Meet Rebecca Mezoff | Educator, author, artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rebecca Mezoff and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rebecca, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I used to work in healthcare. While being an occupational therapist was a good job and I enjoyed many aspects of it, I wanted to spend time teaching and making tapestries. I took an online business class, learned about running my own business from the SBA in Fort Collins, and made and launched my first online class about tapestry weaving. I had taught tapestry in person but I knew that I couldn’t make a living teaching that way and needed to add online classes. The first class I taught was quite successful and I never went back to my healthcare job.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a tapestry artist, author, and educator. I have been weaving for about 25 years having been inspired by my grandparents who were weavers. I started studying tapestry weaving 17 years ago, becoming the apprentice of a well known tapestry artist in Santa Fe, NM. I started teaching shortly after that and then launched my online courses in 2014. I wrote a beginning tapestry techniques book which was published in 2020, The Art of Tapestry Weaving.

Tapestry weaving is slow art. It uses yarn to build pictures in woven form. It can be a fine art form for professional artists or a fantastic hobby for people who love fiber crafts. I teach classes helping both sorts of students learn all about the medium. Teaching doesn’t leave me a lot of time for weaving my own work and I only finish a couple tapestries a year. Setting aside some time to make my own ideas come to life on the loom is important to recharge my creative batteries so I can have the energy to answer questions online from students on a daily basis as well as develop new curriculum.

I used to be a healthcare professional. I worked as an occupational therapist for many years. I have always loved making things and my hobbies while working in healthcare centered around yarn. Learning to weave was so much fun and I dearly wanted to spend all my time doing that, but I’d have to figure out how to make a living and that meant teaching. Fortunately I am a born teacher and had a lot of experience doing it from my time as an OT and before that as a piano teacher. Transitioning from a salaried job with set hours and defined roles to one where I ran a business and had to do everything from bookkeeping to curriculum development to running a video camera was challenging. I took as many classes online and in person as I could find and piece by piece I put together a business teaching tapestry weaving.

At the beginning I knew that I could go back to healthcare if I couldn’t make a go of it running my own business and that gave me enough confidence to just go for it. I learned the skills as I went and my first online course was a success. Persistence and hard work do pay off. Finding something you’re good at and love and then gaining the knowledge you need to make something of it is a worthwhile way to spend a life.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love backpacking. I always take friends to the mountains. If they’re not hikers we take a nice ramble along an easy trail up the Poudre River. If they are hikers we might tackle a bigger climb in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d love to recognize the SBDC of Colorado and particularly of Fort Collins. They offered classes and free advising in several different areas as I was struggling to start my business. I had to learn all about taxes and accounting and marketing and their assistance was so valuable.

Website: www.tapestryweaving.com

Instagram: rebeccamezofftapestry

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHjPnwX7yFjsdzEC_bznjWQ