Curriculum vitae
Senior Surface Designer — woven, print and colour
Ten years turning archive research and hand drawing into repeats that survive the move from sample loom to full production run.
01 — Profile
I design surfaces that a mill can actually make. My work starts in archives and sketchbooks, then moves quickly into repeat, colourway and technical file, so the studio and the factory are reading the same document.
I am happiest on collections where drawing, yarn choice and costing have to be decided together, and I like being the person who keeps that conversation honest between design, sampling and production.
Focus
02 — Experience
Three positions across a commercial weaving house, a print studio and a small mill.
2022 — Present
Fold & Flax Textiles · Remote, UK
2019 — 2022
Halcyon Weaving Co. · Hybrid
2016 — 2019
Marlow Mill Studio · On site
03 — Selected work
A six-cloth upholstery family built from quarry-face photographs. Slub and flat yarns were paired so one construction could carry a whole tonal range instead of splitting into separate qualities.
A hand-drawn botanical repeat scaled for tall contract walls. Three pass-heights were tested on site before the drop was locked, which kept the drawing legible at room distance.
An internal index of the studio's cloth archive: every sample photographed, tagged by construction, fibre and dye route, and cross-referenced to the season it shipped in. It began as a personal notebook and is now how the team answers "have we made something like this before" in minutes rather than an afternoon in the sample room.
04 — Capabilities
05 — Education
Final year specialised in woven construction, with a dissertation on reading mill archives as design briefs.
Natural dye residency on indigo vat management, plus ongoing study in digital colour management and contract textile performance standards.
06 — Contact
I am happy to talk through a collection brief, a stalled repeat, or a colour approval process that keeps slipping. A short note about the work is the best place to start.
studio@marissehalloway.example
Full portfolio, sample images and references shared on request.