Five questions for Emma Collins.

My work is rooted in curiosity and material exploration, redefining textiles through a balance of tactility, function and sustainability.

Specialising in natural fibres and natural, renewable materials such as leather, cotton, and wool, I explore their structural and sensory potential to create refined, lasting textiles.

With an emphasis on craftsmanship and responsible production, I develop materials that enhance interior spaces through texture, comfort, and understated simplicity.

By focusing on intentional design, I create surfaces that are both functional and sensorial - designed to be lived in and made to last.

• Which textile tradition or technique from your heritage do you feel holds untapped potential for shaping a regenerative future? How could it inspire or transform contemporary practices?

My heritage is deeply rooted in wool, yarn, and weaving — even though I’m not a weaver myself, the legacy of Harris Tweed and the cultural significance of tartan are central to my background. I find the idea that each kilt was individually woven for a specific clan incredibly powerful — it speaks to a deep connection between identity, community, and material.

These traditions offer a model for slow, intentional production where textiles are made to hold meaning and last generations. In a time of overproduction and disconnection from materials, I believe this mindset has huge potential to shape more regenerative, human-centred approaches in contemporary practice.

• As you engage with textiles during this residency, what personal or ancestral threads are you reconnecting with? How do they influence your current creative direction?

I’ve been reconnecting with the idea of textiles as storytelling tools — a thread that runs through both my personal upbringing and cultural background. Working with natural fibres and experimenting with process-based making has brought me closer to ancestral practices rooted in instinct and environment.

This is now pushing my creative direction toward more intuitive, tactile work — pieces that hold memory and material narrative as central to their function.

• How has working alongside artists and thinkers from other disciplines influenced the way you approach material, form, and narrative in your textile work?

It’s made me more open to uncertainty and experimentation. Seeing how others build narratives, especially from non-textile disciplines, has helped me move beyond technical mastery and focus on the why behind the material choices.

I’ve started allowing the process to speak more — letting the material shape the story, rather than forcing a concept onto it. It’s also challenged me to question what makes something complete or resolved in textile terms.

• Are there textile-related habits, production systems, or aesthetics that you believe no longer serve us? What new patterns—conceptual or literal—are you weaving in their place?

Mass production aesthetics, seasonal turnover, and visual perfectionism no longer feel relevant.

These systems often detach the maker from the material and the user from the story.

I’m working towards a more transparent aesthetic — where signs of making, mending, and experimentation are visible and embraced. I’m also interested in how waste materials can be re-contextualised through care, offering not only new aesthetics but also new values.

• If you could imagine a textile ecosystem based on circularity, care, and community, what would it look like? What role would your practice play in sustaining it?

It would be local, intergenerational, and process-led.

A space where people share materials, tools, time, and stories — and where the pace is governed by rhythm and reciprocity rather than deadlines.

My role would be as both a maker and facilitator: translating material knowledge into collective action, and making the invisible labour behind textiles more visible and valued.

I’d want to create work that acts as both resource and reflection — something people learn from and live with.

EMMA COLLINS

Connect via IG: ectextiles

Pictures by Emma Collins @ectextiles