In 2012, Karen Pfeifer, co-owner of Middendorf’s Seafood Restaurant, joined friend Jo Ann Ziller to start a weaving program through OPTIONS, the Hammond-area nonprofit that connects developmentally disabled individuals with opportunities to work and to engage with their community. The two women were both weavers and both looking for opportunities to volunteer in the area.
“I told Jo Ann, ‘We could teach special needs adults to weave!’” said Pfeifer, who had visited a similar program in Germany on a trip with her husband, Middendorf’s chef-owner Horst Pfeifer.
Pfeifer and Ziller approached OPTIONS with their idea and were soon offering once-a-week art-therapy sessions to adults. “We had a really good group of weavers going,” said Pfeifer. Tour groups visiting the OPTIONS campus expressed enthusiasm for the works in progress; a business, staffing their now-skilled weavers, seemed the natural progression.
In two and a half years, the program has grown from a half-day enrichment program to a full business, employing four full-time weavers and two part-time to create and sell handcrafted woven products to the public. OPTIONS Weaving Studio launched on May 7, with “super fans” crowding in to snatch up bracelets, rugs, scarves, bowties, and other wares, said Pfeifer. “Over two hundred people showed up.”
The studio features five production looms, as well as two looms still used for weekly art therapy sessions. Pfeifer and Ziller teach their employees “from ground zero to the end” how to finish a product off the loom.
Donations are welcome; the studio also accepts old materials, equipment, or even just a few hours of time. “You don’t have to know how to weave to volunteer,” said Pfeifer.
The studio is located at 19362 West Shelton Road. Find the latest creations and updates on Instagram (@optionsweavingstudio) or Facebook.
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