Finding France

For all that France is a hop and a skip travel destination, it has somehow stayed well beneath my roving radar.  So with just 21 or so miles of water to find a way of crossing, France felt like an achievable option for returning to foreign travel this year.  I will forever recall viewing the Paris skyline on my first morning from the tower of the Sacre Coeur, serenaded by a symphony of midday bells.  It was a giddying experience on lots of levels, least of all because I experience vertigo and I had climbed a very long way up!

Known as the 'city of light' for its historical age of  enlightenment, visiting Paris felt meaningful in a year where I have much to learn.  With just a few days to take in a city that realisically demands weeks of exploring, I felt grateful for helpful guidance of places worthy of visiting.  I relished being cocooned in buildings that rarely make a first Paris travel schedule and the church of Saint Severin in the Latin Quarter was one such location.  Even on a low light day, the glorious 19th windows created a colour infusion that soothed and wowed in equal measures.

The world renown artist supply shop, Sennielier, on the nearby the banks of the River Seinne was another haven of colour comfort.  Long revered for its high quality oil pastels used by artists from Picasso onwards, the pops of intense colour against traditional wood cladding made for very sensory browsing.  I was time-travelled back to teenage art shopping as I relished high quality supplies of every persuasion and while my purchases were modest, they would later come to inspire numerous heartfelt textile creations.

Such beautifully furbished shops were aplenty in Paris and a morning stroll in Monmartre found me standing in 'Dam Boutons'.  Never before had I seen three walls of a shop covered with button tubes from floor to ceiling and while my eyes span in all directions, my mind whizzed around potential projects.  As I slowed my senses, I began taking in buttons in every concievable colour, shape and size.  Modern and vintage buttons alike were catered for and while the latter is always my preferred choice, I was mesmerised by the former.  A modest selection of button purchases understandably took me a fair while to choose, particularly as the owner had a strict selection method to ensure that the button tubes ended up back in their correct position!

Of course my ultimate preference will always be to be enveloped by textiles and a visit to the Musée de Cluny finally brought me in front of the much researched Lady and the Unicorn tapestries.  These six immense medieval tapestry masterpieces depicting a lady and a unicorn are considered to represent the fives senses - sight smell, taste, hearing and touch.  The sixth tapestry shown here, 'To My Only Desire', is considered to represent the heart and sixth sense - so very fitting to sit with and contemplate its meaning a while.

Woven in Flanders around 1500AD in fine silk and wool, the threads were coloured with the best available natural dyes, called 'Grand Teints'.  Red from madder roots, blue from woad leaves, yellow from weld leaves and green from combining woad and weld.  While all three dye colours were reasonably lightfast, the weld yellow had the least durability over time and consequently absence of yellow has changed all of the woven green elements shades to blue!

It was to be a fair few months later when I would learn more about the historical blue, that coloured French and European textiles for many centuries.  This delightful shop came onto my radar while Sunday strolling around Toulouse, when I spotted brown ball of dried leaves in the window display.  While I had never seen a woad ball first hand before, it sure did look like one. A speedy Google translation revealed that the French translation of 'pastel' is 'woad', but oh dear me, the door to Maison du Pastel was firmly closed and I peered for a sign to see when it would next be open.  

Thankfully a return visit came to pass and the oceon of natural blue that sat inside was every bit as thrilling as I had anticipated.  The friendly owner explained that her business included growing woad locally in some volume and then producing a powder pigment from the leaves.  The intensitiy of the pigment was such that it had been used to colour an incredible range of locally made products in the deepest of blue hues - textiles, wood, ink, toiletries, paint and even sweets!

There was also information on the history of woad growing in Europe, ultimately quashed when indigo imports began from Asia and the Americas.  In some countries woad is considered a noxious weed and it is illegal to sell or buy.  Strangely so to me, as my attempts to grow have so often thrwarted by cabbage white butterflies!  Woad is now often considered a poorman's blue to indigo, yet Maison du Pastel is pushing out the boundaries.  It has it challenges all the same with managing crops through weather extremes and replacing honed skills on retirement.

