Exploring Textile Heritage Through Contemporary Craft
William Halstead recently welcomed textile artist Isabel Fletcher at Stanley Mills as part of her ongoing Archive Iterations series, during a residency at Sunny Bank Mills in July 2025.
The visit included a tour of the mill led by Managing Director Matthew Simpson, offering a direct insight into the warping and weaving processes that underpin cloth production. During her time at the mill, Isabel collected warp ends from William Halstead, later incorporated into her latest work, August 31/1899.
Archive Iterations
Archive Iterations is a practice-based research project exploring Isabel’s family history within the Yorkshire textile industry from 1837–2005.
Through the project, Isabel reinterprets archive fabric swatches from handwritten mill cost books, translating historic woven references into sculptural textile forms using production offcuts sourced from British manufacturers. The work creates a dialogue between textile heritage and present-day making, examining how material, process and craft continue to evolve.
Working intuitively with production offcuts, Isabel responds to the structural qualities of weave using a magnifying thread-counter to study yarn density, warp and weft intersections, and the negative space within cloth. Rather than replicating archive fabrics, she develops them through stitch, drape and construction, extending two-dimensional woven structures into three-dimensional forms.
As custodian of the handwritten cost books used within the project, Isabel engages directly with this textile history while continuing to expand the series in collaboration with British mills and manufacturers
Holding an MA in Textiles from the Royal College of Art, Isabel has exhibited and delivered talks at institutions including Sotheby’s London, Dr Martens, the Design Museum, Somerset House, London Craft Week, Sunny Bank Mills, Salts Mill and the Art Workers’ Guild.
At William H0alstead
During the visit, the warping department became a key point of focus. The process revealed the three-dimensional structure inherent within weaving — closely aligned with Isabel’s own investigation of magnified textile surfaces. Observing the scale, tension and movement of warp yarns in production directly informed her response to the archive swatch.
For August 31/1899, Isabel used warp ends collected from William Halstead to form a strong vertical structure referencing the original woven fragment, where magnified yarns appear to rise from the surface of the cloth. Horizontal stitched elements in red, blue and black were layered across organza, echoing the movement of weft yarns passing through the structure.
The making process becomes a way of considering historical, contemporary and material perspectives on the UK textile industry.
The resulting work reflects both the physical construction of cloth and the wider dialogue between heritage, sustainability, and contemporary British textile manufacturing.
Continuing the Conversation
Isabel’s work highlights the continued relevance of British textile production while offering a renewed perspective on materials, process and craft.
By transforming production offcuts into sculptural works, Archive Iterations reflects on preservation, making, and the layered histories embedded within cloth.
William Halstead is proud to support artists and makers who continue to reinterpret textile heritage through contemporary practice.
To learn more about Isabel Fletcher and her work:
Email: [email protected]
Website: isabelfletcher.com
Instagram: @studioisabelfletcher
Headshot credit: Jon Cardwell