Artisan Textiles
KULU textiles designer Emma Fallon is a hand weaver working with traditional craft techniques and digital processes in natural fibers to create contemporary, sustainable textiles.
Emma works with natural fibres across print, weaving, and embroidery. Her practice explores the human relationship with landscape, focusing on remote places experienced through primary research, drawing, and painting. These initial observations are developed into tactile artworks using natural fibres and plant-based dyes.
Natural materials are central to both the subject and process of her work. Living off-grid on the land, Emma maintains a close, embodied relationship with the materials she uses. A small flock of Shropshire sheep graze the land and are managed regeneratively; their wool is spun locally and forms an integral part of her creative practice. Emma’s practice is grounded in slow textiles, sustainability, and a respectful relationship with the environment. She is a member of South West Fibreshed and sustainability underpins every material and process, ensuring the work remains in harmony with the land and the sheep that sustain it.
The collections range from hand woven scarves and art pieces to jacquard woven cushions and bespoke furniture made in collaboration with J Pryor. The jacquard collection is woven exclusively at a UK mill using natural fibres. The designs are developed from drawings and paintings into complex woven structures, merging print design with weave to create intricate woven fabrics. Jacquard is a type of weaving loom that allows each thread to be lifted individually, allowing the designer to create pictorial imagery that is not restricted by the shafts on a traditional hand weaving loom.
Emma’s practice is inspired by landscape and the human connection with nature, journeying across the British Isles and documenting the land through photography and drawings to create slow textiles with narrative. The work encompasses a sense of place and aims to create a meaningful connection between people and cloth through the use of techniques rich in history and culture. Textile design is at the heart of the practice and a victorian technique called shadow tissues has been developed, combining screen printing with hand weaving by printing the warp threads before the cloth is woven. This unique process is the distinct characteristic exhibited in the cloth. The origin of materials is intrinsic to the meaning and charm of the fabric, Emma works with ethically sourced silks, natural fibres and UK mills to produce contemporary textiles, merging antiquity with the modern.