The threads that connect past and present
- Faye uses wool and silk from animals she raises to create handwoven pieces
- She employs ancient techniques and traditional tools including a wooden loom
- Experiments with textures, raw edges and organic forms is central to her practice
Having learned to weave with elderly artisans on the Greek island of Mykonos, today Faye Chatzi creates handmade pieces on a traditional wooden loom. Faye is committed to the process from start to finish: collecting the raw wool from her sheep or silk from her silkworms, carding and spinning this with a distaff and spindle to form the yarn, weaving manually on the loom to create fabric, and, finally, dyeing the fabric using plant-based pigments. From handwoven pillows to shawls and bags, each thread in Faye’s pieces carries centuries of Greek weaving tradition while introducing younger generations to a craft now threatened by mass production. “My work is an act of cultural preservation,” she says. Faye’s creations have been exhibited in major museums across Greece and internationally.
Interview
- When did you realise weaving was your calling?
- It was the moment I touched a shawl handwoven by a Mykonian woman. My transition into weaving came through learning from elderly weavers in Mykonos. These women taught me the fundamental techniques of the loom and the structure of fabric. My journey officially began when one of them gifted me her old wooden loom.
- What inspires you to create?
- My craft is an extension of the Aegean landscape, a form of ‘woven geography’. It is inspired by the Cycladic light, sea, air, and minimal geometry, with many of my pieces reflecting the changing light during a day on the Cyclades. Ancient Greek weaving and folk craftsmanship, and the making the process itself are all great sources of inspiration.
- How does your craft fulfil and reward you?
- I love the feeling of creating something from nothing, the connection with nature and my animals, the silent conversation with the loom, and the uniqueness of every finished piece. To me, weaving is a form of meditation.
- What do people not know about your work?
- Many of my pieces begin with the animal itself, and the fabric is not produced in metres – it grows organically on the loom. Every piece is a small ‘ecosystem’ that holds a memory. Another thing people tend not to know is that each colour comes from natural, seasonal dyes, whose shades vary depending on climate, humidity and season.
Faye Chatzi is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2007
Where
Faye Chatzi
