Five Minutes with a Friend: Hâf Weighton
Opening on 24 January 2026 at Ruthin Craft Centre, High Street brings together new textile work by Welsh artist Hâf Weighton. Running until 22 March, the exhibition considers the high street not as a fixed place, but as something accumulated and shaped over time by movement, memory, labour and change.
For centuries, the high street has been the spine of towns and villages across Wales: a route lined with shops and services, but also with routines, chance encounters and passing time. In recent years, these spaces have been reshaped by economic pressure and shifting patterns of use. Weighton’s work begins here, but resists literal description. Her stitched and painted textiles do not reproduce specific locations. Instead, they are constructed from fragments — remembered shopfronts, textures of brick and pavement, the rhythm of walking the same streets again and again.
Many of the works are large in scale and densely worked, built up through layers of stitch, print and paint. Known for her textile interpretations of architecture, Weighton extends this language in High Street, allowing surfaces to hold multiple meanings at once. Facades and doorways suggest both permanence and vulnerability; beneath them sit traces of past use, adaptation and uncertainty about what comes next. The work asks how places absorb change, and how memory clings to material surfaces.
We spoke to Hâf Weighton about her inspirations and creative practice, in a Five Minutes with a Friend interview:
Hâf Weighton
Portrait of Hâf Weighton
Hâf, what is your earliest memory of a textile?
My Mum is a retired teacher and my Dad was a University lecturer, so we had long Summer holidays. In school holidays we would spend weeks in France. I remember visiting the Bayeux tapestry when I was about 9, and marvelling at the scale of the work. In 2018 I had the opportunity to exhibit work at The Saatchi Gallery in London. Suddenly my work felt small compared to the momentous scale of the works at The Saatchi Gallery, and I vowed to work bigger in the future. I have always like the idea of creating embroidery on a large scale and this is something I have achieved in my up and coming show, Stryd Fawr/ High street at Ruthin Craft Centre opening on 24 January.
How would you describe what draws you to textiles and the world of making?
Creating makes me really happy. In the most stressful times in my life, I have always continued making, It’s an escapism and I am lucky to also call it my job. I love drawing and find it therapeutic. I view my use of stitch as an extension of drawing with pencil and ink. Textiles in the broader sense is a medium that I like to use to develop texture in my work, and I feel my approach to making is very fine art based - so art rather than craft in a traditional sense. But I think that’s where Ruthin Craft Centre (where I have my solo show High Street, opening 24th January), really excels. It showcases the work of artists that happen to use craft as their media.
I exhibited in a solo show at the Knitting and Stitching show in 2017 and was blown away by the conversations I had with so many people, including the renowned embroidery collector, Diana Springall. There is something very reassuring about exhibiting somewhere where you meet a learned audience. This is also how I feel when at Ruthin Craft Centre – I feel I have met ‘my people’ when I am there, each and every exhibition sends me bubbling into a hive of creativity. This is a lot to do with the influence of Philip Hughes who ran the centre for 30 years. It’s now being run by Samatha Rhodes, who is also a very experienced gallery director and I am hoping the centre will continue to raise it’s profile as THE centre for applied art.
Original artwork by Hâf Weighton
If you create textiles, where do you feel most inspired to work?
I have a studio in my garden and a studio around the corner from my home in the resurgent seaside town of Penarth in South Wales, at a council run building called Y Bwthyn (Welsh for Cottage). I often work late in to the night as this seems to be when I am most energised, but the light isn’t great at night. It’s also dark at my home studio as it’s under trees. There are many windows at my studio at Y Bwthyn, so if I really need to focus that’s where I go. I work in silence when painting, drawing, machine stitching. If I am hand sewing I tend to do that whilst watching/listening to tv.
Original artwork by Hâf Weighton
What has sparked your imagination or inspired you recently?
