The Thread That Started It All
The Weaver is a six-storey community mural on Ilford Lane, commissioned by the London Borough of Redbridge in 2025.
It celebrates women, textiles, and the multicultural heritage of East London and became the mural that transformed my practice. What began as a local public art project evolved into the first piece in my Myths & Legends mural series, exploring storytelling, identity, and connection through paint.
The Weaver, Ilford Lane, London Borough of Redbridge (2025) featuring the artist
Photo © Street Art Atlas / @streetartatlas
It was day one, in the pouring rain, with the basket of the cherry picker tilting and blue paint splashing five stories down the tarmac on Ilford Lane, while I gripped the railings waiting for the engineer to call back and tell me I wasn’t about to topple over on the very first day my very first large-scale public art commission in London, and I thought… you’ve fooled yourself into thinking you’re ready.
It was day eight, 30 ft in the air and three days deep into painting fabric that seemed to go on forever when the lift started leaking oil and I thought… why have I done this to myself!
It was day twelve at 9 a.m. when street-art photographer Street Art Atlas arrived to take final shots before the lift was collected, but the varnish I’d been painting since 6.30 a.m. in the freezing cold hadn’t dried yet and I thought… this is never gonna end.
And it was a sunny day in Ilford, final day + 2, when we were taking the last photographs, and I heard a young girl stop her mother on the street, point up to my mural and say, “Mummy, she looks like you.”
And I knew… this is why I did it.
!!This is why it was all worth it!!
When I took on the challenge of painting The Weaver mural in Redbridge, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I didn’t know it was going to change so much.
From Portraits to Public Art: Finding My Voice as a Mural Artist in London
I feel sometimes like I trick my future self into awkward situations just to force myself to grow. And then I stand there on tired legs cursing and thanking my past self for being such a bitch!
I knew I had to grow in 2025, to step up, and to do that I had to paint big. Redbridge Council contacted me about a community mural celebrating women, textiles and diversity in Ilford. I thought, this is perfect! A nice middle-of-the-road commission that should cover a month’s rent, done and dusted.
But on the day we went walking down Ilford Lane scouting walls, past-Shauna had a moment of bravery. They’d offered me a cute little gable end in an estate, probably my biggest so far. But behind it I could see a hero, a six-storey tower block facing the main road, and I chanced my arm and asked for it. They said they hadn’t the budget for that, but I’d fallen in love. I said I’d make it work. I wanted to prove myself, to see if I could handle something on that scale. And once I started painting, something shifted.
Midway through painting The Weaver mural on Ilford Lane, London Borough of Redbridge.
Photo © Street Art Atlas / @streetartatlas
Researching Weaving and Textile Heritage in Ilford
It’s a strange sort of madness how quickly you adjust to massive changes in your life, and it still surprises me that I only started painting professionally in 2023! Those first two years I scrambled, taking any job I could, and my ‘practice’ only really consisted of painting pretty faces, trying to figure out how to tackle a portrait.
The Weaver had a few months’ lead-in, so I finally had time to research Ilford’s textile history and the stories of weaving in East London. I’d trained under Patricio Forrester of Artmongers at the London School of Muralism. His approach centred on participation and community co-design, and I wanted to understand how that could live inside my own work.
Discovering Myths and Legends Through Muralism
Through that research, I fell down a myths-and-legends rabbit hole. I was entranced by the fact that different versions of the same story appear again and again across the world.
In Greek legend Athena turns Arachne into a spider for out-weaving her.
In Ashanti folklore Nana and Nana Mwau learn weaving from a spider and create Kente cloth.
In Chinese myth the star-crossed lover Zhi Nü weaves seamless robes for her father from the clouds.
In Finland, sister goddesses Kuutar and Päivätär weave magical clothing from the moon and sun.
It dawned on me that I didn’t need to tell just one story of one place, because these stories are universal yet hyper-local. Each culture has its own version, and so could Ilford.
So I invited the community to gather and share their stories through fabric, a participatory art workshop that became the foundation of the mural’s design. We collaged sample books from around the world alongside special pieces people brought in themselves. I wove these together and staged my own photograph with Ilford local and make-up artist Anna Jahan, who lent saris from her mother in Bangladesh for the composition.
Challenges and Growing Pains on The Weaver Mural
I won’t lie; it was a tough paint. But it felt more like the aches you get after a good workout than the pain from a fall. These were growing pains, signs that something new was happening.
There’s nothing worse than messing up and thinking, what fool planned this? Me!
It was my oversight, my stress, my inexperience. You can’t blame your boss when you’re self-employed. But it’s amazing the strength you find when you believe in something and when people are cheering you on.
The Mural Diary: Behind the Scenes of a Street-Art Process
And that cheering was one of the best parts of this project, I started my first mural diary. I hate social media and felt an eejit recording myself, but sharing all the ups and downs made painting easier. Every time I completely messed something up, I’d think, at least this will make a good story.
Every small disaster felt lighter because I wasn’t doing it alone.
I had lovely people on my phone behind me, the local Ilford community around me, and good friends, some old, some new, supporting me along the way.
It felt like a metamorphosis, a coming-of-age moment for my practice.
And after that first rainy day the sun shone for two weeks straight, which was a miracle!
When I came out the other side, I’d almost forgotten that there was once a version of me who didn’t realise how much I cared about myths and legends and folklore and fairy stories that are the building blocks of all our lives. It was just so obvious.
The Finished Piece and What The Weaver Means
Street-art photographer Faye Chillingworth (AKA Street Art Atlas) captured an amazing shot on the last day of painting as I added the gold thread, the line that symbolises intertwined narratives, the stories that hold us all together.
Every person who looks up at the mural has their own story, their own history, culture, and hopes. This piece is theirs now, part of their own mythology.
The Weaver mural on Ilford Lane is a piece of public art that celebrates diversity, community and storytelling through paint. She is universal. She is hyper-local. She is innately personal.
She is particularly special for a little girl who sees a vision of her mother six stories tall.
Photo © Street Art Atlas / @streetartatlas
The Weaver now stands as the first part of my ongoing Myths & Legends series, a collection of community murals across Europe that weave together local identity and universal myth.
If you’d like to learn more or discuss a community mural project, get in touch via my contact page
Commissioned by Redbridge Council and supported by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Project Management by Wood Street Walls
Model: Anna Jahan
Photography by Street Art Atlas
Varnish sponsored by Polyvine