Peter Collingwood was the pre-eminent British artist weaver of the past 50 years. His technical and aesthetic innovations have been appreciated around the world, most notably in his Macrogauze wall-hangings, in which his traditional skill and visual abstraction work in perfect harmony. A master craftsman and the author of several works on weaving, his work as a teacher and his generous spirit had a profound and lasting impact on generations of students.
Collingwood wrote five highly influential books of which the first, Techniques of Rug Weaving (1968), is probably the best known. His personal favourite - and the one that gives the most insight into his inquiring mind - is The Maker's Hand (1988), in which he analyses, with diagrams and photo-graphs, 100 woven structures from around the world.