The Workshop

In this workshop, participants will explore techniques including plain weave, dovetailing, hatching, Rya knotting, and free weaving. You’ll also learn to develop a simple design through creative sketchbook work and plan it before beginning on the loom.

Participants will be encouraged to experiment with colour and geometry - key themes of Dalia’s work- as well as exploring the use of texture through alternative materials. Participants will also be shown how to finish their piece along with ideas for display. The session will include everything you need, a tapestry frame loom, tools, sketchbooks, stationary, hand-dyed yarns and alternative materials such as straw, paper and bark.

About the Artist

Dalia James, a 2012 Woven Textile Design graduate from Loughborough University, is inspired by the interplay of colour and geometry, drawing on early 20th-century movements like Bauhaus and De Stijl. Her work combines structured forms with the organic quality of dip-dyeing, influenced especially by Bauhaus master Josef Albers' colour theories.

Guided by the Arts & Crafts ethos of William Morris, Dalia emphasizes hand weaving and environmental consciousness, favouring natural dyes and fibres. Her creative process is largely analogue, with research from online archives, books, and her surroundings, and she develops designs using watercolour studies and grid paper for precise drafting.

Working in double cloth weave, Dalia creates modular blocks that are dyed separately to enhance her colour palette. Hand dyeing her yarns is essential to her practice, allowing the final composition to emerge naturally on the loom as she instinctively highlights warp colours through the double cloth structure.