Inspiration from Margo Selby

Although I originally trained as a woven fabric designer I had taken a  33 year break from weaving to do a very different career. Before I retired I’d made up my mind to return to weaving, and I was having dreams in which I was making a warp, winding it onto a beam and threading the shafts but in reality I could only half remember how to do those things. I knew that I would need some help to get going again, but where to begin?
 
So I booked onto a weekend course with the textile artist and designer, Margo Selby, who runs an established business making beautiful complex patterned fabrics and rugs in jewel-like colours. Somehow Margo also finds time to run courses for new and experienced weavers, so one weekend in 2019 seven of us gathered at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Yorkshire and spent two fantastic days playing on 8 shaft looms which had already been set up to demonstrate a number of different weave structures.  
 
Margo was on hand to answer questions, suggest ways to explore different methods and yarns and offer encouragement. She brought along two huge portfolios of some of her fabric samples and drafts. I got a huge boost from this, and although it was 8 months before I got my new loom set up, my first sample warp was from Margo’s handout from the course.  She was an inspiration and I am hugely grateful for her generosity in sharing her skills with me.

Samples from the Margo Selby workshop:
left: weft inlay
top: double weave
top right: deflected double weave

www.margoselby.com