Mary Restieaux

Tuesday 4th May:

I went to visit Mary Restieaux studio today, who is a very established ikat weaver and dyer. She set up her own studio and dye lab at her home in South London.

It was a really interesting and exciting opportunity to see where weave as a specialism and career can actually take you in, but also to see a different way of weaving. Instead of using the weft as your main pattern she used the Warp as her initial design & detail. She uses 200 ends per inch or more to get a very built up pattern using the special ikat dying techniques which creates such beautiful patterns. Then it is woven together using any colour thread because it is so tight, you can't actually see the colour of the weft thread anyway. It's a very unique and precise weaving technique but the outcomes are so beautiful. Ikat is very similar to tie dyeing, its resist dyeing.

It was really inspiring to see how Mary works, what her ethics and beliefs are in and for the textile world. Mary encourages your design flare in anyway possible to create ideas. I really took to her unique use of colour and pattern. Mary also had a very organised neat way of working which really spoke out to me as that is something i like to portray in my way of working. Mary's garden was also beautifully designed by herself it had such passion, colour with a variety of different flowers which all complimented each other in the way they have been planted & landscaped. It really inspired my current Garden project, its sparked off a lot of different ideas i could use in my designs and for colour use.