I’m Nancy, the maker behind Nancy Una Textile. I was raised and now live and work in the beautiful lands of Pembrokeshire, Wales. A wild landscape and upbringing that still shape how I see colour, texture, art, the environment and the world beyond it. I’ve always been creative and live to work with my hands. I came to weaving in my mid-twenties, and it quickly felt like the right fit. I was drawn to the steady, repetitive rhythm of working at the loom. It’s a meditative process, and it’s often where I do some of my clearest thinking.

I studied textiles at Coleg Sir Gar, training in weave, knit, and mixed media textiles. While there, I had the immense pleasure of reconnecting to the Welsh language, working in Welsh, chatting in Welsh, a joy. This reconnection has since started to influence my weaving, using traditional Welsh weaving patterns as an influence in my work.

My love for natural dyeing was born while at Coleg Sir Gar. I’m in love with the alchemy of it, the witchcraft-like process of extracting colour from plants.

During my studies, I was awarded the Miriam Briddon Scholarship and the Wonderwool Bursary of the back of my Degree show weaves, and then continued on at the College as a graduate in residence for a year. During that tumultuous year I was thrown a curve ball and my work after this pivoted in a slightly different direction. I took this new work to exhibit at New Designers 2025, where I was named Graduate of the Year by Selvedge magazine. An absolute honour.

Since graduating, I’ve continued to create work that explores the idea of tension between chaos and control. This current creative direction began as a response to the unpredictable nature of life. After taking time away from my creative endeavours to care for my mother during a period of illness, this project became as a doorway back to creative thinking and back to me enjoying being at the loom. Embracing unpredictability, I begin pieces with no certain plan, approaching the dye vat with a plain warp and applying colour intuitively in an ikat-inspired manner. To contrast the free nature of the dyeing process, I weave in highly structured motifs inspired by traditional Welsh blanket patterns. The overdying and optical mixing of shades creates a nuanced depth.

In tandem with my weaving, I am slowly building a garden of flowers and dye plants, taking steps towards making my textile process as self-sustaining as possible.