Unlike photography or painting, where students show up in class for a couple hours every week and then scatter to do their own work, teaching a weaving class forces people together, Matson explains. “They actually all have to sit in that room and weave, and in that way a community gets built,” says Matson, who is quick to rejoice in the success of former students. Among the people who crossed her path at SAIC are Samantha Bittman, Noelle Sharp of Aporta textiles, Tanya Fleisher of Winter Session, Tini Bloom of Etten Eller jewelry, and Julianne Ahn of Object & Totem. “I miss that about teaching.”