London Craft Week: Sarah Simonds and the Art of Living Fibre
For UK-based fibre artist Sarah Simonds, nature is a collaborator, a material archive, and a lifelong teacher. Exhibiting as part of Future Icons Selects at London Craft Week, Simonds presents a body of work that is at once meditative, tactile, and deeply rooted in the organic rhythms of the natural world.
Working with coiling, knotting and hand-weaving techniques learned as a child at Forest School, Simonds transforms foraged and cultivated plant fibres into sculptural forms. These compostable artworks pulse with movement and texture, their twisted, woven lines echoing the graceful architecture of stems, ferns, and roots. “My creative process is not set in stone,” she explains. “It’s completely visceral… It has to feel right in my hands.”
Foraged fibre baskets by Sarah Simonds.
One of her works, Gather (lead image), is a testament to this intuitive, site-specific practice. “The inspiration for this piece came from a large clump of Black Bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) in my garden,” Simonds says. “It flowered in 2023 - an event that only happens once in its lifetime - and began the slow process of dying back.”
Moved by the graceful beauty of its tall, darkly marked culms, she began to gather materials from her surroundings: fibres from her garden, local hedgerows and rivers, all carefully prepared and handwoven into a series of textural panels. Each panel is punctuated by lengths of the now-dormant bamboo, the entire work strung on a single bamboo rod. The base - Jute dyed with Loquat leaves and an iron mordant - adds both warmth and depth.
Sarah’s garden - an evolving eighteen-year project shaped with patience, creativity and a sharp eye for resourcefulness - is both studio and source. Tucked among the mature planting and topiary outside her home in the soggy north of England, it provides not only space but substance for her practice. Here she grows and harvests plant materials like Cordyline and Loquat, using bark and foliage not only in the structure of her forms, but also to create natural dyes. “Each dye batch is always unique,” she says. “It’s so gratifying to see the range of natural hues as they hang outside drying. It’s completely joyful.”
Woven fibre roundel by Sarah Simonds
Simonds’s connection with nature is multi-sensory and deeply felt. Her art is not just about observing the natural world, but becoming immersed in it and honouring its cycles, working with what it offers. Her materials are largely gathered on foot, cut from the base of the stem to encourage regrowth. She works primarily with her hands, allowing pieces to evolve through touch and instinct rather than design alone. “I often sketch,” she admits, “but more often than not the piece of work evolves as I begin to work on it.”
Sarah Simonds garden space, which she often uses as her studio.
In recent years, Sarah’s quiet, grounded approach to making has gained international recognition. Her works have appeared in interiors, exhibitions and set designs around the world. Now, as she brings her immersive, handwoven forms to London Craft Week, she invites visitors to engage their senses and experience the quiet strength and beauty of sustainable craft.
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Further Information:
Future Icons Selects:
Open to the public from 15-19 May 2025
Shoreditch – 83 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3AY.
Book your free tickets here
Sarah Simonds
London Craft Week
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Image Credits:
Lead Image: Sarah Simonds: Gather. Materials: Dandelion, Calla Lilies, Cordyline, Weeping Sedge, New Zealand Flax, English Rush and Bindweed, strung on Black Bamboo.