How did you fall in love with weaving?

I fell in love with weaving through my mother, who was a lover of beautiful textiles and admired their stories from all over the world. 

What techniques do you use in production?

In my workshop, we manufacture mainly hand-woven textiles, with the traditional weaving of the manjaks, from master weavers of Casamance in southern Senegal or Guinea-Bissau. The specificity of this technique is that it requires the complicity of two men … it is a job that is passed from father to son.

Is there any meaning in the colours, patterns and techniques you use?

Hand weaving is a language on its own, specially when it combines aesthetic, modernity and ancestral technique. Weaving is the extension of the soul of the weaver – his energy will be shown through his know-how. From the rhythm he weaves and the colours he uses. Here, in Senegal, pagne tissé, as we usually call it, is a protection against evils spirits. In the original form, it protects you, from birth to death.

Are there any future projects we can watch for?

As the transmission of skills is so important to me – I am already sharing my knowledge with women throughout Senegal – I would very much like to be able to contribute to the opening of a training centre for trades related to textiles, weaving, embroidery, fashion design and modelling. Creativity is amazing in Senegal and West Africa, and its true value really deserves to shine.

For more, page through your November Livingspace.