I was greatly blessed that such skilled and dedicated makers found me in France this year,  strangely all with minimal planning and when I least expected.  Feeling disappointed after finding a closed art museum door in the Southern village of Elne, one turned corner later revealed the shop of book makers and restorers - Le Moulin.  

In addition to historical book restoration, Le Moulin creates contemporary books made with the highest quality materials:  traditional cotton Catalin fabrics woven on old looms, and Washi paper, created by hand with fibres from the inner bark of various Japanese trees.  Reknown for its thinness, pliability and durability, Washi paper is often used in historical book restoration.  To chat with the owners about their heartfelt work made for a most memorable afternoon, that my new journal will long remind me of.

My French finds for the year ended in the charming city of Perpignan which nestles at the foot of the Pyrenees.  A medieval fair filled the streets of the old town on a baking late summer weekend and how wonderful it felt to wander around the stalls of highly skilled heritage craft artisans.  What an impressive spectical they created, dressed in vibrant medieval costumes and the variety of crafts being demonstrated was quite astounding - wood, metal, glass, paper, natural materials and of course textiles.  Chatting with a lace maker and braid maker was such an unexpected pleasure and revealed yet again that the French create with immense passion and skill.  

To say that my French findings this year are a drop in their creative oceon is a massive understatement.  It is abundantly clear that France is brimming with highly skilled artisans working across many disciplines and that historical and contemporary textile techniques are very much thriving.  There is without doubt very much more for me to learn in the 'land of the Franks' - which made me smile when I found that 'Franks' orginates from the old French and Latin words for 'free' - the most vital and precious ingredient of creativity.

Heritage Craft Festival 2025

I was delighted to make a further collaboration this summer, with Coldharbour Mill in Devon and 11 like-minded artists and makers.  Returning to the Mill's atmospheric Fox Gallery, we made a glorious space to showcase traditional crafts with textile, paper, leather and willow through displays of work, demonstrations and workshops.  Sharing knowledge and skills with our visitors, it was a heart warming way to spend a few summer weeks ad we are very grateful to the Mill for generously hosting this second summer Festival and to Daniel Carpenter of Heritige Crafts for giving time to come along and open.

There is something very satisfying and nuturing about sharing skills and knowledge, and this is the underpinning ethos of keeping traditional and heritage crafts alive.  I believe that such crafts are increasing vital to our wellbeing in our fast and furious 21st century world and that working our hands slowly in meaningful ways provides necessary meaning, respite and recovery.  Here is a snapshot of some of the traditional crafts that we had on offer and that were enjoyed by our many visitors at our Festival - a big thank you to all who came to see us.

And here we all are on our final afternoon before dismantling our Festival gallery.  A huge thank you to Nesta Davies, Arthur Sharp, Adam 'Red' Morrigan, Justine Hartly, Rosie Burns, Philippa Reid, Amy Stevens, Sara Finch, Wendy Greaves, Lucy Turner, Susan Bradshaw and Alison Katte for their generous contributions, energy and support throughout the two weeks - such a talented and kindly group of people to spend summer weeks with this year :)

Sensational Silk

Just spend a few moments thinking what your life would be like without ANY textiles! They are intrinsically linked to so many aspects of our lives, and yet their ready availability often means that  the simple pleasures textiles provide are so easily taken for granted.  The touch, smell, sight and sound of certain types of textiles can evoke feelings of pleasure and comfort for us all in seconds.  My list of these pleasures is very long and yet there is one textile that for me consistantly sits at the top of my list - sensational silk.

These silk scarf finds at an auction in the depths of last Winter provided a great deal of pleasure for a miminal cost of £25!  Their sheen, drape and vibrant colour palette reflects much of what I have long loved from silk.  Yet conversely, one of my earliest silk finds from teenage fabric shopping sprees had a very different look.  There are many types of 'natural' silk in a range of colours and silk 'noil' was, and still is, a particular favourite.  Woven from the left over fibres after processing silk cocoons, I love its slubbiness and simplicity and I have used it to stitch clothing, curtains and much more.

