Snail Trail Handweavers: rugs, scarves and hangings for sale

My first and abiding love has been rug weaving and I have woven literally hundreds of rugs over the years. Starting with shaft controlled patterns I have gradually moved away from small scale overall pattern and into colour. This has culminated in the use of Ikat which allows me to place large areas of colour wherever I want. See the Gallery.

I’m always fascinated by different techniques and experiment with ways of creating complex large scale designs using inlay and pick-up methods. The coat I’m wearing in the photograph is a silk warp ikat in Central Asian style, but featuring my own Snail Trail design.

Since 1980 I have been running residential courses in weaving, spinning and dyeing at the studio and giving talks and workshops around the country. In the last few years I have also acted as one of the selectors in national exhibitions and taught at the Association Summer Schools.

I was lucky enough in 1998 to receive a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship and visited Central Asia to study Ikat and other textile techniques in Uzbeckistan, Kyrgystan and Xingjiang.

Martin Weatherhead	I first started weaving at school. I wasn’t very good at painting and was looking for an alternative. When the art room was moved a heap of wood was found that turned out to be a loom. With the help of a text book and the art teacher, I produced a rather dull length of tweed. What I really wanted was patterns. Ten years later, after a degree in zoology and postgraduate research (animal behaviour), I went to work for the BBC in London and was able to take up weaving in an evening class, where I started to learn the fundamentals of weaving with Lore Youngmark and Mike Halsey. In 1975 I moved to West Wales with my wife Nina where we set up Snail Trail Handweavers in blissful ignorance.

My first and abiding love has been rug weaving and I have woven literally hundreds of rugs over the years. Starting with shaft controlled patterns I have gradually moved away from small scale overall pattern and into colour. This has culminated in the use of Ikat which allows me to place large areas of colour wherever I want. See the Gallery. I’m always fascinated by different techniques and experiment with ways of creating complex large scale designs using inlay and pick-up methods. The coat I’m wearing in the photograph is a silk warp ikat in Central Asian style, but featuring my own Snail Trail design. Since 1980 I have been running residential courses in weaving, spinning and dyeing at the studio and giving talks and workshops around the country. In the last few years I have also acted as one of the selectors in national exhibitions and taught at the Association Summer Schools. I was lucky enough in 1998 to receive a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship and visited Central Asia to study Ikat and other textile techniques in Uzbeckistan, Kyrgystan and Xingjiang.
Recent Exhibitions 1989 "Wales - Land of Quality", London 1992-3 "Y Gwydd a'r Droell" (the loom & the wheel), touring exhibition 1993 "Colour Changes", one-man exhibition, Cardigan "Its a Wrap", The Pea Room, Sleaford l994 "A Splash of Colour", one-man touring exhibition, Carmarthen, York, Velindre 2002 "Drawn", Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen		Artist in Residence 1986 Milford Haven Central School 1988 National Eisteddfod, Newport 1989 Glyn Vivian, Swansea 1992 Garden Festival Wales, Ebbw Vale 1996 Efailwen Primary School 2001 Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry
Public Commissions Bishop Mascal Conference Centre, Ludlow, curtains. Barley Hall, York, reproduction Medieval wall coverings. Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen, carpet. Snowdonia National Park, reproduction export fabric 1780's. National Maritime Museum, reproduction Viking fabric. Rhosygilwen Mansion, tapestry Sudeley Castle, reproduction 18th Century silk ribbon.


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