Roots: Untamed Connections In Fibre

This weekend at Craft Central the exhibition Roots: Untamed Connections In Fibre was due to be open to be open to the public. Unfortunately, like so many things at the moment, things have changed and due to COVID and rather than opening its doors, we are moving the exhibition online. Erna Janine from Saori Freeweaving…

Roots: Deborah Pawle

Deborah weaves, hand stitches, dyes with plant material, works with driftwood and other natural materials, as well as making more practical items. She creates woven and hand stitched fabrics using slow and thoughtful ways of working, immersing herself in the making in an intuitive and mainly unplanned way, the pieces reflecting her love of the…

Roots: Emi Fujisawa

My name is Emi Fujisawa, I am a Japanese textile artist based in Oxfordshire with a background in textile design, and interests in hand weaving and other textile techniques, natural dyeing and pottery. My philosophy is based on the proverb from Confucius that says, “We can learn new things from the past”. Strongly inspired by…

Roots: Erna Janine

Dutch born Erna Janine is a textile artist living in an old wool mill complex in Gloucestershire. During a year without any extended stays or overseas textile residencies in India and Japan, she turned to her own “back yard” for inspiration: Stroud’s industrial textile heritage. Inspired by her surroundings of living within in a heritage…

Roots: Femke Lemmens

After experiencing Saori weaving in Suffolk as well as in the original studio in Japan, Femke fell in love with its fluidity and freedom. Having studied product design, sourcing materials always led to questions. So after trying out natural dyes, and using local, found and recycled materials, willow weaving offered a purer way of creating…

Roots: Jonathan Dredge

‘Mummy, what happens when we die?’ was a piece recently created by Jonathan specifically for the St Saviours Winter Show. Normally working in the medium of print or photography, this installation started by collecting the leaves that had fallen from three London Plane Trees outside his flat over a two week period. Dredge then transported…

Roots: Julienne Hanson

All life comes from the sea. The strand is littered with seaweed uprooted by the tides, having lost their rocky holdfasts. Sea urchins ripped from the rocks are deposited as skeletons on the tideline. Using a repertoire of locks and tops sourced from local producer Jane Dryden at Home Farm Wensleydales and seaweed gathered from…

Roots: Liz Hewitt

Liz is inspired by nature especially the relationship between trees and humanity prompted research into the Celtic mythology of trees and the core the belief that man must live in harmony with nature. Her work draws on this and focuses on how trees can sustain us, both physically and spiritually. Since being diagnosed with Chronic…

Roots: Petit Jardin

The circular piece in the front is made of denim to resemble Shanyrak, a top of the yurt. Yurts were used by Albina’s nomadic ancestors as homes a very long time ago. The denim piece is interwoven to replicate a woven Saori fabric, it is almost a magnified version of it. The circle can also…

Roots: Rosie Green

Rosie is a maker, a handweaver, working intuitively with basic equipment and natural materials. Weaving, spinning and dyeing. Over the years she has learned many things about the creative process, its value and its place in the lives of each of us. Seven years ago she became a SAORI weaving instructor. SAORI is a self…

Roots: Ross Belton

The circle reflects the artist, representing the search for completeness. They also suggest inclusiveness, the lack of a hierarchy; they represent principles of interconnectedness and continuity. ‘Talking circles’ symbolise completeness, safety and equality. In a world so technologically advanced we need to find better ways of communicating – face to face connections mean so much…

Roots: Terri Bibby

The roots of this tree spread out to gather water, to hold the ground, to anchor and sustain the tree. We don’t normally see the roots, though they have been more apparent during the recent droughts as they are closer to the surface. During these COVID days and into this winter period, before the return…