Dedicated to the traditional craft of hand weaving and concerned for our environment.
My story
My name is Suzanne Townshend, I am a handweaver and have been experimenting on my loom with fibres, colour and texture for more than two decades. I enjoy the challenge of designing and making items unique to me using mainly natural fibres including wool, silk and linen.
Inspiration for each design has its origins in distinctive features of the English countryside. Textures and colours I find while walking in the fields and woods around my home provide inspiration for the one-off textiles which I weave in my home studio.
I am always looking for opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of my craft. I dye many of the yarns I use with plant-based dyes and I use natural fibres as far as possible.
From my loom bench …
From my loom bench I am lucky to have a fabulous verdant view down the length of the garden. In the spring and early summer there are always birds feeding, tending fledglings or settling down for the night to roost. Butterflies, bees and dragonflies are frequent visitors providing colour and life.
On a summers evening the sun shines directly through my loom, from back to front, backlighting the shafts as I pass each thread through the individual heddles in the correct order in preparation for weaving.
A slow handcrafted process
I am proud to use the ancient craft of handweaving to create beautiful textiles with only a small impact on the environment. Enjoying the challenge of designing and creating one off items, sometimes using luxury fibres, mainly using natural fibres, often using natural dye extracts to create my colour palette.
The process of hand weaving can be slow and meditative. It can take several days to wind a warp and dress the loom ready to weave and start the meditative to and fro action of the shuttle throwing the weft from left to right and back.
Nature inspired
My experience and experiments over the years feed into the craft skill demonstrated in the unique pieces I create. The colours and textures of the natural history and countryside around my home inspire my approach.
For most of my adult life I worked in the field of nature conservation, but I have had more than a passing interest in natural history since I was a small child.
“Unlike industrially produced objects, handmade heritage crafts carry with them the fingerprint of human ingenuity. They embody values of patience, sustainability, and resilience.”
- Weald & Downland Living Museum