Ethel Mairet

Mairet's workshop, Gospels, in Ditchling, Sussex, made hand-weaving a modern craft rather than a nostalgic one. She researched natural dyes in Sri Lanka and India and wrote the influential A Book on Vegetable Dyes in 1916, then wove experimental cloths mixing wool with cellophane, metal threads and other unusual yarns. Gospels trained generations of weavers, including apprentices from Germany and Scandinavia, and she worked with industry to bring handwoven samples into mill production. The Crafts Study Centre in Farnham holds her archive.