Betty Briand

Born in 1964, I grew up in Deux-Sèvres, France. From my childhood, I was sensitized to textile by my grandmother, peasant and thread “hacker”.

To have fun, Grandma Denise once asked Papi Ferdinand to build me a wooden frame, a rudimentary loom.

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My interest in weaving is born from these moments of transmission and tenderness. It will never fail.

In the 80s, I was a farmer and started to organize, in parallel, weaving, spinning, vegetable dyeing, making ropes for children …

Besides, I had children, four boys.

Then I moved to Chinon and installed at home a workshop where there is one, then two, then three looms, with four, then eight, then sixteen frames …

My training

The meeting in 2006 with Erica de Ruiter, a trainer of international renown, was decisive. I was passionate and decided to improve myself.

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I set up my technical library, exchange a lot with French and foreign weavers and attend courses every year.

I make many samples allowing me to search, play with colors, threads, materials and experiment with the most complex “armor”.

I discover, then affirm, and soon created my own weavings.

The flourishing

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By a self-taught approach supported by regular trainings, I come to master the most sophisticated techniques and methods of the art of weaving.

The craft chain, carefully designed, imposes the frame. The passage of the shuttle then releases the creativity, according to the chosen frames, without limit.

Mixes, researches, joyful games of experimentation: a little technique to go beyond technique and create freely.

A rigorous and almost mathematical framework to serve the poetry of textile compositions.

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In weaving, the multiplicity of fibers, the variety of colors, the infinity of the armor lead us to reveal the timeless modernity of the tissues.

I develop over the years my own philosophy of weaving to make it an art of living.

I choose to become not a weaver but a teacher : the transmission to share this joy of creation, this magical moment of the birth of a fabric where thought and hands work together, where the look is as important as the touch, where the interweaving of know-how is at the service of the beautiful and the useful.

Betty Briand ARTissage

8, rue des Marais – 37500 CHINON – + 33 (0)6 24 97 29 28 – Mail : artissage@laposte.net