Ethel Mairet RDI
Birth Date: 1872
Death Date: 1952
Ethel Mairet was self-taught as a weaver, spinner and dyer. During the 1930s and 1940s she trained people in weaving and dyeing at her Gospels studio in Ditchling. Mairet's training is said to have influenced all the handweavers of that generation, including Hilary Bourne, Valentine KilBride, Elizabeth Peacock, Petra Gill and Peter Collingwood. Marianne Straub worked with Mairet.
Mairet was a member of both the Red Rose Guild of Craftsmen and the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and she was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Society of Arts title of Royal Designer for Industry in 1937.
She published 'A Book on Vegetable Dyes' in 1916 and 'Hand-weaving To-day, Traditions and Changes' in 1939.