The Weavers

“Its history and craftsmanship make it so unique – the dual aspect of an ancient craft verses modern ideas. I seek perfection, I enjoy the repetition, and it throws up challenges of interpretation.”
Katherine Swailes

The Weavers

Philip Sanderson studied at both at Middlesex University and the Royal College of Art before taking up the position of Creative Director at the Professional Tapestry Studio at West Dean College. Sanderson has designed tapestries for numerous clients most famously the New Parliamentary Buildings in Westminster. His tapestry Nr. The Cheesewring was exhibited and sold at 'Collect', the premier fair in Europe for contemporary craft, which was held at the Saatchi Gallery in May.

“The landscape/tree tapestries explore the representation of an image in the woven surface, originally taken from photographs the image is often photocopied and enlarged or reduced to give the image a specific quality before it goes through a final transformation in the translation to tapestry.

A combination of blending in the weft and the setting of the warp are used to create a parallel between the woven bead and the pixel so the image retains a sense of the original photograph.”

Caron Penney has worked in West Dean Tapestry Studio as a professional weaver since 1993, being promoted to Head of the Tapestry Studio in 2001. She has worked on and/or led many commissions including work by Bill Jacklin, Marta Rogoyska, John Hubbard and the Worshipful Company of Mercers. She is currently the project co-ordinator and team leader of the Historic Scotland commission for Stirling Castle.

Penney studied constructed textiles at Middlesex University, has since gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. She has been weaving tapestries for 17 years. Teaching, lecturing, and exhibiting are at the heart of Penney’s creative practice.

Caron Penney was one of the three artists involved in Citrus Sinensis (triptych), which was exhibited at Collect 2008 and purchased by the Shipley Art Gallery for their permanent collection, with part funding from the V&A purchase fund.

Jo Howard studied constructed textiles at Middlesex University gaining a 1st class honours degree. Jo saw the potential for storytelling through the tapestry medium. Her current work is a set of composites of gathered imagery. Her sources maybe Penguin paperbacks, typography, magazine cuttings, photographs, the content of her sketch books, whatever catches her eye... A pivotal component of these images is modernism, always with some form of autobiographical reference; be it a fleeting glance in the rear view mirror or a precious recollection.

The work encompasses a wide range of materials from cotton to nylon warps, and silk, through to linen and woollen weft threads.

Jo Howard was one of the three artists involved in Citrus Sinensis (triptych), which was exhibited at Collect 2008 and purchased by theShipley Art Gallery for their permanent collection, with part funding from the V&A purchase fund.

Katharine Swailes trained in tapestry weaving in 1998 as a fine arts discipline, and continued to develop this practice along side her work for West Dean Tapestry Studio.

Working in textiles for over 20 years and for a large part of that time her career path has led Swailes to research and investigate the re-interpretation of historical textiles. This personal investigation into the nature and structure of textiles has led to a series of small-scale tapestries that are three-dimensional and often use constructive devices and enclosures. Both her 3D pieces and wall pieces tend to be small and fine in nature.

Currently a senior weaver at West Dean Tapestry Studio, Katharine Swailes is working on the Historic Scotland commission for Stirling castle. She exhibits nationally and has work in international collections.

Katharine Swailes was one of the three artists involved in Citrus Sinensis (triptych), which was exhibited at Collect 2008 and purchased by the Shipley Art Gallery for their permanent collection, with part funding from the V&A purchase fund.

Louise Martin completed a 1st class Honours Degree in Constructed Textiles at Middlesex University and went on to gain a distinction in her Masters in Applied Art at the University of Ulster. Residencies followed in India, Shetland and Dumfries during which Martin exhibited both internationally and nationally. In 2001 Martin was commissioned to design and weave a tapestry for the highly praised Princess Su Su exhibition.

Later that year Louise took the position of senior weaver at Stirling Castle for West Dean Tapestry Studio, leading a team of three, to produce a modern interpretation of ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’ tapestries.

Louise continues to exhibit, lecture and teach.

Pat Taylor exhibits internationally and has designed tapestries for numerous clients including Portcullis House, Palace of Westminster. In 1996 she became the Director of the commission based tapestry-weaving studio at West Dean in West Sussex.

Pat is working on a series of large scale portraits using the medieval Gobelin tapestry weaving technique. Right, is a portrait of an aboriginal man, tells a story from the mere mention of its name through to the many layers of the tapestry’s texture. This is not just a portrait of a person defined merely by his gender and his ethnicity. Its size and startling use of three colours is impactful and telling. The three columns of colour that the portrait straddles suggests many readings from the straightforward, nothing is simply black and white, to notions of Australia's miscegenation policy. Most importantly it captures a life at the turn of the 20th century, fleeting yet palpable.

This work is for sale.

Rudi Richardson

Rudi Richardson has been weaving with West Dean Tapestry Studio since 2007. He has worked on both the ‘Unicorn is Killed and taken to the Castle’ tapestry and the ‘Unicorn at Bay’.

He began weaving with the San Francisco Tapestry Workshop (SFTW) in 1978 as part of 'The Dinner Party' project by Judy Chicago, which now hangs in the Brooklyn Museum as part of their permanent collection. He has woven with many weavers including: Ernestine Bianchi, Betty Hilton-Nash, Joyce Hulbert, Elaine Ireland, Konaka Mieko, Jean-Pierre Larochette, Phoebe McAfee, Lana Nazzaro, Pam Patrie, Shelley Socolofsky, Ruth Tannenbaum Scheuer, and more before joining the team in Stirling and working with Cecilia Blomberg, Konaka Mieko and Louise Martin.

Rudi on tapestry weaving:

“I first encountered tapestry weaving in college (Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado) where I studied Navajo weaving with Kathleen Arviso. I immediately felt at home with and loved the medium, for many reasons - the detail, the meditative qualities, the surface, the process and my ease with the art form. Being a tactile person I find it very soothing and rewarding to engage in the act of tapestry weaving. Here at Stirling Castle I enjoy the talks where I can give to the public a bit of my deep love for tapestry and its history. To work on such pieces of strength and beauty is a gift and an honour both, and it gives me great joy to call myself a tapestry weaver.”

Mieko Konaka

Mieko Konaka has worked for West Dean Tapestry Studio since 2005. She has worked on the Historic Scotland commission for all of that time, completing the ‘Unicorn is Killed and taken to the Castle’ tapestry and in 2008, starting the ‘Unicorn at Bay’ tapestry. Mieko works at the Stirling Castle studio for West Dean.

Mieko trained as an apprentice at the Pam Patrie Tapestry Studio in Oregon in 1984 and other notable work she has worked on include the ‘Dr. Peter Tapestry’ which was woven in Vancouver as a community tapestry in 1996.