Von Weise was offered a scholarship to pursue her MFA at the renowned Cranbrook Academy in Michigan. She continued her study of fiber arts under Cranbrook’s eminent director Gerhardt Knodel, who was head of the fiber program at the time.

After completing her M.F.A. in 1978, she moved to Cleveland Heights and supported herself by teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art. In the early 1980s she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her death in 1984 at the age of 42 ended a promising career in the arts.