Hannah Smeds-Davies

Weaving is one of the oldest traditions known to mankind as there are records of intricate weaves and structures from the earliest civilisations. Folk art and hand-loom weaving has been an integral part of the culture in West Finland, Hannah’s native homeland.

The possibility of combining beauty and practicality was to become a baseline for Hannah’s future development as an artist. It also enabled her to introduce innovative concepts in textile design in Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Denmark and subsequently to the British textile industry when she arrived in England over fifty years ago.

Her success in producing designs that were both cost effective and beautiful led to an increasing number of contracts with manufacturing companies in the textile industry. The regular commuting became the catalyst for the eventual move from the South of England to Lancashire.

At Maiden Bridge, Hannah felt an immediate affinity with the strong shapes and colours of the landscapes because to her they provided links to the visual memories of her childhood in Finland. Hannah has made a significant contribution in adding new dimensions to this ancient art and her work is indeed a testament to her belief that weaving offers endless possibilities of creating “new forms of construction and visual ingenuity that makes weaving as vital and interesting a contribution to technological and visual culture as it was eight thousand years ago”.