WHO IS JOAN RUANE, THE “COTTON SPINNER?”

Joan has been teaching spinning for almost 30 years. As a graduate of Springfield College, she taught in the Tucson public schools before going to New Zealand in 1971. In New Zealand, where there are 3 million people and 30 million sheep, she learned to spin from Ruth Reed. Returning home to the U.S. a year later, she brought with her two fleeces, a Pipy wheel and a flick carder.

The family moved to Florida and Joan continued to spin and began teaching anyone who would listen to her. Settling in Tallahassee, Florida, was good for Joan as she became active in the local spinning and weaving guilds. Many weekends were spent at the Pioneer Settlement demonstrating and promoting spinning.

Joan began taking classes and workshops but the one workshop that really changed her direction was Persis Grayson’s. Persis knew how to instill a love of spinning and she exposed her students to all kinds of fibers. Cotton was the fiber Joan fell in love with and never faltered after. It was important for her to learn all she could about this wonderful soft short staple fiber. So she went directly to Harry and Olive Linder who were the known experts in cotton spinning. After several years and many hours with the Linders, Joan felt comfortable to begin sharing her knowledge of cotton with other fiber artists. And thus she began giving lectures and spinning workshops around the country. Her highlight was to go back to New Zealand and share the skills of cotton spinning with those who first made spinning a big part of Joan’s life.

While in Florida, Joan and her business partner, Judy Kates, opened a warehouse shop called Spin & Dye. Joan imported wheels and fleeces from New Zealand. The shop offered supplies for the local spinners and dyers. In 1980 the Ruane family moved back to Tucson and there Joan opened a store called Spin & Weave, which she operated for 12 years.

Wanting a quieter life, Joan and her husband Bob, moved to Bisbee, Arizona, where she began Southwest Corner, first as a mail order business to supply cotton fiber and equipment to spinners around the world. Next, she established fiber retreats, bringing in instructors from all over the U.S. As time moved on and Joan was traveling more giving workshops, she had less time for the mail order business. With the growing interest in cotton, other shops were carrying quality cotton supplies so Joan closed that phase of her business.

Today Joan concentrates on teaching workshops, writing and promoting cotton wherever she can. Her latest endeavor to promote cotton spinning is through the film media. She has just finished her first video called "Spinning Cotton Made Easy," which gives spinners a good solid basic foundation for learning how to spin this short staple fiber. Hopefully, this will be the first in a series of films, for what better way to reach anyone wanting to learn then through a video or DVD? Her long-awaited book is getting closer and we hope to see it before 2005.

Anyone who has taken a class with Joan can vouch for two things: she really loves cotton and knows how to teach.

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