Growing up in an era of 3D printing and virtual reality, children encountered a rarity on Sunday, a woman weaving bamboo fibre and merino wool with a hand loom.
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Overlooking all the glittering jewellery, even the pastel-coloured cupcakes on display at the Handmade Market at Exhibition Park in Canberra on Sunday morning, inquisitive children made a bee-line to the steady thread of the loom and what was taking shape.
Textile designer Lynette Swift says sourcing natural fibres for hand-knitted felt hats and bags and accessories, and then finding a market that sells only hand-made, Australian-made goods, is becoming more difficult, yet rewarding.
"I particularly like doing things with children because we need to pass on the skills to the next generation, otherwise they will be lost," she said.
The daughter of a Sydney architect and dressmaker, Mrs Swift began as a teenager crocheting berets for her friends, before leaving her craft to become a town planner. For many years she worked for Ku-ring-gai and Baulkham Hills councils. Fifteen years ago she left to return to textile crafts.
"This has its moments too, having to set up," she says, watched by children, their parents and a swelling crowd of people curious to see what captured the littlies' attention. "I have always had a passion for textile craft, and I love dealing with children and customers," Mrs Swift said.
Bamboo filament fibre was first used in the lining of fire fighters' jackets. "It is fireproof, it's breathable so they are not sweating in those temperatures and it is soft on their skin, so that is where it all eventuated from. Now they have brought it into yarns.
"Everything I use is natural fibres. I use a lot of New Zealand possum yarn and cashmere. I try and source products with hard- to-get material like angora, which is hard to find now."
She demonstrates and teaches at workshops at the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of NSW and Sydney Royal Easter Show.
Customers were drawn to unique products, which are Australian made and not mass produced, she said. ''I would never be a millionaire, but it is a business of passion, I love it. I'm not pulling things out of boxes and I like to give my customers individual attention."
Mrs Swift still wears a brace while weaving after a nasty accident in 2012 at a Newcastle exhibition, when timber-framed panels collapsed on top of her."Down it all came on me and that started off a whole realm of things," Mrs Swift said. "But you don't get any compensation, it is a nightmare. I would rather get better and do what I can with this, because I love it."
