Eight weavers in Shelburne Falls, Conway and Florence will open their studios to the public this weekend for demonstrations and sales as part of the Working Weavers’ fifth Studio Trail tour.

Studios will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, and Sunday, Oct. 15. The yearly tour typically attracts about 1,000 visitors.

“We are weavers dedicated to bringing handwoven textiles into the future,” Florence resident Paula Veleta, a founding member of Working Weavers, said in a statement. “Our mission is to make cloth visible again by producing and selling high-quality textiles as well as by presenting the process and the people who make weaving their livelihood.”

Veleta and a colleague, Marilyn Webster from Conway, founded Working Weavers in 2016, and in 2017, they hosted the first Studio Trail, modeled after pottery tours that are hosted in the Pioneer Valley. This is the second year the tour has come back since the pandemic.

“We picked October for the Studio Trail because it’s fall foliage season — a nice time of year to drive from one end of the valley to the other,” Veleta mentioned.

The organization’s website, workingweavers.com, offers suggested routes for traveling to the various studios and interesting stops along the way, such as restaurants, pubs, inns and local attractions. The information can be printed from a PDF on the site.

One stop the organization recommends is Fabric of Life’s Barnfest celebration at 80 Bassett Road in Shelburne, which is happening on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. On Fabric of Life’s grounds is the world-class weaving school Vävstuga. Three of the weavers on the tour are graduates from the school’s weaving apprentice program.

According to Veleta, most of the professionals in the Working Weavers group are handweavers who use traditional wooden looms with no mechanization.

“Weavers open their studios, often inside their own homes, and welcome the public to see how cloth is made,” Veleta said in a statement, adding that while we all use cloth, we often take it for granted or don’t realize how it’s produced. “They invite you to touch, explore and experience handwoven cloth, and are happy to speak with you at length about their tools, materials and processes.”

Multiple tour stops feature world-class weaving instructors, including Chris Hammel and Scott Norris, both of Florence. Hosting weavers offer information on the history of woven cloth. Some of the towns featured on the tour have weaving manufacturing as notable pieces of their history. Still today, the area is rich with modern weavers, including through two schools and three guilds in Franklin and Hampshire counties.

Visitors can also purchase high-quality handwoven goods directly from the weavers, including newcomers to the Studio Trail, Tonya Grant and Megan Karlen.

The participating weavers have unique stories of how they came to craft, including Emily Gwynn of Shelburne Falls, who explained she was living in New York and working on all sorts of textile projects when she visited the area for a weekend class at Vävstuga in Shelburne.

“I knew that is where I needed to be,” she said.

She immediately bought a house in Shelburne Falls and began an apprenticeship program. Gwynn now specializes in household textiles and is offering a special this weekend where people can purchase custom doorway curtains.

For people who are new to weaving, Gwynn suggested buying a dish towel in weaving is similar to getting a coffee mug for pottery. Unique handwoven dishtowels can be a great entry point into a world of local crafts.

One optional feature of the studio tour is called the Trail Pass. Each pass, which costs $2, gets stamped by each weaver along the route and turned in at the last studio to enter into a drawing. The winner may choose from a selection of handwoven items or a $100 gift certificate that can be redeemed with any of this year’s participating weavers.

The following is a list of participating weavers and their locations:

■Tonya Grant, 8 South Cooper Lane, Shelburne Falls. New this year, Grant specializes in drawloom weaving, creating complex patterns and images within damask fabric.

■Emily Gwynn and guest weaver Lisa Bertoldi, 124 North St., Shelburne Falls. Gwynn’s business, Hands to Work Textiles, focuses on heirloom-quality table linens and other household textiles, and is influenced by both traditional and mid-century Scandinavian design. Bertoldi specializes in durable, absorbent kitchen towels in cotton and linen.

■Lisa Hill, 156 Elmer Road, Conway. Hill, the master weaver behind the business Plain Weave, is a teacher, designer and writer who works out of her 1840s barn.

■Scott Norris, 20 Wilder Place, Florence. Norris, of Elam’s Widow, weaves exclusively hand-dyed fine linen for table and kitchen use.

■Chris Hammel, 221 Pine St., Studio 315, Florence. Hammel is a scholar, teacher and master weaver who directs the Hill Institute and operates her studio, Ekphrasis Defined Designs, where she creates exquisite textiles for use in the home or to wear.

■Paula Veleta and her guest Megan Karlen, 221 Pine St., Studio 338, Florence. Veleta, of Studio 338 Handwoven, produces woven fabrics in her studio at the Arts & Industry Building in Florence, using intricately designed textiles to create adornments for the home and body. Karlen’s work is in direct relation to her desire to see more beauty in the world.

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.