About Elsalil

Elsalil has grown out of a love of textiles inherited from my Mother and Grandmother. I have drawn on their influences to create a range of items that reflect my Anglo / Scandinavian heritage. I have no formal artistic training and with the exception of two great weaving workshops at the Handweaver´s Studio in London, no textile training beyond a GCSE, taken quite a while ago! In actual fact I studied Scandinavian language, literature and culture at University and continued on to do an MSC by research in Swedish Children´s literature. Craft was always there in the background however and although it has taken a while to get here all the experiences gathered along the way influence my work.

My workroom is, as you can see from the photo, a total mess! So much so that I actually tend to work on the kitchen table, or when the weather permits on the veranda which is just visible through the window. Some of the smaller photos on this page show the materials that I work with, ranging from linen threads to upcycled sari yarns, upcycled clothes and curtains to specially produced patchwork fabrics. It is this mixture that I find especially exciting as it reflects the practical origins of the items I make and highlights the make do and mend ethos present in both patchwork and weaving.

Nowadays, it is impossible to be unaware of the destructive effect of the textile industry at an environmental and social level. Whilst I am currently unable to go completely green I believe very strongly in doing the best that I can from my little corner of the world. To that end I use as much upcycled fabric as I can and am hoping in the future to be able to shift completely into organic fabrics and dyes. The postal envelopes that I use are reusable and recyclable and the tissue paper is acid free. It´s small but it´s a start! If the choice is available I use fair-trade products and aim to produce good quality unique items that are my response to the mass produced items flooding today´s market often produced in appalling conditions.

At the very heart of everything is the simple truth that I make items that conform to my sense of what is beautiful in the world and I love every second of it!

Camilla Fraser, Designer Maker,

This site uses pop-up windows to view large images - to view these, please ensure your browser enables requested pop-ups.