My current show is titled ‘Stryd Fawr = High Street’ in Welsh. It was funded by the arts Council of Wales through a Create grant. It’s given me the opportunity to really play and find my own voice in my practice. It’s also given me the chance to work with a select group of amazing artists. I started with Bill Chambers, a printmaker in Cardiff Print Studio, who helped show me how I can experiment further with print.
For the past few years I have been working with Noah Bakour, a Syrian film maker. This was initially through a commission from the National Museum of Wales to work with refugees and asylum seekers at a centre called Oasis in Cardiff. Through this I met Noah. When he first arrived here and could speak very little English, and he went on to do an access course in art and then an art foundation course. I introduced him to Dewi Tannatt Lloyd, a photographer of fine art and applied art. Dewi has taken Noah under his wing and given him use of his studio and equipment, as well as advice and guidance on developing his career here in Wales. Through this grant Noah and I ran workshops with refugee groups. We developed some of the techniques I learnt from Bill Chambers in these workshops and created some pieces based on arial shots of different High Streets which Noah filmed with a drone. We travelled up and down Wales looking mainly at towns on the borders and created artwork of different places. I have developed my sketches from these journeys into painted, printed, stitched works on a monumental scale. I have also been mentored on this journey by two artists who were my foundation tutors 30 years ago – Julia Griffiths Jones and Gill St John Griffiths. The embroiderer Nigel Hurlstone also visited me in Cardiff and has been mentoring me in the later stages of this project.
Alphabet sampler by Mrs Lazic's mother. Photo credit: Sioned Birchall
Mrs Lazic's sampler on display in the playroom. Photo credit: Sioned Birchall
What is your most treasured textile, and what story does it carry?
My Mother had a friend who we always called Mrs Lazic who was from Slovenia in the former Yugoslavia. Mrs Lazic never had Children and would treat my siblings and I like her Grandchildren. She had many stitched objects in her house. One of which was a beautiful stitched alphabet sampler which Mrs Lazic’s Mother had made. It’s on the wall in my children’s play room now. Once she left Yugoslavia at 18 she hardly never returned. I don’t know how Mrs Lazic came here, but I know her Husband Mr Lazic walked across Europe after the Second World War to the coal fields of South Wales in the 1940’s to get work. I wonder how the alphabet sampler arrived here, and I feel honoured to be the one who has it on my wall.
Original artwork by Hâf Weighton
Where did you first learn your craft, and who shaped your early approach to making?
My Aunt who I call Bodo Ann is a master knitter and I remember her teaching me to knit. She has made many knitted clothes for my family and I. They are all unique. My brother Ifan wore a merino wool cardigan she had made to a party in London and a friend of his who was a textiles buyer for Harrods asked if Bodo Ann took commissions. Bodo Ann learnt to knit on the family farm, Gyfylche in Llanerfyl, Mid Wales where my Mother grew up using two farm nails as needles.
I had very good teachers at Glantaf Welsh Medium secondary school in Cardiff. One of those was Julie Morse, my textiles teacher. I also had a great art teacher called Angharad Roberts. Between them we worked on a few set designs and costume making for school productions. Music and drama were very much celebrated at my school, as it is in most Welsh medium schools. But art tended to be the poorer cousin. But this did mean we had lots of opportunities to support the drama and music departments. Some of the people I went to school with did very well in the world of acting. The actors Matthew Rhys and Ioan Gruffydd were at school with me.
I did consider going in to the world of TV or film production. After art college I worked as a TV runner and researcher. I also worked for Cardiff Theatrical services and for the Sydney Theatre company as a scenic artist. In London I often worked on sets and props for independent theatre companies. This was all fun, but I am glad that my life took a different course.
Original artwork by Hâf Weighton
Is there a piece of music you return to while you work, that sets the rhythm of your making?