In the years since I began nuturing my passion for silk fabric, I have found and worked with so many different types.  Recycled Kimono silk capured my interest some years back, both for its high quality and striking designs.  A densely woven fabric with a variety of textures, these are achieved through a variety of weaving techniques.  My long standing supplier, Jasuin, is one of the diligent traders who dismantles vintage Kimonos into their original pieces, enabling the beautiful fabric to be repurposed.

I've constructed quite a range of projects from recycled Kimono silk over the years into many small projects, including cushions, bags, decorations, book covers, face masks and boxes.  The stunning naturalistic designs are a delight to work with, it cuts and stitches beautifully and wears extremely well.  Even older fabrics can look as vibrant as the day they were first woven.  This was the first project I ever made with my inital fabric purchase and it is still one of my favourites.

Another huge benefit of silk is that is takes dye extremely well and experimenting with natural dyes was an obvious and most enjoyable journey for me.  A protein fabric like wool, natural colours from leaves, flowers, bark and roots adhere well to silk fabric and their resulting colours are surprisiningly long lasting.   This was one of my first experiments with eco-printing, a simple process that involves layering natural materials on damp silk, rolling tightly and then steaming.  The choice of natural materials is key to this fun process.

I made many natural dye samples on smallish pieces of silk during my experimentations, using a wide range of natural materials.  All were attractive and finding a way to showcase them felt important.  Last summer I began using them to create a long piece of embroidery to be wrapped around an old bobbin from Coldharbour Mill in Devon.  A project idea inspired by Somerset Textile artist Paula Simpson, I completed this over the following six months, intuitively chosing silk samples one at a time to generically hand embroider.  By the Spring my one metre length was complete.

I also embroidered this very simple shibori sample over the late Winter weeks, for a memory quilt for the late Susan Dye of Nature's Rainbow.  I shibori stitched and dyed this piece of Ponge silk in a pot of madder dye the autumn before last - set up with roots from the precious dye garden of Susan and her partner Ashley - a very happy weekend.  I, along with many others, owe much to Susan's immense knowledge, enthusiasm, and generosity on the subject of natural dye.  I will always remember Susan very fondly and with much gratitude, it was a great privilage to have spent time with her and to make a simple stitch offering to her memory quilt alongside like-minded others.

Ever mindful of the increasing price of silk, I have also recently returned to a technique I learnt long ago, to make a textile from silk 'carrier rods'.  A by product of the silk reeling process, these rather dreary looking pieces come into being when silk thread is 'reeled' from cocoons and some of the filaments rap around a rod in the machine.  While they look pretty unspiring in their raw form, they can be utterly transformed into a textile that is very attractive.

Like all silk, they take dye well and this pile in a  vibrant colours suddenly look a whole lot more appealing!  Better still, these coils of silk waste can be split down into layers, so one carrier rod can easily multiply by six.  Silk in its rawest form has a natural gummy substance called 'sericin' which is actually what gives silk its strength and elasticity.  This allows that the split carrier rods can be pressed together to make a kind of paper, which can then be used for all kinds of creative projects.

The textile created from this rather quirky technique can be easily embellished with machine and hand stitch.  This is one simple example where the fabric has been used to make covers for simple books.  The sheen that we all expect from silk is wonderfully evident and the characteristic durability and strength are perfect for book covers.  What a transformation from its humble orgins.

Silk 'fusion' with unspun silk fibres has been anther of my recent silk passions - a kind of paper making process using different types of mediums.  I have been having lots of fun this summer moulding varying types of silk fibre around all kinds of objects, including glass forms.  These simple tealights are made with naturally dyed fibres by Devon fibre artist Jane Deane, with the addition of a few pressed flowers.  Silk fusion is one of the topics I will be demonstrating and teaching at the atmospheric Coldharbour Mill in Devon, for a second Heritage Craft Festival this August - more to follow on this soon.

Learning in London

It had been way too long since I'd last visited London, for all sorts of reasons, some of which I now realise were really excuses.  Having worked in the city a little over the years, I thought it was about time that visited for pure pleasure, and how glad I am that I did exactly that this Spring.  A long ahead planned date, with doubts of travel and the weather working against me, transpired to be a delightful city experience.  I could hardly believe my luck as I began strolling around the streets and parks in the first seriously sunny spell of the year.  How come had I never walked in London parks before I wondered - the most perfect place to enjoy nature and people watching in the city!

