Surface & Soul: Rediscovering the Lost Spirit of Textile Creation
- Cheryl O’Meara
- Jun 16
- 3 min read
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the deeper relationship we once had with cloth, craft, and creativity. My recent visit to Manchester Textile Society Fair brought all of this to the surface, and stirred something quite unexpected…find out how I was moved to tears!
Textiles have always had such a close connection with humankind, literally woven into the fabric of our life. Our extraction of plant and animal fibres to create cloth predates history, once an intimate affair where a person was connected to the source, from gathering fibres to spinning yarn, then weaving cloth for garments to be worn or traded. Long before fashion, there was function, and before that, ritual. The oldest surviving textile fragments are over 25,000 years old, suggesting that cloth has always been with us, woven not just from fibre, but from culture, landscape, and belief.
Today at the Manchester Textile Society Fair, I learned from one seller how Peruvian men from Taquile Island used sharpened bicycle spokes to knit superfine woollen hats with intricate patterns, (shown above on the stand). I also saw striped handwoven textiles from the Amazon region, created from naturally occurring cotton colour variations of rust, green and brown — hand-picked, spun, and woven. I really felt the spirit of the cloth. It was deeply moving to touch fabric so rich with soul and human process. So moving, in fact, I found myself welling up. Am I ok? Having a moment, stroking stripes!
I think my pricking tears were from the grief and understanding of how much we have become disconnected from life. Ironically, I’m carrying the mood boards of corporate clients around with me, as they seek to weave some of this 'vibe' back into their aesthetic. No wonder I’m having an existential print crisis in the middle of a sports hall full of antique fabric. What is life?! Don’t get me wrong — pining for collecting my own cotton from a homestead and spending days weaving is quite far from my achievable reality — but there must be a middle road. Some way to bring this lost connection to life again.
In a rising tide of AI, I feel my own backlash to instant design. Kerri and I are so yearning for connection to people and process, we started a soulful movement with The PPA Collective. As this gains momentum, I’m having conversations with amazing women, many of whom are hungry for something different: to create together, to connect to life, and to work in a holistic way. I see them supporting each other and beginning to share wisdom, know-how, and experience. Not going to lie , it’s making me ill with excitement and wide-eyed at the possibilities. We’re just enjoying watching it take shape exactly as it should, organically.
In my own practice, extracting motifs from nature or my environment has become something of an art form in itself.
To paint immersively is my new way of creating. Rather than painting from a screen or printout, I’m getting in the vibe. This month, I’ll be trialling this new idea, exploring what happens when I am in the landscape, home, or culture of the motifs I am extracting, and what effect this has. What happens when motifs become dialogue as well as decoration? Using soot, tea, clay, rosewater, connecting earth to art - motifs that are part of the observed. Surface and Soul, a million miles away from the churn. Surface & Soul is becoming my quiet rebellion. A design practice rooted in immersion, reverence, and relationship. It’s not a rejection of industry, but a recalibration of intention.
As we prepare for a PPA creative day this week, we’ll be focusing on a theme, filling the studio with inspiration from the archive, the natural world, interesting materials. We’ll be playing music to fit the vibe. In our collective creation, everything feels cohesive, there are nods to each other's outcomes, variation in subject matter, and the energy and novelty of being in our inspiration station together! Maybe I’ll take it one step further and arrive dressed as my favourite artist to channel my creativity.
The experience of IRL connected design, collective creativity and immersive process is deeply addictive. Once you’ve experienced it, there’s no going back - a call to the wild, untamed creative within. This passionate, purposeful place is the forgotten soul that is on its way back to find us, we just have to create the space to remember again.
Cue pan-pipe music…We are not just making patterns. We are re-membering how to belong again. To each other, to the earth, and to our work.
Are you craving a deeper connection to your creative practice? Let’s rediscover it together in our soulful PPA Collective
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