Dee Clements taught herself basket weaving during graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills.
Six years after earning her MFA, she has a storefront school dedicated to the craft.
Clements, who graduated from Cranbrook's 3D Design program in 2020, opened The Weaving Workshop in April 2026 at 1616 W. 18th St. in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, according to Block Club Chicago. The artist-run school offers classes in basketry, off-loom weaving, paper weaving, and dyeing for students of all skill levels.
Before the brick-and-mortar space, Clements ran the school out of her home studio in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood for about a year and a half, teaching more than 80 classes that drew students from across the city and other states.
"It was the first cultural device in humanity. It predates stone-carving and ceramics, so it's really our first craft in humanity," Clements told Block Club Chicago.
The school takes its name from the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop, the 1919–1933 department where artists Anni Albers, Gunta Stölzl, and Otti Berger established weaving as a serious artistic practice, according to Cranbrook Academy of Art's news feed.
Clements' own sculptural work has earned national recognition. Her woven vessels, made from rattan reed dyed with natural pigments and combined with ceramics and found materials, are held in the permanent collections at the Cranbrook Art Museum and The Anderson Collection at Stanford University. Her work will also be displayed at Yale University Art Gallery, according to Block Club Chicago. She has exhibited with Nina Johnson Gallery in Miami, Kasmin and R & Company in New York, and Library Street Collective in Detroit.
Cranbrook announced in August 2025 that Clements received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a $10,000 Center for Craft Teaching Artist Cohort Grant, which she has directed toward developing new curriculum for the school.
The Weaving Workshop is in the process of becoming a nonprofit organization and is raising funds through the Slath Circle Fund via Fractured Atlas, according to its website.
Two upcoming workshops are open for registration. A painted paper weaving class is scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, and a four-day Sculptural Basketry Intensive runs Friday, August 14, through Monday, August 17. Pricing and registration details are available at theweavingworkshopschool.com.
Upcoming community events
- Tuesday, July 28 — Painted paper weaving class, The Weaving Workshop, 1616 W. 18th St., Chicago. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Register at theweavingworkshopschool.com.
- Friday, August 14 – Monday, August 17 — Sculptural Basketry Intensive, The Weaving Workshop, Chicago. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Register at theweavingworkshopschool.com.
