author
Ethel Mairet
1872–1952
A pioneering British handloom weaver, she helped revive weaving as a modern craft and inspired a generation of textile makers. Her work joined practical skill, strong color, and a deep respect for traditional techniques.
2 Audiobooks
A Book on Vegetable Dyes
by Ethel Mairet
About the author
Born Ethel Mary Partridge in Barnstaple, Devon, on February 17, 1872, she became one of the most important figures in British hand weaving in the first half of the twentieth century. She later used the names Ethel Mary Coomaraswamy and Ethel Mary Mairet, and her interest in weaving grew after time spent in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, where she studied hand spinning, weaving, and embroidery.
After returning to England, she developed her practice as a weaver, dyer, and writer, and became closely associated with the wider Arts and Crafts world. Her workshop at Gospels in Ditchling, Sussex, became a key center for teaching, where she trained and influenced many younger weavers. Sources from the University of the Arts London describe her as self-taught and note the lasting effect of her teaching on handweavers of her generation.
She was also an important author on textile practice, publishing books including Handweaving Today and Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing. In 1939 she became the first woman named a Royal Designer for Industry in textiles. She died in Ditchling on November 18, 1952, but her role in the revival of hand weaving in Britain is still widely recognized.