Simon Middleton Handwoven

Simon Middleton is the founder of two made-in-Britain clothing brands: Shackleton and Blackshore, and has spent a lifetime in the creative and craft-manufacturing industries.

An engagement with the traditional weaving industry of the Outer Hebrides inspired a particular fascination with small scale weaving.

Spinning and weaving by hand, says Simon, provides a unique opportunity to practise ancient crafts whilst allowing freedom of artistic expression within the boundaries of the simplest technology and the most evocative of materials.

He works in a ten by eight foot wooden shed in his Suffolk garden, where he spins British-grown wool on a traditional spinning wheel, and weaves by hand on a variety of rigid heddle looms.