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By Heidi Hope
October 1, 2025 (Julian) - For anyone interested in exploring the historic aspect of weaving on a loom, or buying hand-woven products, you won’t want to miss Julian Weaving Works in Santa Ysabel. Julian Weaving Works is a weaving academy and store created and run by Beryl Warnes. She has been in this weaving business for 30 years.
The shop offers a delightful variety of colorful, hand-woven clothing items such as shawls, wraps, scarves, and caps. You can purchase these items, or sign up for a class and learn how to make your own.
Warnes originally opened the business in Julian in 1989, along with two friends, where it remained for about five years. “At one time it was a cooperative of 10 women,” Warnes recalls. ”When I moved from Julian down to here, to the slower pace of the community, that’s when I started the shop just by myself.”
From embarking into the business with her friends to starting the Santa Ysabel shop by herself, Warnes continuously strived to advocate for her weaving venture and make her woven products a household name. “I had three other jobs and they were part-time jobs to fill in with weaving, and I started out doing shows in the town hall. As weaving started to get more and more popular, I was able to quit the jobs, one at a time.” Warrens says.
Later she was approached by people who needed custom made saddle blankets. “So I wove custom saddle blankets for them for about 25 years, and that’s what enabled me to have my own shop for a long time,” Warnes says .”That ended about seven years ago, and now I just weave the clothing and teach classes and sell my wares.”
Her love for weaving started as a child. “When I was 8, I learned to knit and crochet, and all the time from [age] 8 to 20 in school, I took sewing classes and embroidery classes,” Warnes says. “Not weaving because it was not offered…When I was 20, there was a Swedish woman who taught weaving in her barn in the summertime, and this was in 1974...She only did it in the summer, because there was no heat in the barn. So I took a weaving class from her that was two weeks long and fell in love with weaving.”
Warnes’ passion for weaving has led her to teach others how to weave at any level they want to learn.
Sourcing yarns is another challenge. “I go online and get a lot of my yarns. I buy yarns from mill end places, like a fabric mill that makes clothing,” she explains. “They use all the cones, and I can buy those mill ends at a cheaper price than brand new cones. I’ve been collecting these yarns for 50 years.”
Warnes’ persistence and endless love for her craft are shown clearly through her withstanding the global pandemic, coronavirus and keeping her business alive.
“I had to shut down like everyone else for three months,” she says, ”but when I got to open up again it was pretty good, because everyone had been learning to stay home. Interestingly enough, when the coronavirus hit, a lot of looms came out onto the market because people were at home and they dug out their looms and said `I’m gonna sell it.’ Right now, there’s a lot of used looms, which is good. I like to see the used looms in circulation rather than hiding in someone’s closet.” Warnes adds.
She was able to find the light at the end of the tunnel throughout this worldwide obstacle, turning pandemic lockdown into an opportunity by taking advantage of all the looms getting sold to sustain her venture.
Similarly, her tenacity and determination to stand firm in her art are shown through how she keeps thriving despite people’s opinions. “Everybody is entitled to their opinion; it doesn’t bother me. If you like it, buy it. If you don’t like it, I’m not gonna push it on you.” Warnes says. Her confidence in her diligent effort is not faded by the social negativity, which is a true inspiration in an artistic pursuit.
Most importantly, Warnes’ venture strongly resonates with a historical moment in time, which is the indentured servants during the Industrial Revolution. “In order to learn weaving throughout history, you had to be indentured to a weaver for quite a few years before you could become a weaver.” Warnes says. She is willing to offer programs that people can enroll as apprentices or interns, according to what they can afford.
For me, this experience was a special moment in time because I got to try weaving on the loom hands on and witness this historic moment from world history. A moment like this fulfilled my 10th grader heart as I could live out an old history lesson in the modern day.
“So when someone comes and takes the basic class on how to dress a loom, which takes three days, it costs $100 a day. I have a program after that [which is] less expensive, where they can come eight times a day to work with me in the studio as an apprentice or an intern. They can always go back to make corrections. It took me 12 years to become good at it,” Warnes states.
There is time to learn everything, and Warnes’ weaving classes are no different. Her academy is not only about weaving, but it is also about having a community to learn and explore weaving together.
“I keep my classes very small and four people is the maximum in a weaving class at 1 time, and then it’s just hands on. It’s doing it and being together, everybody learns the basics, but then we learn from each other.” Warnes concludes.
You can visit Julian Weaving Works at 30352 Highway 78, Santa Ysabel to discover how to weave, learn more about the history of weaving, or shop for hand-crafted woven items by Beryl Warnes and her students.
You can check her out at this website for more information on her woven products and tuition fees for her weaving academy at her website: https://weaverslink.com/.
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