When you think of weaving, I’m sure images of Sleeping Beauty come to mind. Dark towers and spinning needles and treacherous curses that… wait, I’m getting off track. Basically weaving and modern-day art aren’t two realms that seem to cross over in the minds of many. But for Rainie from The Unusual Pear, the world of weaving is a vast one with ultimately limitless possibilities.
As a natural creative, it’s almost as though Rainie was just waiting for the right moment, and the right craft, to find a home for her yet-to-be-created artwork. “I have always been really creative. Even from a young age I’ve never been able to sit still without doing something with my hands. When you’re making things you’re being productive. You’re not just using your hands…it’s so much more than that.”
But why weaving? It is 2020 after all, so the long and the short answer is of course – Instagram. “I was scrolling on Instagram, just looking at different feeds and different weaving profiles and posts kept popping up. I just hadn’t seen art in that form before, or at least I’d just never really noticed it and I felt this sudden desire to find out more about it.”
As a natural creative,
it’s almost as though Rainie was just waiting for the right moment, and the right craft, to find a home for her yet-to-be-created artwork.
Photography: Lee Illfield
Like other creative pursuits that can easily be self-taught through a series of YouTube videos or borrowed books and manuals, in the early days of Rainie’s process, there wasn’t a lot of modern method to the madness. “It took me a couple of weeks before I learned how to weave. I wanted to just get a little bit of an idea but there were no real resources on how to actually do it. There was next to nothing available online! The only resource I found, came from a friend’s mum who had three books from the ’70s. That was really the start of everything for me.”
Rainie’s work and her boundless creativity has put her, and weaving as a modern-day practice, on the map. You only need to take one look at her designs to see why. Rainie specialises in creating wall hangings and lifestyle decor, and her yarn art for kids (rainbows, hearts, mandalas) are especially divine.
Rainie’s work isn’t dominated by dark and broody and dusty tapestry-esque colours, or heavy designs straight out of a textbook. Her work is bright and inviting and shows beautiful elements of the limitless nature of creativity. Think lilac and dusty pink, and that beautiful shade of blue that makes you dream of endless days by the ocean. Most importantly it’s very (very) instagramable.
There was next to nothing available online! The only resource I found, came from a friend’s mum who had three books from the ’70s. That was really the start of everything for me.
“Weaving does look a lot more difficult than it really is. There are only a few techniques that you need to know in order to be able to create different things. What it really comes down to is your imagination, which is what I really love about it.” After of course many workshops and many hours of dedicated practice, Rainie’s work evolved into stunning works of art and will most definitely change the way you look and think about weaving. “What you see is really a lot of me, I was just trying to put in a bit of myself and what I like into my work rather than trying to recreate things that are already out there.”
So, where does The Unusual Pear fit in to all of this? “One of the final projects for an interior design course that I was studying was to come up with a business name… a few thoughts were bouncing around. My husband is creative as well and at the time I thought that we would make that business ours, so I wanted a name that could be really fluid across a lot of different ideas. My husband and I, – we’re a little bit unusual and we’re a bit of an unusual pair… or pear in this case.”
It was the fluidity of the original business model, Rainie’s creative drive and passion for the craft, and simply the way her innovative brain works, that helped the business to flourish. It then took a surprising turn in the form of helping others hone their craft. Rainie went on to design, create, manufacture and sell her own weaving supplies, which have revolutionised both the popularity and accessibility of weaving. This particular side of the business grew organically and quickly. “People would start asking me what I was using or where I got my equipment from, which then turned into people asking if they could buy my supplies. That’s really how it all started.”
Rainie’s work and her boundless creativity has put her, and weaving as a modern-day practice, on the map. You only need to take one look at her designs to see why.
Her looms and other equipment have all been designed with ease in mind and blend modern practice with traditional weaving techniques. “The reason I developed my products is because at the time there was nothing like that available,” says Rainie. And she hasn’t stopped there. She’s even written a book – The Woven Home – which I can assure you is a very welcome update from the original 1970s material that kicked off Rainie’s journey. Not enough? The best news is that Rainie runs workshops from her home studio as well as private lessons for some extra one-on-one help for special projects. If the hands-on approach isn’t necessarily up your alley, never fear, Rainie will happily custom design a weave and commission a design to add a splash of woven wonder to your walls.
Sure, before this article, you may never have heard of weaving. You might have gone your whole life without ever really knowing or caring what a loom is, or how to hand spin your own yarn but… surely, now that you’ve taken even the tiniest peep into the wonderful world of weaving, you’re unusually curious and ready to get creating.