The toughest thing about planning a trip to London is working out what can realistically be fitted in, especially in just a couple of days and with a brutish bag in toe!  

Having seen most of the large attractions over the years, I was looking for something more intimate to enjoy and to home in on for my return.  The very helpful guide Textile Travels by Rebecca Devaney & Jo Andrews gave me some very useful pointers to textile venues that in truth, I may never have otherwise tracked down.  

Finding my first location, VV Rouleaux in Marylebone Lane W1, was emotional, watching charming little flags wafted in the Spring breeze.  I took a few moments to stand outside enjoy the anticipation of what lay within this ribbon and trimming haven set up 35 years ago by Annabel Lewis.  It is wonderful that textile shops of this calibre have survived the rigors of 21st century internet shopping, and give us the joy of seeing and touching beautiful textiles first hand.

Entering this haven of ribbon and trimming loveliness was the delight I had anticipated, and this was much added to by welcoming staff; who I am sure are very used to new shoppers looking as excited and giddy as I likely did! 

The combination of home and personal accessories, many of which are personally made by Annabel, were captivating and soothing after the hustle and bustle of the city streets.  Her hat creations were devine - oh that I needed a special occasion hat sometime soon.   I then spotted a set of stairs and realised that I had another floor to explore - with my bulky wheelie in toe!  Ah well, needs must, it would have been extremely rude to leave only having done half a job.  All the same, I quickly realised that I should have accepted the kindly assistant's offer to mind my bag while I shopped.

My aching limbs were vanquished the moment I reached the lower floor and my eyes scrambled around further visual delights.  Try as I might to connect with the planning parts of my left planning brain, my creative right brain was having none of it.  I drooled over displays of equistive ribbons and trims and I smiled as I overheard  a conversation between a couple who where trying to make choices.  Oh how to choose without taking hours - an impossible task.  

I climbed back to the ground floor and looked at gorgeous tassels and berets and I honed in on a few potential purchases.  It is so easy to forget to factor in that visiting shops like this and making choices take time and they need to be savoured.  Plus wishing you had purchased something more after leaving is best avoided!

As I walked the following hour to my next destination, I did exactly that, although thankfully my arrival curtailed my rumination.  The Joss Graham Gallery has been present in Eccleston Street SW1 for the last 45 years and specialises in antique and contemporary textiles from around the globe.  Clothing, accessories, cushions, hangings, blinds, rugs, tablecloths and much more awaited within.  The gallery also offers expert valuations, cleaning, conservation and restoration of textiles.  This was clearly a serious textile venue and similarly based over two floors.  Remembering my earlier experience, I asked the kindly assistants to mind my bulky bag while I browsed.

It is utterly impossible to do justice to all that lay within this glorious gallery with a few sentences.  Packed with textiles collected by Joss Graham from around the world over many years, it was clear that this gallery required and derserved way more time that I had planned.  The term 'ethnographic textiles' comes to mind, and how important textiles are to so many of us for all the stories that they engender.  The expression of culture through textiles sadly seems less prominent in the 21st century, and yet a world without textiles is surely still unimaginable. This gallery was a most welcome reminder of the value of textiles and their validity as an art form.  When I left the gallery all too soon, I vowed to the kindly assistants that I would return. 

My next stop was as equally steeped in history, and yet I knew that I would unlikely glimpse a single textile fibre.  Textiles aplenty have without doubt found their way into the River Thames over the centuries and for all that the waters and mud are still filled with history, textiles have the shortest lipspan of all.  As I stood and looked down on the oldest London dock, I wondered at what history lay in the sand and mud of Queenhithe beach.  A London Port permit is required to take finds from any London beach, however, Queenhithe is not accessible to anyone and I stood quiety and contemplated all that lay within, my own history and that of thousands before.

