Illuminating Weaves is Ruth Sprague’s Creative Weave Studio.

A potted history of how I came to be weaving…

I grew up in Matlock, Derbyshire and after a brief spell of teaching in Early Years I married an American, Pat, and headed to New Jersey in the USA for several years.  Whilst there I taught preschool, and we grew our family to 4.  Just before the children reached school age we moved back to the UK and found ourselves living and working in Sutton Coldfield in the heart of England.  I taught, Pat was an Apple technician, and the children wended their way through school.  We worshipped at the local Methodist church.

Life changed dramatically in 2009 when Pat was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer.  He endured all the gruelling treatments and died in 2011. It was around this time that I turned to textile arts as a way of exploring and coping with my grief.

I have loved colour and texture for as long as I can remember but it was only when I discovered freestyle textile techniques in my 40s that I found an outlet for my creativity.  Free stitching led to spinning my own yarn which in its turn led to freestyle weaving which has few rules and is for all ages and abilities. For me, all these things offer permission and opportunity to reflect, play and explore.

In 2019 I was extremely lucky to be able to spend 3 weeks in Japan at Saorinomori, the heart of Saori weaving where I learned so much from the creative weavers there.  In 2020 I opened my studio at Grangewood Garden Centre (now Mile Oak Garden Centre) just outside Tamworth using a legacy from my mum as my seed money and switched from facilitating learning in young children to facilitating weaving and reflection both in the studio, in the community and around the country. 

As a Christian I find the processes of both spinning and weaving to be prayerful – an opportunity for conversation with God – Father, Son and Spirit but whether you have a spiritual faith or not weaving is reflective and mindful as well as a huge amount of fun!