Leto & Ariadne takes flight

Almost a year on from my last posting on this blog I am finally able to sit and write about the journey it has been over the last twelve months. From starting with an idea based on a name pulled almost from thin air, I now have a fully formed idea of what 'Leto & Ariadne' actually is.

Collections have been woven and are on display for people to see, the first time I have had any kind of show since my graduation exhibition at University. I watch people stopping outside the window and looking at the silk handwoven by me and feel proud that I have created something all of my own and it is now almost a living breathing thing.

Do I have regrets that it has taken me 10 years since graduation to set up a label? The honest answer is no. The last 10 years have expanded and changed my world more than I could have imagined, and much of this has gone into the work. As a 23 year old I think I would have hesitated at the challenge of making a website without someone to help me. The older me went online, learnt how to write the code and created it. Whereas I used to allow myself to be defeated by challenges at University when they seemed too large to overcome, for 'Leto & Ariadne' I pushed more than I ever have in my life to get what I wanted.

I have to say thank you to the people that did help me along on the journey to the launch. Gemma Sangwine, who was there on the first day of University and has been ever since, helping me up when I would fall down, and providing those select few words of Virgoan encouragement at the right time. My friends, otherwise known as the long suffering models on the website, who allowed me to commandeer their Saturdays (and sometimes houses), who didn't complain when I shoe-horned them into clothes they would not normally wear, and who struggled so hard not to laugh in front of the camera. To Nick, Tessa, Alex, Emma, Helen, Suzy, Gemma and Victoria, who put up with my novice directions and endless requests, even to the point of standing at the top of an exposed hill 3 days after Christmas in what must have been -5 degrees, you have my eternal gratitude and thanks.

The fact that 'Leto & Ariadne' has launched is almost a small point. It is simply the first step on the road to what this will become. And now to work.........

Who is Eric?

For all those enquiring minds, Eric is the name I christened my loom. Some people have a dog, or a cat, or a fish. I share my life with a woodframed loom that sits across the room from my bed in the studio and this is what I spend most of my time with. There is something both calming and satisfying about throwing the shuttle back and forth and watching the fabric grow inch by inch. It has become a standing joke with my friends that I live with Eric, to the point where other people imagine he is a real person. Real or not, he is the cornerstone of 'Leto & Ariadne' and what makes everything possible.

Why Leto & Ariadne?

The very short and simple answer is why not? If you care to delve a little deeper you will look back several years, and see a 26 year old man sitting in the staff canteen of a major London department store, brooding over the remains of a less than appetising lunch, and wondering where his life was going. Although the practice of bringing a sketchbook to lunch was yielding few results of any worth I doggedly continued. Designs descended into random sketches, and then doodles. Finally, after a verbal wrestling bout with a customer who would not accept the fact that they could not have a refund if they had left their product on the train, I sat down and began to write. Perhaps inspired by the book of Greek myths and legends I had been reading on the bus that week I wrote the names 'Leto & Ariadne' in the centre of the page. A weight suddenly lifted, the lightbulb had come on. The words staring back from the page felt as if they had meaning and were a way to a better way of living. A chance to create something from nothing. A chance to design and, although it took several years to find a direction and realise what these words were leading me to, they have now become a collection of woven fabrics that I can feel proud of. The name of a label where products are made with care and attention to quality. Perhaps I am simply reacting to the trend of cheap disposable fashion that you wear for a season and then throw away, but I have long held the belief that it is better to own one thing which is well crafted and will last, than 100 things that are simply going to fall apart. That is what 'Leto & Ariadne' is for me.