Alison Morton's handwoven table linen and towels are admired and appreciated by many weavers, and loved by her customers. Through years of experience and dedication to her craft, she became a master of the art of designing, weaving and finishing linen cloth. It was a great sadness to many that Alison died in 2021 after a stroke (see obituary in Journal WSD 280, Winter Issue). Linen was the main focus of her work for the last 25 years of her life, but it is useful to know something of the breadth of her textile background in order to understand what it was that she brought to her work with linen. In the mid 1960s, at the suggestion of Marianne Straub, a family friend, Alison attended a year-long general art course at Dartington College. Although geared towards textiles, with tutors including Susan Bosence and Bobbie Cox, the course encouraged a free creative approach in a variety of other media, which nurtured Alison's natural tendency to find a subject and to explore it meticulously. She was in future years to apply this almost forensic curiosity to many of her interests, including the history of natural dyes, local botany in Wales, and, of course, to the growing and processing of linen. It should also be said that this investigative streak came with a healthy sense of humour and enjoyment, which extended into all areas of her life,including food and travel (mainly by bicycle as she was an ardent environmentalist).
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