I’m Gareth, the maker of the handwoven textile pieces. I have been weaving for about twenty years and I’m mainly self-taught. I work on a floor-standing counterbalanced loom, of the traditional wooden type, which I bought second-hand at the start of the adventure. I only use two hettles of the loom, so the weave patterns are simple, but the interest comes from combining yarns of different thickness and texture, and the blending and transitioning of colour. I sometimes add strips of recycled fabric or hand-painted silk.

 

I usually make a specific article - such as a lampshade or cushion - with the woven textile, and design it according to its end use. So, for example, a lampshade textile would be designed to transmit light in an interesting way. I build the lampshades myself with standard materials, while the cushions are sewn by my wife Tsedey who is also an artist at Church Lane Gallery.

 

I work with a range of natural fibres, favouring wool for lampshades as it filters light better, but mixing cotton, linen and more in my other work. My scarves are the only thing I make with man-made fibres, mainly because it is more practical when it comes to washing them. So far I have used only pre-dyed yarns but I have ambitions to try hand-dyeing in future.