Janet Hughes
Janet Hughes is a fabric and textile designer and weaver based in Cupar, Fife. Educated at the Scottish College of Textiles, Janet combines her experience in industrial textile design and manufacturing with her love of weaving, creating limited edition fabrics and accessories under her label Balgarvie Weaving.
Janet's creations blend contemporary woven structures with traditional weaving practices, resulting in bold, lightweight fabrics woven in her signature deflected double cloth structure. These fabrics are meticulously hand-crafted using wooden hand looms - a process that Janet values as a methodical and mindful craft.
Since 2019, Janet has commissioned her own yarn from industrial wool waste and coloured Cheviot sheep fleece from a small-scale Scottish mill. She also cultivates a dye garden at her home, where she hosts natural dyeing and weaving workshops for her community.
Janet's Piece for Forgotten Fleece Tales
Janet has created a handloom-woven striped jacket, made using industrial surplus and yarn made from brockie-coloured Cheviot fleece from a friend's herd near Newcastleton. Janet is championing this unique natural hue, as until recently it was often left to waste, as the wool marketing board saw it as inferior to white wool.
She has paired this natural shade with rich natural dyes produced from her home-grown botanicals to complement the natural colour of the brockie fleece, experimenting with colour, pattern and texture to create a tactile and visually pleasing garment.
Janet has also provided a panel of tartan-inspired cloth using the same materials and techniques, demonstrating the versatility of wool and natural dyes in contemporary fashion.