Chris Pegler

I studied art in school and learned the lifelong skill of sewing there. Following my first degree I enrolled on the Polytechnic Certificate in Craft Materials (specialism: Textiles) at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Cov Uni) and later studied art history with the OU. Work, life, family and the acquisition of a listed building, smallholding and sheep took over for thirty years.

A property with land, led to sheep keeping and spinning. I acquired my first wheel in 2011 after completing my PhD.
By 2015 following early retirement I was a trustee of the Association of Guilds of Weaving Spinning and Dyeing, convenor of the 2015 summer school (which led to many friendships with other fibre artists and becoming Programme Secretary for the Stratford upon Avon Guild of WSD for several years). I completed the challenging AGWSD Certificate of Achievement in Spinning in 2018, having learned how to spin fibres from flax to recycled bottles. I also dived into weaving (by now I had 8 wheels and 6 floor looms!) and during COVID took up machine knitting using vintage flatbed and circular machines.

In late 2019 my husband Steve Davies (printmaker) and I started to connect with local artists around Rugby. This led to setting up the Rugby Artists and Makers Network with Jenny Ball (silversmith) in 2021. Indirectly that led to us buying 'The Alex' in Feb 2022 and since then my own art has taken a back seat while I worked on setting up an arts centre in Rugby town. Now I finally have a studio and plans for this to be a fully working studio by NROS 2025.

It feels like a route into art and crafts with many detours. But now Rugby and the Alex feel like where I am meant to be. But where will it lead ...