Tommye McClure Scanlin

Tommye McClure Scanlin is Professor Emerita, University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, Georgia where she began the weaving program at the school in the early 1970s. At the university, she and her students explored many different techniques for creating images with fabric and fiber. But often, she found most pleasure in art education classes when introducing elementary education degree students to the joys of creative making. In 1988 she began a never-ending, ever-fascinating journey into tapestry weaving. Her tapestries found their way into many exhibits and she began sharing a growing knowledge of tapestry techniques through workshops and classes at Arrowmont, John C. Campbell Folk School, Penland and for weaving guilds.

As a Fellow of the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and of the Lillian E. Smith Center, she's spent many weeks in artist residencies in the mountains of Southern Appalachia. In 2020 her first book, The Nature of Things: Essays of a Tapestry Weaver, was published by The University of North Georgia Press. In 2021 Tapestry Design Basics and Beyond: Planning and Weaving with Confidence is coming from Schiffer Publishing—a compilation of many ideas and explorations she’s used with classes through her years of teaching. She frequently writes about her adventures in teaching, designing and tapestry making at her blog Works in Progress, http://tapestry13.blogspot.com