Weaving was considered feminine when James Bassler first secretly worked with fiber in helping his father hook rugs in the 1930s. In the privacy of the family home, 6-year-old Bassler watched his father, a major league baseball player, trade his catcher’s mitt for strips of dyed silk. Read more...

Photo: UCLA alumnus and previous faculty member James Bassler began to study the art of weaving in the basement of Royce Hall after witnessing the integration of textiles in Asian culture. (Courtesy of Reed Hutchinson)

Actors in bright Bavarian dress danced across the stage, lightly stepping on and off three durable, brown wooden barrels. Jeanne Schniedewind inhaled sharply when the actors tossed two of her handcrafted kegs back and forth, thinking of the time and effort it would take to fix them if they broke. Read more...

Photo: (Jintak Han/Assistant Photo Editor)