MEET THE WEAVERS AT COCKPIT ARTS

Recipients of the Clothworkers’ Award 2021

Three new weavers joined the Cockpit Arts studio, each with a bursary funded by The Clothworkers’ Company. The Clothworkers’ Award was designed to support graduate weavers in setting up business. Recipients can work across any form – such as soft home furnishings, woven artworks, product design for manufacturing, etc. For up to three years, they receive heavily subsidised shared studio space equipped with Leclerc, Louet and ARM looms and a dye area. They also receive business support from the dedicated Cockpit Arts coaching team and opportunities to promote or sell their work during Open Studio events. The 2021 awards went to Peipei Wang, Fadhel Mourali, and Ashley Jess Knight.

Peipei seeks inspiration from nature and human emotions. From aesthetic to approach, she aims to encourage her audiences to engage with nature. Her work explores colours, textures and woven structures, creating a personal textile language to narrate nature-inspired stories and producing sophisticated design works.

Coming from a mixed background, with roots in both Sweden and Tunisia, Fadhel is intrigued by identity and discovering a specific place of longing within his work. In theory and practice, he explores storytelling through tactility, in the hope of reaching the core of a subject and of fully understanding both the medium and the narrative. Being trained as a hand weaver, Fadhel is driven to discover the possibilities of material processes and how to translate them visually to create new meanings and concepts. Through in-depth research studies, he aims to investigate, question and develop these notions through techniques that can express contemporary narratives and functions.

Ashley specialises in woven textiles, exploring tactility, colour, and creating juxtapositions within her work, alongside working with her ethos of ‘Happy Design’. Focusing on hand-made woven products and collaborations, she offers a freelance commission-based service for clients interested in custom luxury, handcrafted textiles for either fashion or interiors. Passionate about sustainability, Ashley attempts to create as little environmental impact as possible with her designs. Through using deadstock yarns and fabrics, upcycling and zero-waste practices, her aim is to work within sustainable production and create long-lasting products. She takes inspiration from pop culture and nostalgia from her childhood, from vintage toys, anime, and the act of play. Ashley works to capture the memories and sensations of growing up within her textiles.

“As a hand weaver, I am intrigued by recontextualising traditional handicrafts to explore their contemporary meaning.”

Fadhel Mourali,

Recipient of the Clothworkers’ Award.

Facing page: On the left is detail of semi-transparent fabric by Peipei, who works in homewares and textiles. On the right is a photograph of Fadhel inside a studio; he works on artworks and collectible objects.

This page: Detail from a colourful work-in-progress by Ashley, which is still on the loom.