The Inaugural
Rugby Weave

Beth Hester is a maker, collector, and teacher of baskets. As a child, she enjoyed learning needlework from her mother and grandmother, which influenced her love of basketry.

Beth learned white oak basket making in the early 1980s from Ollie and Lestel Childress, fourth and fifth generation Hart County, Kentucky basket makers. She is a past board member of the National Basketry Organization.

Beth co-owned the Basket Maker’s Catalog from 1982 to 2024. She has studied basketry in Kentucky, Iowa, and Washington, as well as willow, rush, and bark work in England, Germany, Denmark, and Ireland. She has mentored the next generation of basket makers, including teachers Anna and Dani, who are incredibly grateful for the love and knowledge Beth has shared with them.

Now retired from Basket Maker’s Catalog, she and her husband, basket maker Scott Gilbert, enjoy traveling and exploring creative interests. Beth continues to contribute to the preservation of basketry traditions, especially in her area of Kentucky. She especially enjoys working with white oak and willow.

Anna Greinetz began learning basketry in 2023 after moving from Germany to Kentucky, where the craft became an important way to connect with her new home, its landscape, and its cultural traditions. At a class hosted by the Butler County Arts Guild, she was more formally introduced to the art by Beth Hester and Scott Gilbert, and has since studied with Jo Campbell-Amsler, Delia of the Greenwood, and Judy Zugish, exploring a wide range of natural weaving materials and techniques.

Since then, she has attended the White Oak Gathering, the Hart County White Oak Contest (winning first and second prize), and exhibitions celebrating Kentucky basketry, while continuing to deepen her knowledge of harvesting and processing white oak under Scott Gilbert’s mentorship.

Alongside her work with white oak, Anna grows a variety of willow for basketry and enjoys exploring willow both as a living plant and as a weaving material, including willow bark. She teaches willow weaving workshops at the Butler County Arts Guild and loves sharing her passion for weaving with willow through teaching and community workshops. She enjoys creating functional and traditional baskets while helping preserve and pass on these living traditions.

In 2025, she demonstrated white oak weaving alongside Scott Gilbert and Beth Hester at the Sorghum Festival in Cub Run, Kentucky. In July 2026, Scott Gilbert and Anna were awarded a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council, supporting the continued preservation and transmission of Kentucky’s white oak basketry tradition.

Danielle Anderson, also known as Dani Sue, is the owner of Dani Sue Creations and Basket Maker’s Supply. Her love for weaving was sparked at a young age by her Granny Ardia Herndon, who taught basket classes for over 30 years. By six, she wove her first basket with her Granny’s help and she has been weaving ever since!

Danielle is the author of more than 45 basket patterns and has taught hundreds of weavers of all ages and experience levels. She has been a featured teacher at state conventions and guilds. She has also expanded into art education, including working with professors at the University of Texas Art Department, and teaching local elementary and high school students and art teachers how to weave. Her work has been featured nationally in Art Education and the Courier Journal.

With her husband, Christopher, and three daughters, Danielle balances family life and her business on their farm in Taylorsville, KY. Danielle also created The Flock, an annual subscription membership group offering exclusive basket designs and year-long learning opportunities for weavers to grow in their craft. In March 2024, she expanded her reach by acquiring and rebranding The Basket Makers Catalog (TBMC) as Basket Maker’s Supply, a 42-year-old supply company that serves as a one-stop shop for basket making, chair caning, tools and more.

Valerie Armstrong began weaving in 2016, honing her craft under the mentorship of numerous instructors through conferences and workshops. She is an employee of Basket Maker’s Supply and has a wealth of knowledge with basketry materials and the weaving process.

Her granddaughter’s love of collecting rocks inspired Valerie’s rock weaving. Valerie loves being part of the basket world and helping spur on creativity in others.

Carol Herndon is the calm, steady hand behind so many of the basket kits you love. As Basket Maker’s Supply’s Kit Extraordinaire, she assembles each kit with care, ensuring every detail is just right before it leaves the shop. Her warm, gentle spirit and remarkable patience make every project she touches feel thoughtfully put together.

Carol’s calm nature is infectious. She doesn’t get ruffled easily, and her presence brings a sense of peace and confidence to everything she does. Outside of the shop, her grandson Owen is the apple of her eye, and she loves spending time with him whenever she can.

At The Rugby Weave, Carol will be teaching the Carolina Snowflake, a pattern originally designed by the late Billie Ruth Sudduth. Her combination of skill, patience, and warmth makes her a natural fit for the classroom, bringing the same care to teaching that she brings to every kit she prepares.