Where it all began
I was brought up in the 1960s in a family where making things was the norm. My Father was an Engineer and my Mother a Lace Making Teacher. Amongst my earliest memories was my parents building a wooden dinghy in the front room. The household was certainly a little eccentric and it was the kind of home where we created our own entertainment.
My siblings and I had a large tea chest filled with dressing up clothes. Silk velvet smoking jackets and lace blouses and ’50s petticoats galore. I’ve no idea where these fabulous textiles came from. I do know my maternal Grandmother was a committed jumble sale devotee so perhaps that had something to do with it. My parents’ social life was centred around sailing and I spent most of my childhood afloat.
My Great Aunts sewed naval uniforms and hand knit seamen’s jumpers and socks. They kept us children well supplied with complex cabled Aran knitwear and bobble hats. Nobody seemed to think of the hazard of us falling overboard dressed in pounds of heavy sheep’s wool! From that time I’ve inherited a large collection of brass uniform buttons which always bring back happy memories when I riffle through them.
Some family members must have also have been in service at some time as my Grandma’s, and later my Mother’s, airing cupboard was always groaning with beautiful quality, mismatched, rust stained and monogrammed linen sheets of people we never knew. We had no idea as kids in what luxury we slept…
All our best dresses were hand sewn from exclusive curtain remnants by our elderly neighbour, Mrs Carter, who had been in India during the Raj. Exotically lined with Indian silk I wish I had saved some of these extraordinary pieces.
When my handwoven life began it wasn’t really a conscious choice to focus on textiles for the home, as it was a natural progression of what I hold dear. It’s about comfort, identity and personalisation of our private spaces and surrounding ourselves with durable yet tactile pieces constructed from breathable and sustainable materials.
