£395.00
For the ‘Wool Works’ exhibition, Claire Cawte has created wool felted shrugs, silk wraps and wool, linen and silk mix scarves. Describing her work, Claire says: ‘Wool has always been central to my practice as a textile artist, mainly focusing on beautiful raw, salvaged wool. Gathering wool from the land is precious, heavy with lanolin in its raw state, I enjoy handling and manipulating its fibres. Wool has a unique quality that is wild and bouncy, and slightly unruly, which evokes mischief and charm.
The Silver Birch tree that stands tall and slender in the forests of Finland has become my fascination for this project. Welsh and Finish wool are blended together , touched and enhanced with painterly effects of organic pigment from natural dyes of the fallen birch leaves.
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Shown here: large silk wrap, eco-printed with organic pigment from natural dyes of silver birch leaves.
Since studying Contemporary Textile Practice in Cardiff, Claire Cawte has specialised in natural dyes and has carved a niche in ‘slow textiles’. She uses foraged materials such as leaves, bark, berries and lichen to create patterns on silk and cotton cloth. In contrast to delicate nature of this work, she also works in with wool using native fleece to make more sculptural forms including bags, bowls and decorative cutlery pieces.