There isn’t one particular piece of music, but I like listening to BBC 6 music on the radio. I like the fact that the presenters Cerys Matthews and Huw Stephens, often bring in the influence of Welsh music, literature and art. Hearing Cerys’s voice brings back memories of some fun times in the 90’s when Cerys sang for Catatonia, and a movement called ‘Cwl Cymru’ happened. I was very much a part of that Welsh language scene, before I headed off to live in far flung places such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Original artwork by Hâf Weighton
What material or technique are you currently experimenting with or curious to explore further?
I have bought an embellisher in the past year through my grant. I like to experiment with recycled bits of fabric and thread and create a new use for them through my artwork. I have been working on fabric made from recycled silk which I have stitched in to for my current show at Ruthin Craft Centre.
If you could collaborate with any maker—past or present—who would it be, and why?
For the past 15 years I have visited a small barn owned by my friend, Tessa in Llanwnda, near Fishguard in West Wales. When there, I often visit the invasion embroidery designed by Audrey Walker, and her former colleague at Goldsmiths, Eirian Short. The 30 foot long embroidery is displayed in the Fishguard Town Hall in a specially created conservation gallery. It celebrates the last large scale invasion by the French to Britain in 1797 in Llanwnda near Goodwick, which is known as the Battle of Fishguard and is modelled on the Bayeux tapestry. It’s a celebration of Welsh culture and history. I find the community aspect of this work interesting as they managed to get many local people involved in the stitching of the work. I would have liked to have met Audrey Walker when she was alive. She taught at Parliament Hill school, which was just up the road from the school I taught at, Highgate Wood. I think we may have had a lot in common. If she was alive now I would love to collaborate on a modern day response to her invasion embroidery - in time for the National Eisteddfod which takes place near Fishguard in August 2026.
Original artwork by Hâf Weighton
What does a perfect day of making look like for you?
When at home I tend to juggle work between school runs or when my children are in bed, working across two studio’s which I use at different times of the day. For the past two years I have been working towards my show at Ruthin Craft Centre. I go on visits for a few days at a time to Ruthin to see their changing exhibitions and to have meetings in connection with my show. Every moment of those days are filled with creativity.
The craft centre usually put me up to stay at the lovely ManorHaus Hotel, which is a quirky boutique hotel in the centre of the medieval part of the town. The owners of the ManorHaus have a large collection of art, and these pieces are on the walls in the hotel. Every guest room is themed to link with the artwork featured on the walls. The breakfasts there are to die for, and as a busy Mum it’s so nice to have food prepared for me.
Original artwork by Hâf Weighton
Then I often walk around Ruthin – maybe sketch some of the buildings in a concertina book. The Castle at Ruthin is magical and has peacocks roaming around. It’s a nice place to walk around to watch the sun come up over the Castle’s crenellations. Then I would visit the Ruthin Craft Centre and sketch from the many different and changing shows. I try not to capture art through my phone as I find I look so much more when I sketch. I start to understand how the artist created the work and notice things I wouldn’t have just by snapping a photo. Then I would have lunch over a meeting at the café at the craft centre.
Later on I would be meeting to discuss my work with either Greg Parsons (the craft centre’s Curator). Last time I was there, I spent the afternoon critiquing my work with Embroiderer Nigel Hurlstone, who gave me lots of advice and showed me how best to stretch my work.
There is a lovely tapas restaurant in the centre of Ruthin near the main square called Small Plates. I would finish my day having a tapas meal with my friend Mair who lives in Ruthin and is the funkiest dresser I have ever met! I would end in the same place as I started my day at the ManorHaus Hotel, in one of their beautiful art themed bedrooms.
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Further Information:
High Street opens at Ruthin Craft Centre on 24 January, and is on show until 22 March 2026.
Curated by Gregory Parsons, High Street forms part of a two-year project supported by the Arts Council of Wales’ Create Grant. A talk by Hâf Weighton will take place at 11.30am on 24 January, followed by the exhibition opening at 2pm.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Pontcanna I (Detail), by Hâf Weighton. Photographer: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd.
All further images credited to the artist, Haf Weighton and photographer Dewi Tannatt Lloyd.