Deborah White, (PhD Researcher)

My experience as a designer and weaver of linen damask spans twenty-seven years, after having graduated from Ulster University with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Fashion and Textile Design in 1994. I was visiting Lecturer in Woven Textile Design at Ulster University for several years before I took up a full-time position as a Hand-Loom Linen Damask Weaver at The Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum. Working alongside Ireland’s last traditional Master linen damask weaver, John McAtasney, I honed my skills amidst an internationally important linen collection, and had the wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the craft to visitors from across the globe. My works have been presented to dignitaries and institutions, from HRH Prince Andrew to The Wallace Collection, London (on permanent display in its library in Hertford House). Privately, I have undertaken commissions for the President of Ireland, President Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu, and The Ulster Scots Agency, whereby I was commissioned to design and weave the Ulster Tartan for Dr Clifford Smyth’s publication ‘Titanic Tartan’. Advising The National Trust at Wellbrook on hand-loom weaving, and in 2019 receiving The Professional Development Award from The Textile Society, UK. That same year saw me win The Heritage Crafts Association’s Endangered Crafts Award plus The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers Award. 

My career path has taken a new turn, having been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council/ Northern Bridge Consortium PhD Scholarship to study Irish damask based at the Ulster Doctoral College.

I have had the honour of presenting a paper at the Linen Damask In Its Historical Context Colloquium at The Abegg-Stiftung in Switzerland, the world’s leading pioneer in textile research. 

An avid and passionate cultural historian with a love for traditional vernacular heritage and fieldwork, and the history and stories of the people whose lives it touched. The arts and their encouragement have long underpinned my work as a weaver. I have endeavoured to engage people with the craft, from collaborating with Kids Own CREATE at Ballydown Primary, creating a woven triptych based on binary coding, to teaching Fine Artist Damien Magee how to weave cassette tape, encouraging him to submit his piece to the Linen Bienalle, which was subsequently exhibited and thereafter purchased by the Arts Council Northern Ireland in 2019. For me, weaving is so much more than a craft. It is entwined in the story of Ulster and her people. A story that we should celebrate. 

The Thomas Damman Jr Memorial Trust Award

HEA Associate Fellowship