Weftfaced: Caron Penney and Katharine Swailes

Weftfaced is a small artist led atelier in the heart of Sussex keeping the craft of hand woven tapestry and textiles thriving. Run by artists and master weavers Caron Penney and Katharine Swailes and established in 2013, the workshop has been making tapestries to commission for artists from British abstract painter, Gillian Ayres RA to the artist and musician Martin Creed. The atelier stands for quality, individuality and exquisitely crafted textiles which offer longevity and uniqueness.

Eleven years ago in 2015 we first exhibited their work. They had left the West Dean Tapestry studio just a few years earlier to take the brave step to be independent weavers as Weftfaced.

At that time both artists responded to the streetscape and structures of New York. The exhibition included a woven installation in the gallery window through which visitors could see the works on show.

Now in 2026 their work has developed into their idiosyncratic styles that we now know them for:

Text based for Caron Penney and colour-field landscape based works and more structured pieces by Katharine Swailes.

Weftfaced has a background in the arts, contemporary and traditional textiles, while sharing a special interest in the fine arts. Penney trained at Middlesex University and coupled this with twenty years experience at the West Dean Tapestry Studio, concluding her tenure with four years as the Studio Director and laterally as a consultant. While Swailes love of construction is central to her textile practices firstly in historic costume for film and theatre with the costumiers Cosprop. Moving on to study tapestry at West Dean College followed by research and commission based weaving in the professional studio.