A story of WEAVE
sUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT
As a traditional hand-weaver, I work to preserve and champion heritage crafts. I work to ensure this wonderful craft is understood and valued in a fast growing and highly digitised creative industry. I believe it is important to take note and appreciate where our crafts have evolved form, to really pair down and get back to the roots of a craft like Textiles.
Woven fabric and the actual building of cloth is the foundation of textile crafts. I focus my practice on slow purposeful making. Working to reduce my waste and eventually eliminate all waste within my weaving and making practises. The Wonderfull no-waste Cushions, Bunting, Pin Cushions, Brooches and Buttons have been created towards achieving these goals.
I work with natural materials to hand-craft a variety of woven goods. I make use of mill end waste yarn cones, second hand fibres and materials. When constructing products, I work with my genuine vintage haberdashery and pair my woven fabric with vintage and retro fabrics for a more unique and environmentally conscious product.
Wherever possible, all postage and packaging materials are recyclable or compostable. I encourage you to reuse any and all packaging for yourselves!
I weave for the enjoyment and satisfaction I feel as a result. It is a very empowering and fulfilling experience, being able to see the fabric grow in-front of you.
HISTORICAL CONNECTION
There is a wealth of historical and cultural importance surrounding Weaving and constructed Textiles. Weaving is one of the most ancient crafts used throughout history to convey stories of wealth, status and identity. Culturally and socially it is literally Woven in the fabric of our history, the spark that was the industrial revolution was spearheaded by the success of the Textile manufacturing industry. The invention of synthetic dyes and chemical bleaching, then exporting these beautiful Cottons and decadent Woven Silks from mills in Suffolk and Macclesfield across Europe.
Then later, post-war in 1919 weaving became an important income for injured soldiers left destitute and without work. Weaving provided them with rehabilitation and a means of earning a living, with the more domestic Hattersley looms first used in the Outer Hebrides; primarily Lewis and Harris, more recently and most famously known as Harris Tweed.
The actual Loom and process of Weaving has not changed much in the thousands of years that we know ‘Weaving’ to have been established. I love having and feeling that connection within Weaving, a connection to the past. I believe it is important to continue to preserve the relationship the Weaver has with the loom especially in an age of industrial, cheaply and mass produced Textiles.
