Annie Garnett: The Alchemy of Colour

Discover the work of pioneering textile designer and entrepreneur Annie Garnett, a key figure in the British Arts & Crafts Movement.  

The Alchemy of Colour explores Garnett’s mastery of colour, featuring embroidered and woven textiles produced at her Windemere-based workshop, The Spinnery. 

Taking inspiration from flora cultivated in her cottage garden and the Lakeland landscape surrounding her home, Garnett worked with Staffordshire dye maker George Wardle to produce vibrant plant-based dyes that would recreate the colours she saw. 

The exhibition will feature newly commissioned work by Jacqui Symons of Slow Lane Studio, a Manchester based artist, to recreate these natural dye processes, replicating the colours within Garnett’s designs. These will sit alongside materials from Lakeland Arts’ Annie Garnett Collection and Archive, including rarely seen photographs, watercolours and letters, as well as hand-drawn plans of the garden from which Garnett drew so much inspiration.