Selvedge Fair: Teresa Dunne
by Polly Leonard
This March, Selvedge is hosting one of our popular artisan fairs in the beautiful city of Bath. Handweaver and textile designer Teresa Dunne, who will be exhibiting at the fair. She spoke to Jessica Edney about her textile journey:
"I have always had a love of vintage and found pieces from bygone days and after visiting Tavistock Vintage fair, I started to develop a body of work to sell at this event. I was collecting old fragments of material and ephemera which I collaged together with naïve hand stitches. My work proved popular and I started to gain a following on social media. I enrolled on the textiles A level course at Truro College. This allowed me to build a portfolio of work which would lead me to a Foundation Art Diploma and Arts degree. My professional work continued to flourish and evolve allowing me to exhibit at shows such as The Contemporary Craft Festival at Bovey Tracey, Cornwall Design Fair and Selvedge.
"My dream came true when I was accepted onto the BA (Hons) Textile Practices at Plymouth College of Art. It was here I became fascinated with wool, especially the manufacturing process which became apparent after a visit from John Arbonne in Devon who processes the raw materials to create hand-knitted socks.
After completing my First Year I wanted to learn a new skill during the summer break. I purchased a preloved four shaft floor loom, collected together wool, tools, books and watched many tutorials online. Gradually I gained confidence on the loom. It was so wonderful to create a piece of hand-woven cloth from raw materials. And it was even more encouraging after I launched my scarves at Cowslip Summer Fair and sold four! This was definitely the way forward. I continued weaving lambswool scarves until I went back to art college. After five weeks of working with mixed media, I knew my heart was now somewhere else.
"I am currently studying BA Textile Design at Falmouth University as a second-year specialising in Weave. So in the meantime, I weave every day!
I have built up quite a following in Australia on Instagram. I now supply ‘The Happen Store’ in Sydney where they fly out of the door as soon as they arrive!
I would say to anyone who is unsure whether to embark on their creative journey…..just go for it!. It will prove to be exciting and very rewarding."
To find out more about the Selvedge Fair and book your tickets, click here.
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