Melanie Wilder Is Not Done Learning
Lou Hittle | Feb. 17, 2026
Melanie Wilder talks with her hands.
Wilder, the head of Warren Wilson College’s (WWC’s) Fiber Arts program, is sitting on the porch of Fortune Cottage, a two-story brick building where she teaches classes and leads her 12-person work crew. Rows of floor looms are visible through the window behind her. Her eyes, which dart and glitter animatedly as she speaks, are almost a perfect match to her blue shirt.
Wilder has been drawn to fiber arts for as long as she can remember. Her mother, an elementary school art teacher, helped her practice stitching using pieces of burlap. While other teenagers played sports or buried their noses in textbooks, Wilder learned beadwork and macrame, made her own clothes and attended sewing conventions – even winning a prize for a pair of patchwork pants.
“It was never a thing I thought I wanted to do as my vocation or my career,” Wilder said.
She briefly attended WWC, but quickly found that a traditional major was not the right fit. Instead of studying for her chemistry class, she stayed up late working on quilts. She knew that her art was important and satisfying, but she did not fully understand why. She tried two other schools. None stuck.
Clarity came in May 2001 when Melanie went on a trip to Peru, where women gathered in circles with backstrap looms to weave together. At 20, she had never seen a loom before.
Her future began to click into place. After returning home, she enrolled in a weaving program at Haywood Community College with the goal of starting a weaving business.
“I was following what was true to me,” Wilder said.
By Wilder’s 25 birthday, she was living at WWC with her husband, Tom, who was the leader of Heavy-Duty Crew at the time. She spent her days at home raising her newborn son while spending as much time as possible on the loom – until a student approached her about starting an on-campus crew for weavers.
“I have five hours a week to give to these folks,” Wilder recalls thinking. “What’s the harm in saying yes?”
Fall 2009 was the Fiber Arts Crew’s first semester. They had five members and a small room with three looms. Before long, demand developed for fiber arts courses; now, Melanie teaches the classes she wished she could have taken as a Warren Wilson student.
Sixteen years later, Wilder hopes to grow even more in her knowledge of fiber arts. Her practice is constantly shifting and expanding. She changes her curriculum every year: “Teaching will no longer be fun for me when I can’t grow.” For the time being, thankfully, she has plenty to teach – and plenty to learn.