Profile
Hello, my name is Carole Burke and I live in a small village in Wales in the county of Ceredigion near the west coast, in red kite country. It is very beautiful and peaceful here, an ideal place to pursue a traditional craft. This picture is the view from my window. I live here with my dear husband Shane who is a great help and support.
I started weaving in 1980 and have found creating rugs and other products to be a great source of pleasure. I hope you will like my products. Each one is different and unique.
My aim is to produce hand woven products that are of good quality, practical and a pleasure to look at. I take a long time to make each item and finish off each piece carefully. I use traditional crafts and variations on simple traditional patterns, including Celtic art in my hand knotted rugs.
My weaving loom is a Danish Lervad loom made of beech. It is a floor loom operated by foot pedals (a bit like playing an organ) leaving the hands free to pass the shuttles through the spaces in the warp. See also the rug making page for a description of weaving. I love my loom - I love using it to create woven products and it is a nice looking piece of equipment even when it is empty and waiting for the next project to begin.
I made the brightly coloured gilet I am wearing using the same technique I use to make hand-knotted rugs and shaggy (rya) rugs and the fleece wall-hanging in the background of this picture.
I admire the late Peter Collingwood, Master Weaver. His inspirational book, The Techniques of Rug Weaving, is an essential guide. Other weavers I admire are listed in my links page.
In recent years I have concentrated on designing hand knotted rugs using Celtic art symbols such as the endless knot motif. These rugs take a long time to make but it is well worth the effort. The page
rug making gives more detail.
My rugs are on display in craft shops in Ceredigion, in New Quay and Aberaeron.