Kate began weaving in 1993 and was immediately taken with the process of turning yarn into beautiful scarves, shawls, and clothing. She weaves with silk, merino wool and linen and dyes her own yarn, using natural dyes almost exclusively. Everything she produces is one of a kind.

In between weaving projects, Kate also designs and makes simple garments out of silk fabric. Her fabric is hand dyed and incorporates surface design techniques such as printing, resist dyeing, embroidery, cloque and devore.
 
Kate Barber designs are available for sale at retail stores in Vancouver, British Columbia and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Handwoven cloth by nature veers towards the horizontal and vertical, following the intersecting warps and wefts. Kate enjoys exploring ways to create interesting cloth that breaks free from this grid.  For several years she has altered the surface texture of her handwoven cloth by weaving with yarns that react differently in the finishing process, causing the cloth to move, bump and fold into irregular shapes and lines.

In her most recent work she has applied the surface design technique of devore to her handwoven cloth. The beauty of combining devore with handweaving is that interesting designs can be created from a very simple woven cloth.

Kate often asks herself "what if?" and looks for ways to push the boundaries and experiment with new techniques. Sometimes the results are wonderfully surprising and lead her down a new road. Stay posted!