Simon Marks Textiles | TECHNIQUES

Something that is done by hand, has a certain energy and life to it that you don’t find when there’s a mechanical process involved. A resonance is created through repetition, which is like a mantra, in that the more you repeat it the more it grows and takes on an energy of it’s own. This is what gives a thing its power. Somehow this doesn’t happen as much when the human touch is absent.

The process involved is the alchemy of transformation. Colour that is coaxed from root, bark, leaf and mineral. As a painter primes their canvas in order that the paint adheres to it, so must a dyer mordant their cloth or yarn.

The process is just as important to me as the end product. Working with so many variables, the end result is never finite. Making mistakes are also an important part of this whole process, because something interesting, be it a new technique, or unexpected result, always emerges, and this is how I learn, and the germ of a new idea is planted, leading to a whole new process. A never-ending cycle. It’s the process itself that continually challenges, unfolding into new creative possibilities.