London weaver Christabel Balfour's live London Craft Week demo is not to be missed
'I started weaving as a child when my mum bought me a toy loom from Ikea’ says twenty-six-year-old London weaver Christabel Balfour. Twenty or so years later and the “toy” has been replaced by two slightly more serious models – a 1976 Harris floor loom and a two-metre wide tapestry loom from 1992 – which she uses to weave rugs and wall-hangings on in her Peckham studio.
With a background in fine art, Christabel’s designs are simple and contemporary, featuring geometric patterns and an earthy palette, with splashes of colour. It takes her three to four days to weave a large rug, and she starts out by drawing a rough pencil sketch. ‘I plan out how large each section will be and then set the warp on the loom, which usually takes a day or two’ says Christabel. ‘I can weave a simple design at 20cm an hour, but a complicated pattern is more like 4cm an hour.’
Christabel has also become a dab hand at restoration, as both looms came in pieces from the Loom Exchange. The Harris floor loom, which had been left to rot in a garage for 30 years, required eight months of careful cleaning and polishing before it was fit for use.
This month, she will take part in two events as part of the fourth annual London Craft Week (May 9-13) where studios and craftspeople across the capital throw open their doors to the public. She will be showing her work at Peckham’s Copeland Gallery (May 10-13), as well as giving a weaving demonstration at the Barbican (May 9-12) where she will be installing her loom.
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