Weaver Jacob Monk reimagines ikat

While watching the movie Black Panther, weaver Jacob Monk – a Crafts Council Directory member – found himself more taken by the lavish outfits inspired by pan-African textile cultures than by the Hollywood superhero story. ‘I just loved those costumes and their brilliant colours,’ he says. The outcome of his cinema trip was Shuri, an abstract ikat wall piece named after the fictional princess of Wakanda. Its colours are unexpected and vibrant: mustard yellow fades into purple, punctuated with dashes of scarlet. Colour is a key focus for the weaver, who is steadily making a name for himself with his peacock-hued ikat pieces. These were due to be seen at London’s Clerkenwell Design Week, before the pandemic placed such plans on pause.

From rich jewel tones – emerald green, amethyst purple and ruby red – to the cooler blues he is exploring when we meet, Monk is a man obsessed. However, there’s one hue you won’t find in his workshop at Deptford’s Cockpit Arts. ‘As much as I am influenced by the traditional technique of ikat, I don’t want to follow it, so I steer clear of indigo, that deep blue you associate with it.’ Ikat weaving – found across Asia, Africa and Latin America – appears in many guises, all of which share a technique: binding and resist-dyeing the warp yarns before weaving, creating its pleasingly blurred gradations of colour. ‘Ikat is used to make lightweight silks for garments like saris and kimonos, but I wanted to use it for something different,’ Monk says, ‘so I experimented with framing the fabrics.’

The result? A kaleidoscope of vivid wall pieces that emphasise the texture of the wools and viscose yarns he favours. ‘You get a certain amount of imperfection with hand-dyeing and weaving,’ he says. ‘You can plan it, but the element of unpredictability and surprise is exciting.’ Lockdown has prevented Monk from working in the studio. ‘Instead, I’ve been experimenting at home with weaving paper – it’s been giving me lots of fresh design ideas. I want to start making rugs too.’

After studying textile design at Central Saint Martins on a scholarship from the Worshipful Company of Weavers, Monk was selected to take part in TexSelect, a competition for the UK’s best graduates, with an exhibition at Prèmiere Vision in Paris. Working in wool won him an award from the Woolmark Company, which led to showing at Intertextile Shanghai and then to an internship at a fabric mill in Como, Italy.

This rise was built in part on the strength of his innovative Technical Skin collection: he combined materials including Kevlar, reflective yarns and porcupine quills to create fabrics with inbuilt protective qualities. ‘I was making very exciting experimental fabric for fashion, but I struggled to find a place for my style. There are a lot of restrictions in the fashion industry, within manufacturing.’ From a side project to demonstrate Monk’s skill with colour, ikat became an overwhelming passion project. Now at Cockpit Arts on another scholarship – this time from The Clothworkers’ Foundation – his focus is primarily on weaving wall works.

‘What subconsciously might have sparked this was visiting the Natural History Museum and seeing the most amazing, unusual patterns and colour combinations,’ he reflects. Many of his pieces derive from studying the natural world: Pink Princess takes its colour cues – raspberry pinks and deep greens – from a philodendron of the same name. Likewise, Ruby Topaz is named for a vivid hummingbird species, characterised by its red, orange and black coat; and Grey Minivet for a bird feathered in more sober greys and oranges.

It’s not all about nature, though. He cites the work of fellow ikat weavers Ptolemy Mann and Mary Restieaux as inspiration, while his series of Pride pieces take the gay pride flag as their starting point, the rainbow stripes rendered in a subtler, prismatic form: less loud, yet still celebratory. With Pride cancelled due to coronavirus, Monk is in a philosophical mood. ‘It’s a shame, but I do think that being stuck inside and then all of the protests happening have been great for reminding us of the original meaning of Pride and its roots in the Stonewall uprising. I think next year’s will be quite different.’

For Annie Warburton, CEO of Cockpit Arts, it’s Monk’s playful mix of cultural influences that make him stand out. ‘It’s this upbeat energy, rooted in a really strong skillset. His work takes a contemporary fine art direction yet looks great in an interior design context.’ Despite the uncertainty of our current times, Monk is optimistic: ‘It isn’t the best time to be starting a business, but it was always going to be a risk. Being a maker is never the safe choice and that adds to the excitement.’