed Double Trouble Enterprises to publish books and promote further interest in embroidery and allied subjects. In 2006 they were jointly awarded ‘Textile Teacher of the Year’ UK.

Michael Boren
Michael Boren is a designer and a regional and local teacher specializing in geometric designs. Michael teaches needle arts at meetings and workshops for ANG and EGA chapters, at regional seminars, and in retail shops. Three of his designs have been featured in Needlepoint Now. He is a Life Patron member of ANG and is a member of numerous ANG and EGA chapters, and NETA.

Terry Dryden
Terry is an ANG Master Teacher who has been teaching and designing for more than twenty years. Her training in art and architectural and landscape design have inspired her designs which range from delicate florals to bold geometrics and bargellos. She is continually exploring new ways to combine color, texture and stitch, and encourages her students to also expand their knowledge of new materials and techniques to personalize their work. She is nationally recognized, having taught at EGA and ANG national seminars, as well as for regional guilds and needlework shops. Her designs have appeared in Needlepoint Now and NeedlePointers magazines.

Kazumi Fujisawa
Kazumi started to learn the techniques of Japanese Embroidery when she was four years old from her late grandfather, Iwao Saito, embroidery master and founder of Kurenai-Kai Japanese Embroidery School in Japan. After graduating from middle school in Japan, she became an apprentice of the Japanese Embroidery School in 1989 at the age of fifteen, where she had a professional training. She graduated from the school in 1992. After she graduated from University in Georgia, she began teaching and working in various capacities at the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta, as well as at other parts of United States, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, etc.

Karla Gee
Karla is a fiber artist and teacher, whose media is off-loom bead weaving. She is a 5th generation needle artist, beginning training with her great-grandmother. Teaching is a 34-year passion with 13 years dedicated to bead weaving. Karla has taught at EGA National Seminar and many EGA regional seminar events. Karla holds two master degrees in education, including one from Virginia Tech. She is a member of NETA, SDA, American Craft and a juried member of Fiber Forum and past Jury Chair. Karla has exhibited nationally and in many Virginia artist venues winning awards in the 3D and fiber categories.

Toni Gerdes
Toni holds Level II Teachers’ Certification from the National Academy of Needlearts, specializing in canvas embroidery. She is a member of NAN, ANG, EGA and NETA and has served as vice president/ program chair of The Greater Kansas City Needlepoint Guild. She is currently serving on the NAN board as Assistant Director of Teachers’ Certification. She has received numerous awards for her work, including original designs. Toni has taught at the national level for NAN, ANG and EGA, as well as at the regional level and at the local level. She enjoys all types of stitching and especially sharing her knowledge with others. She currently resides in Colorado.

Marsha Papay Gomola
Marsha Papay-Gomola has taught needlework at regional and national seminars for EGA, NAN, TNNA, The Sampler Gathering and Christmas in Williamsburg. She has been published in Fine Lines, NeedleArts and Sampler and Antique Needlework. In 2008 she received the Jean Taggart Award and The Exemplary Award from the National Academy of Needlearts. Marsha holds teacher certification in Level II raised embroidery through the National Academy of Needlearts. She specializes in raised embroidery, emphasizing the use of silk shading to create realistic contemporary designs.

Cara Hayes
A member of ANG, EGA, NAN and NETA, Cara’s award-winning work has been exhibited locally and nationally. She enjoys creating designs, inspired by her scientific background. Of prime interest to her is designing with traditional embroidery materials in a novel way, thus inspiring a fresh approach to mixed media on canvas for her students.

Carole H. Lake
Carole Lake, from Austin, Texas, is an EGA-certified teacher who specializes in manipulating common and uncommon threads and stitches to create textured effects, with a special interest in the effect and symbolism of color. Her award-winning work has been displayed in exhibits throughout the southwest. She has been actively teaching and designing for over twenty years. A native Texan and graduate of Rice University, her enthusiasm for the needlearts has translated into a strong desire to exchange ideas, explore techniques, and share the love of stitching.

