Diane and Jim Gaffney

TEXTILE TECHNIQUES started in 1983 when we met in Singapore, where we were both working. During our years there, we made frequent visits to many countries in South East Asia. We particularly fell in love with Java and its rich and varied culture. We also discovered the wonderful textiles of the region including batik, the wax resist cloth which is the pride of Java's rich textile tradition.

When we returned to England, we began to sell many of the textiles and other crafts we had collected, at fleamarkets around the north of England. At this time, few people had heard of batik. As a consequence, we were commissioned by the Liverpool Museum to research and collect for an exhibition. This featured cloth from all over Java and even included a series of batik pictures which had been made to illustrate various birth control methods for a family planning clinic!

Since that time, our business has grown - as has the awareness of batik in this country. We run a full schedule of illustrated talks on textile techniques and traditions, to all sorts of groups, as well as conducting practical workshops on batik using authentic Javanese tools. We are now based at our shop, Textile Traders in the beautiful border town of Bishop's Castle in Shropshire, and supply batik equipment by mail order to schools, colleges and artists, and continue to sell our textiles at many shows around the country.

We go back to Indonesia and Thailand every year to buy and ship all our stock personally. It is of the utmost importance that we know where and how the things we sell are made, and that the people who produce the goods are paid fairly for their work. It also allows us to ensure that the textiles we buy are the best quality. Most of the people we deal with are in small family businesses and have over the years become close and valued friends.