Building high weaves

Monika sees many similarities between architecture and weaving
She likes to break weaving traditions and rules
She is fascinated by the freedom offered by weaving

Monika Sarte never thought she would become a weaver. She graduated in architecture from the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, continued her studies in Delft, and later worked as an architect in Germany and Luxembourg, designing modern high-rise buildings. However, when she wanted a change, she returned to Lithuania and immersed herself in the secrets of weaving. It turned out that there are many similarities between architecture and weaving. Most importantly, weaving offers her creative freedom. Having learned to weave in only one year, Monika now works in her studio in Vilnius, where she uses four wooden looms to create scarves, shawls and rugs made of wool and linen. Her fabrics are strictly minimalist, in restrained colours, but in each of them, you can see the professional composition and the joy of creativity and meditation that the craft brings her.

Monika Sarte is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2016

Discover her work

Discover her work

Green table runner

Brick-red wide fringed shawl

Black and white shawl

Sakura inspired linen shawl

INTERVIEW

I came to the craft from architecture. There are parallels in the basic elements – horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. In a way the loom is an engineering structure that creates a shell, which is like the façade of a building. The other parallels are texture, structure, substance, composition, and how to combine materials.

Architecture is a team effort where different people work together to produce a result. There are a lot of tensions in that. Whereas in weaving, it is all up to me. So here I have found my own space, where the ideas, the implementation and the responsibility are all mine.

I break the rules of tradition. I combine wool with linen, which is not recommended because these yarns expand differently. For the beauty of it, for the drape to fall beautifully, I put a lot of work into unconventional combinations of yarns. I sometimes incorporate traditional ornaments into my creations. My design style is minimalist and refined.

My ambition is to create freely in a traditional form – freedom within the framework of tradition. I am fascinated by the ability to construct the fabric, weaving one thread with another thread, and seeing how they hold each other. I find that simply amazing.