Put simply: we’re not just a collection of videos, we’re an entire learning community. That means that you get more than passive learning – you get interactive exercises, a chance to discuss those exercises with other participants, and a whole community dedicated to supporting weavers who want to learn.

Our classes are excellent and stand on their own – but we’re more than just our classes, we’re a learning center – an Academy in every sense of the word.

Yes you can! You can cancel or rejoin at any time. 

If you’re an off-and-on weaver, we recommend a monthly subscription – that way you can subscribe only in the months you’re weaving. 

If you don’t have an active subscription, you won’t be able to access most of the site, but all your designs, course progress, etc. will be there when you return. 

We work hard to make things easy for you!

Nope! We do have projects, and they’re a great way to consolidate and practice what you’ve learned in the individual classes, but they are COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. If you don’t want to weave them or your loom’s tied up with other projects, just skip them! It’s totally okay.

Both!

The classes are accessible any time (“prerecorded”), and are a combination of text and video demonstrations.

We also have five live sessions every month:

• The Peer Support: Design Help and Peer Support: Weaving Help sessions are available to all membership levels.
• The Live Lecture, Live Q&A, Design Sessions with Tien, and Office Hours with Janet sessions are available only to Premium members. (Design Sessions with Tien and Office Hours with Janet take place in alternating months.)

Finally, we have 24/7 discussion forums for each class, where you can share your work, ask questions about class material, and get inspired by seeing what others have done.

• Live Lecture: 1st Sunday of every month, 12-1 pm Pacific Time
• Peer Support: Weaving Help: 2nd Saturdays, 10-11 am Pacific Time
• Design Sessions with Tien and Office Hours with Janet take place from 12-1 pm Pacific Time on 3rd Sundays, alternating months. (Janet gets odd months, Tien takes even months.)
• Q&A with Tien & Janet: 3rd Wednesdays, 4-5 pm Pacific
• Peer Support: Design Help: 4th Mondays, 4-5 pm Pacific

The Live Lecture, Live Q&A, Design Demos with Tien, and Office Hours with Janet sessions are recorded, closed-captioned, and transcribed. The recordings and transcripts are available indefinitely to all Premium members.

For the privacy of the participants, the Peer Support: Design Help and Peer Support: Weaving Help sessions are not recorded.

You have access to materials as long as you remain a paid member at the relevant level.

Basic membership gets you access to all courses, tools, forums, etc.

Premium members get everything Basic members get, plus access to the Live Lectures, Q&A sessions, and other live webinars. Premium members ALSO get access to all the recordings of the webinars – we have a year’s worth already!

We have classes for both shaft loom and rigid heddle loom weavers!

Many of our classes are appropriate for both types of looms (color particularly), others are specific to a loom type.

Find out what classes we have for each type of loom in our Course Roadmap.

Rigid heddle weavers are absolutely welcome here!

We have rigid heddle specific classes, and many of our other classes apply to both rigid heddle and shaft-loom weaving, especially the color classes.

To see what we have for rigid heddle weavers, check out our rigid heddle Course Roadmap.

Nope! You don’t need to purchase any software for our classes.

We use Handweaving.net’s Color/Draft Editor in some of our classes, but it runs in any web browser.

We also offer lots of great online calculators, draft generators, etc. for you to play with – again, working in any web browser.

If you are planning on doing the online exercises, particularly with the Color Editor, we recommend using either a computer/laptop with a mouse, or a tablet with a stylus – it will make designing a lot easier.

You can access the Handweaving Academy from any web browser. PC, tablet, phone – if it runs a web browser, you can access the Academy from it.

If you are planning on doing the online exercises, particularly with the Color Editor, we recommend using either a computer/laptop with a mouse, or a tablet with a stylus – it will make designing a lot easier.

No problem! Our website is clean, simple, and easy to use. We have excellent help documentation, and Dawn, our tech support team, is happy to pitch in if you have any questions. (And we love feedback on how to make things better!)

Premium members get access to the live sessions with Tien and Janet. While Tien and Janet will participate in the forums regularly, we can’t guarantee that we’ll answer your questions there. 

Yes! We have an introductory class, Getting Started with Design, that comes with a trial of the Academy. It’s only $7 for 21 days of access to the course and the entire Academy!

The trial doesn’t renew, so no worries about getting charged for a monthly subscription you don’t want. We won’t charge your card again unless you sign up at the end of the trial.

Sign up for the trial here!

We want you to be happy! We have a one-time, 14-day refund policy, so if you’re unhappy in the first 14 days of your membership, let us know and we’ll refund your money.