Looking Back to Go Forward

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I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting recently about where Weft Blown has come from and where I want to take it to in the future. 

Weft Blown started out when I was in the middle of studying the HNC Contemporary Constructed Textiles course at Bradford College. I was living in West Kilbride, which is also Craft Town Scotland, and had been teaching some weaving and spinning at a nearby yarn shop. As I was working from home the thought of a bigger space was really appealing so when one of the Craft Town studios became available I was lucky to take it on. 

I came up with the name Weft Blown as Weft is the yarn that goes between the warp yarns on a weaving loom to create the cloth and Blown refers to the weather which is a big source of inspiration for me. My first job out of university was as a weather forecaster with the Met Office which has led me to having a great interest in our weather and environment and it’s impact on us.

I finished the HNC in 2014 and from then I focused full-time from my studio on weaving to sell directly to the public as well as teaching weaving and spinning. The HNC had taught me how to design and create collections and I wanted to keep weaving and explore what I could do.

Handwoven scarves, cowls, wraps, cushions and clouds by Ange Sewell at Weft Blown

I developed how to make handwoven cowls that are woven in 1 piece and these proved successful, especially as they stay on in windy weather. All my handwoven pieces were inspired by my photos of the weather that I took on my walks along the local beaches in North Ayrshire with my dogs.

Over the next couple of years I wanted to expand the weaving side of the business and looked into wholesale which was very exciting as my work ended up with a range of stockists and galleries across Scotland, including on the Isle of Skye. My work was part of an exhibition at Gallery Q in Dundee and also included in the Wool B&B installation in Islington, London. You can read more about this in a previous blog post.
While this was happening I did start to sell weaving and looms and spinning wheels after requests from students at my classes on where to get equipment. This part of the business really started to grow quickly and it started to mean less time for weaving. Life also got in the way of weaving so by 2018 I was not weaving much and focused more on selling equipment and creating patterns for people to weave themselves.
I am grateful that Weft Blown has become so successful in selling equipment and I am also grateful to those that supported me over the years by buying my handwoven items.
Now I am wanting to get weaving again and create collections of handwoven items again to sell while also selling looms and wheels so everyone can create their own handmade creations.
This time I am wanting to be more focused as in the past I was really good at going off on tangents. Being older and wiser I am wanting to refine any collections to keep it simple and make my life easier.
I have this week been back weaving on my Ashford 12″ Knitters Loom. A previous version of this loom was what I really got into weaving on and made many cowls and scarves on. I do love the size of it and it’s ease of weaving.
Ashford 12" Knitters Loom
Ashford 12" Knitters Loom

I did this scarf as the yarn has been sitting there for a while and I really wanted to weave with it and it’s been a great process to get my weaving mojo back.

It has also made me realise that I do want to have more coherent collections and not just weave for weavings sake like I used to.

So, I have spent a nice couple of hours today going through old photos of my work and looking at past weaving drafts. The ideas are starting to flow and I feel a new collection will be coming soon based on the weather and environment of the Isle of Skye.

 

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