Meet Our Instructors

Ms. Baker has a family farm in Loudoun County where she grows herbs to use for medicinal purposes. She works with these herbs to create salve, oils, soaps, teas and tinctures. She has taught classes for years on the growing, preserving, and making of useful products with these herbs.

Ms. Baker is a Juried Artisan at the Waterford Fair and has taught classes for the past two years at the Waterford Craft School.

Jerry Bond is a retired Natural Resource Police Officer who has developed a passion for all things bread. He began baking cookies when his wife went back to college and has continued to study and develop his knowledge of baking over the past 20 years. For the past 10 years, he has focused on bread and pizza making, using both yeasted methods and traditional sourdough. He has taken classes in specialty breads and wood oven baking from several master bakers.

Jerry’s teaching experience includes nature programming, outdoor recreation, hunter safety, coaching sports, and since retirement, sharing his love of bread baking with others.

Allen Cochran is owner of Cochran’s Stone Masonry, a masonry restoration and preservation company based in Lincoln, Virginia.

For the past 25 years Cochran has helped preserve masonry throughout the area.
He has been teaching for the Waterford Craft School since its inception in 2016.

Ms Copanzzi began making jewelry in her teens when metalsmithing classes were offered in her high school. Over the years, she has refined her skills through formal training with Master Metalsmiths around the country.

After exploring many visual media, she found her passion in jewelry and gems. She finds she can best express her artistic abilities by forming and shaping metal. All her pieces start as either a sheet of metal or length of wire and ends up as a piece of one-of-a-kind artisan jewelry.

She currently teaches metalsmithing at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center and Frederick Community College, Frederick MD. And is a member of the Washington Guild of Goldsmiths.

Carolyn began stenciling and graining in 1983 when a dear friend asked her if she was interested in experimenting with the technique. She was smitten, and her business, Heartwood Collections, was born. She has the distinction of being selected for ‘Early American Life’ magazine’s Directory of Traditional American Crafts ‘ornamental painting’ category for 14 years, and was a juried Demonstrating Artisan at the Waterford Fair for 20 years until her retirement.

Ms. Foster has been weaving for over 40 years. She specializes in wicker restoration, but weaves all types of chair seats, including splint, cane, rush, bamboo, rattan, willow, and grasses. She has woven seats for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and restored a wicker sled for the Loudoun Museum. She has also been reproducing Gustav Stickley wicker lampshades for over 25 years, which are sold nationwide. She has been teaching for the Waterford Craft School since its inception in 2016.

Molly Grant began leatherworking in her early 20’s, first by working on her own and then by apprenticing at the Black Swan Leather shop in Portsmouth, NH, where she learned the basic skills of traditional leatherworking. She first saw Cordwainer Shoes when she was ten years old at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Fair, known nationally as the oldest craft fair in the nation. She became a juried member in 1989, and participated by showing her line of handbags. There, she had the opportunity to meet Paul Mathews, owner of the Cordwainer Shop. Within a few months’ time Molly was traveling to craft shows nationally with Paul and learning the Cordwainer art. Molly still makes handbags, but the main business is teaching shoemaking workshops at the Deerfield, New Hampshire shop and at craft schools across the country.

The Cordwainer Shop was founded in the 1930’s by Edward F. Mathews. His son, Paul, carried on the shop tradition as main footwear designer, and except for a 4-year stint in WWII, shoemaking became his life’s work and joy. Many of his footwear designs are still produced at the shop today. Molly Grant now carries on the Cordwainer tradition of creating custom handmade leather footwear, and it has become as much a passion to Molly as it was to Paul. She specializes in teaching shoemaking workshops as a way to share this tradition of craftsmanship.

A calligrapher for over 35 years, Karen enjoys studying all forms of calligraphy. She is a member of the Washington Calligraphers Guild and has been fortunate to take classes in everything from Illuminated Manuscripts, to Chinese Brush, to Slate Carving.

Her love of lettering began while working on commercial signage and has continued to grow over the years. She enjoys teaching all ages and has offered classes through the Loudoun County Adult Education Program, the Round Hill Arts Center, and privately. She works from her home studio, in Round Hill, mainly on weddings, commissions, and teaching.

She feels strongly that this art should be shared with as many people as possible… it’s useful, beautiful and fun!!!

Karen and her husband Stuart have long been Juried Artisans at the Waterford Fair.

Established in 1984,  T. H. McGinn & Co. is a general contracting firm located in historic village of Waterford, Virginia.

Over the course of nearly three decades they have acquired an extensive knowledge of both traditional and modern building materials and methods.  Their reputation for historically sensitive rehabilitation projects has been established from years of working on a variety of traditional building types and architectural styles.

Mr McGinn, company owner, apprenticed for nine years before forming his company.  He holds a Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation from Goucher College.  This will be his third year with the Waterford Craft School.

Distillery Lane Ciderworks is a family-owned and run orchard located in the shadow of the Appalachian Trail in rural Maryland. They have 3500 trees with over 45 different apple varieties, producing national and international award-winning hard ciders with their fruit.

Born in the west central mountains of Virginia, where he still resides, Mr Robinson
learned the art of broom making in 1991 and has been making brooms full time since then.  Mr Robinson’s  brooms appeared in the historical drama Sommersby starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster and have been purchased by George Washington’s Mount Vernon for use in their portrayal of colonial life.  Over the years, demonstrating and teaching his craft has been one of the most fulfilling parts of his journey

Mr Robinson has been a juried demonstrating artisan at the Waterford Fair since 1991.

Meet instructor Grace Rochford! Grace originally made floorcloths just for herself, then was inspired to launch her company, Designs By Grace. She’s been making floorcloths for over 15 years, and has the added distinction of being one of our Waterford Landmark Artisans, who are the heart of the Waterford Fair and long-time supporters of the Waterford Foundation. She has taught numerous Waterford Craft School workshops, inspiring many of her students to continue making floorcloths on their own. The process is contagious!

Linda Van Hart was named National Art Educator of the year for excellence in the classroom, writing curriculum as the National Curriculum Chair, and arts advocacy beyond the classroom. Making Art and teaching Art is her life.

Linda is a fifth generation Carroll County Marylander who travels the world doing botanical portraits. In her fifth decade of teaching art and metalsmithing, she continues to find creative adventures in her raison d’être. She participates in a few high end juried and gallery shows every year, such as the Waterford Fair. Linda is in many private collections in the USA, Italy, Switzerland, Scotland and Russia.

Locally, Linda is represented by Off Track Art in Westminster and NOMA in Frederick, MD. She teaches metalsmithing in the Mid-Atlantic region, and is the Visual Arts Coordinator at Common Ground on The Hill.

Antonia Walker received a BFA from the University of Georgia, studied in France in a George Washington University summer term and later studied drawing and anatomy with Spanish sculptor, Benjamin Saul. She was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome in 1998 and again in 2011. The artist’s work has been exhibited internationally, and is represented in private and public collections, including the Arts-in-Embassy program, Johns Hopkins University, Lansdowne Resorts, Project Hope and the Journey Through Hallowed Ground. Antonia maintains a studio in Waterford at the Chair Factory.