I was delighted to learn more about what can be found in a river that has flowed throughout the centuries at the historical Waterman's Hall in St Mary at Hill.  The only remaining Georgian Hall remaining in the city, it is the base for the Company of Watermen & Lightmen on the River Thames, an organisation with 500 years of heritage.  The carefully restored rooms within are now used to host all manner of events and this was a perfect venue for a weekend 'Mudlarking Exhibition'.  A subject I have long followed with interest, despite the rather misleading connotations the name engenders, I had long wanted to see the results from those who partake firsthand.

Mudlarking, like so many 21st century hobbies, began from poverty.  In the 18th and 19th century, finding coal, iron, copper, rope and all other manner of objects, provided a lifeline to the poorest of London residents.  A filthy task carried out by children and women, the treacherous tides also made it very dangerous.  As it still is today, albeit now governed by regulations and more respect.  I particularly enjoyed talking with 'mudlarkers' Elle and Kristina about their evocative button finds.

As I sat in Kensington Gardens enjoying my last lunch, I reflected on my return to a city that maternal ancestors had lived and worked in.  While my foray had been brief, I had been greatly heartened to find a vitality that so many cities and towns have sadly lost.  I also observed a continued respect for history, longevity and culture.  I hold on to these nuggets of hope as I head into a different summer, finding my feet and treading new ground.

Natural Fibre & Heritage Crafts Festival 2024

My well documented passion for textiles and history has provided a welcome and positive focus for me this summer and the  atmospheric Coldharbour Mill in Uffcumle, Devon is at the heart of this.  A long loved textile venue, I am grateful to all there who entrusted in me to collaborate and to run an inaugural Natural Fibre & Heritage Crafts Festival.  

Coldharbour is one of the oldest wool mills in the world, operating since 1797 and reknown for producing worsted yarn and cloth for the Fox Brothers empire. It is surprising unknown to many and I am on a mission to change this.

Now operating as a charitable trust, the Mill is run by friendly and hardworking people who have a huge passion for the history that lies within.  This includes many knowledgeable volunteers, who operate the working Mill machinery and enthuse visitors on their regular open days.  Steam engines, looms and spinning equipment draw in those with mechanical minds, with sights, sounds and smells of times past to marvel at.  To walk the worn Mill stone stairs in the path of so many who have gone before is evocative.  To touch their products steeped in so much history is a joy to all who love textiles.

The yarns and fabrics lovingly produced can be found in the charming Mill shop - that is near on impossible to leave empty handed!  There is  sumptious aran and double knit wool yarn and tartan fabrics whose names add to the lure of local history:- Devon Green, Devon Blue, Blackdown Hills, and Somerset.  All their products are 100% Pure British Wool and are spun and woven on heritage machinery at Coldharbour - the name for which is said to be derived from Anglo Saxon meaning 'Old Shelter'.

It was a delight and privilage to bring together a group of like-minded artists and makers in the Mill's atmospheric Fox Gallery this summer.  Each of us took great pleasure in exhibiting a selection of of our work to showcase how natural fibres and  heritage crafts can bring benefits to 21st century living.  We greatly enjoyed engaging visitors with our creativity through displays, demonstrations and workshops over our Festival weeks and most importantly, we hope that we inspired our visitors to have a go at learning a new craft.

I would like to say a huge thank you to this very talented tribe of creatives: Amy Stevens, Arthur Sharp, Bec Briar, Caz Loader, Hilary Tudgee, Jacqui Carey, Jane Hardstaff, Jennie Loader, Lia Duarte-Jenkinson, Marie Evans, Marius Evans, Paula Simpson, Philippa Reid and Wendy Greaves for their professionalism, enthuiasm and generosity in sharing their knowledge and skill.  Also to all the people at Coldharbour Mill who supported this endeavour alongside many priorities and to the  Somerset Spinning & Weavers Dyers Guild.

We ended our fun-filled Festival days with the gallery brimming with visitors and learning :) We are all very grateful to our visitors throughout the Festival weeks and for their warm and encouraging feedback.  We feel sure that the benefits of our collaboration this summer will continue and we are glad to have demonstrated the wonder of creating with natural fibres and heritage crafts, and the power of working together.  Here are those of us present on the final Festival day and a short video beneath of all 15 of us to took part in this very happy and rewarding summer venture.