Dorothy Lesher
Dorothy Lesher, a nationally known teacher and designer from Michigan, earned her Master Craftsman in canvas embroidery from EGA. She has served on the faculty of EGA and ANG National Seminars, Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts, The National Academy of Needlearts Assembly at The Greenbrier and Kansas City and various regional seminars and guilds over the past 25 years. She has been featured in Designers Across America section of Needle Arts for EGA, needlepoint now, and her article of The Faces of Needlework was published in the ANG magazine, Needle Pointers. As a visiting instructor at Eastern Michigan University, she lectured and instructed on needlework for the physically impaired for the Occupational Therapy Department.

Marnie Ritter 
Marnie has taught needle art for over thirty years at national and regional seminars for ANG, EGA, Callaway Gardens, Kent State University, NAN, as well as guilds and shops national and international. Marnie’s forte is to continuously discover new and innovative techniques that combine many facets of needle art. Her students enjoy her enthusiastic sharing of these years of seasoned experience. Her certification in Surface Stitchery from The Council of Embroiderers, as well as experience in television and publishing, offers students a teacher well versed in the subject of needlework. Her newest venture in publishing is the creation of needlework calendars to be sold throughout the United States. She has been a juried member of Fiber Forum, as well as serving as President of the Colorado Chapter of EGA in 1995/1996 and 2001/2002.

Kay Stanis
Kay is an internationally known fiber artist, designer, Master Craftsman, and Certified and Graduate Certified Teacher of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, Inc. (EGA) and Kurenai Kai Traditional Japanese Embroidery. Her embroideries have been received numerous awards and have been shown on the covers of Kurenai, Inspirations, NeedleArts and NeedlePointers. She exhibits her needlework widely   and is a juried member of the Fiber Forum group and is the recent recipient of EGA’s Diana Grossman Memorial Award for Excellence in Needlework. She has recently won a Judge’s Choice award. She has studied internationally: in Paris at the L’Ecole de Broiderie D’Art, at The Royal School of Needlework in England, and she was invited to Japan to study with Master Saito at Kurenai Kai. Kay’s travels are always interlaced with textile exhibits and workshops with internationally known teachers in the US and abroad the most recent being Australia and China. She teaches and lectures on silk and metal embroidery in the US and abroad and has written and is presently teaching three correspondence courses for EGA. Today her responsibilities for EGA include: Chairman of the Master Craftsman in Silk and Metal, chairman of the Certified Teacher Graduate Program. She is also Treasurer of Fiber Forum, EGA’s exhibition group. She has been and will been on the faculties of American Needlepoint Guild national seminars, Callaway School of Needlearts, Embroiderers Association of Canada, EGA national and regional seminars, Koala Conventions, South Australia Embroidery Conference, Embroidery 2000 (New Zealand), and many independent groups.

Joan Thomasson
Joan Thomasson is an ANG Master Teacher and also the owner of Stitchin' Stuff, Inc. which markets designs nationwide. She is the past president of NETA, past Chairman of ICNA and has taught nationally for ANG, EGA, Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts and the National Academy of Needlearts. Her designs have been featured in needlepoint now, Needlearts, Needle Pointers and the Neiman Marcus Horchow Collection.

Robin Wilks
Though her first field is music and singing, Robin has designed and created needlework projects for churches in the southeast for nearly 30 years. During that time, she led the churches’ guilds in completing their projects and taught many classes in Christian Symbolism. In 1991, she began her Japanese Embroidery journey at Callaway Gardens and has returned each year since. In March, 2009, she found a home with the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta and is currently on a path toward teacher certification. Working at the Center several days/month proofreading, other various duties and absorbing the culture, she also regularly takes classes there and is beginning an internship at JEC under Mrs. Tamura. Robin looks forward to helping Kazumi Fujisawa and sharing her love of Japanese Embroidery here at Callaway Gardens.