e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia Online

Enrica McMillon (b. 1952), a fiber artist from Elkins, has participated as a mentor in West Virginia Folklife’s Apprenticeship Program. She feels fortunate to have been raised in the remote village of Helvetia, Randolph County, and to have attended a one-room schoolhouse. Her grandmothers and many other ladies of the community were born in the 19^th century and practiced fiber arts as they had learned from their own mothers and grandmothers in an unbroken tradition. When those skills are simply a part of everyday life, children learn much of it through observation at a very young age.