Quick Stitch - Yarn Bowl

Choosing a project for a single skein of beautiful wool yarn is a dilemma to be savoured and with the increasing availability of quality wool yarn, this is happily becoming a more regular occurance.  Plus by adding in a few of my own spun and natural dye yarns, this delightful dilemma led me to my latest small bowl project offering - yarn bowls.

My first yarn bowl creation came into being from one of my natural solar dye yarns - starting as a very pleasing skein that I purchased last Spring from Orkney Tweed.  Watching the random colours appear as I wrapped and stitched was very satisfying and had the bonus of stitching without too much precision.  Working an aran weight yarn with a chunky wool cord filler, the bowl took shape pretty quickly and it was very tactile to work on dreary winter days.  My yarn bowl collection grew slowly over the winter weeks and I began to hatch a plan to share my new dalliance with like-minded others.

And so a bright Spring sharing day arrived with 10 lovely ladies in the Creative Hub in Taunton's Brewhouse Theatre.  We began our day simply with colourful aran wool yarn, large tapestry needles and a wool filler cord - my choice in this sample is a variegated yarn The Croft by West Yorkshire Spinners and the filler is garden twine by Twool.  The yarn bowl creations each began by securing the yarn in the end of the filler cord and then wrapping up and around the cord seven times - taking the needle back through the filler after the wraps to secure.

Next was repeating  this wrapping and securing a couple more times, so that around 3cm of cord was covered.  While there are no hard and fast rule about which direction to wrap the yarn, wrapping towards you feels the most logical for both left and right handed working. Once a reasonable length of filler cord was wrapped, the filler end was neatly trimmed and a tight coil created - this was then secured by taking the needle and yarn right through the coil and then back again to get to where the yarn was wrapped up to. 

Then to wrap yarn around the filler cord another seven times, but this time taking the yarn over the cord just wrapped and also over the wrapped cord in the row beneath. This method of wrapping and stitching then became the method of joining the wrapped cord rows together throughout the project.  After making a joining stitch, it's best to pull the yarn tight before making the next seven wraps - the stitch will loosen a little as you move on.  It's also a good idea to by let the needle dangle every so often to get unhelpful twist out of the yarn.

The wrapping and stitching continued in this mindful way - seven wraps and then one large stitch to attach the wrapped cord to row beneath.  I find that the quickest way to wrap the filler cord is by holding it firmly just beyond the point of wrapping and let the coil dangle - of course others may find other efficient ways.  To join a new length of yarn, stitch the old yarn end into previous wraps and thread in a new yarn leaving a tail - I tug these tight after moving forward a bit and then closely snip to avoid tangles when working.

As the coil emerged, a decision needed to be made as to when to start shaping and building the bowl sides.  This is a bit of a guesstimate for a first bowl and looking at the shape of bowls in other mediums can be a help.  To start the shaping, the wrapped filler cord is placed slightly on top of the wrapped cord beneath, instead of alongside, and is stitched in the same way.  It takes a few rounds of doing this before the shaping becomes clear and it's helpful to 'train' the bowl into the desired shape with your fingers as it starts to emerge.

The steepness of the sides is determined by the  degree the the wrapped filler cord is placed and stitched onto the row beneath.  A slight overlap will give a gradual gradiation and the more the overlap is increased, the steeper the sides will become.  It's best to adjust the position of the overlap gradually over a few rows and this avoids a ridge forming from too large an adjustment.  I rather like to bring the bowl shape inwards in the final rows and I do this by overlapping the current wrapped cord beyond the last row for at least several rounds.  

Then comes the decision on how to finish the bowl off - other than just stopping which creates an unattractive cliff edge and an alterative method is better by far.  Coiling the end section of the wrapped filler cord and stitching onto the side of the bowl is an attractive and easy choice - as is a simple fold back of the last inch of wrapped cord shown in my first picture on this post.  Here are a few of the bowls completed by my students for other ideas and I will happily add to these as more yarn bowl creations emerge over the weeks ahead :)