Jill's Bio:

I have been interested in the fiber arts most of my life, beginning with sewing lessons from my mother to make my own clothes, to my current interest in handwoven clothing. After receiving my BA in 1968, I began teaching art in public schools in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Shortly after starting my teaching career, I enrolled in the Worcester Center for Crafts to study weaving with Richard Sauer.

I guess you can say “the rest is history” because it was at that point I realized my other love, in additon to teaching, was weaving. I continued to study at the WCC for several years. During that time John and I married, and after we discovered Sawyer’s Island in Boothbay, Maine in 1974, opening The Butke Gallery became our dream.

In 2005, after 37 years of teaching art in Massachusetts, John and I retired to our home on Sawyer’s Island. Our life-long dream to open The Butke Gallery became a reality in 2007. The transition from the nautical pillows and placemats I began selling in Boothbay in 1974 to the colors and fibers I use in the jackets, vest, and scarves in my current work has been a very memorable journey…and isn’t over yet!