Allan Brown Flax Workshop

As part of my professional development in the Interactive Weaves project, I attended a one-to-one workshop with nettle artist Allan Brown to learn the process of fibre craft to transform flax into fibres for hand spinning. The journey from seed to textile in Brown’s craft had captivated me and I was intrigued to learn more. I visited his studio and garden in Brighton where the flax is grown. Brown had plenty of retted stems ready to break into fibres.

When the flax is broken down it leaves long fibres which you comb over and over until smooth. It is then ready for spinning by drop spindle or wheel.

I learnt an incredible amount from Brown and always find it so inspiring to bounce ideas from one artist to another. We had conversations about the importance of repetitive processes such as spinning and weaving has on our mental health - how it makes worries and stress become a back ground noise and is like a mental medicine.

We are both left-handed so it was much easier to learn from one another, I also got to practice drop spinning and how to create nettle cordage.

Allan is working on an incredible project called the nettle dress which I got to see on the loom. It’s made entirely by hand and spun on a drop spindle.

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