Profile: Robyn Brown-Burke – Only Natural Design Competitions

Robyn Brown-Burke

National College of Art and Design

I'm Robyn, an Irish woven textile designer based between Dublin and Meath, graduating in June 2025 with a BA in Textiles and Surface design. My practice centres on creating meaningful textiles, fabrics that carry intention, celebrate natural processes and invite connection. Working primarily with natural fibres and botanical dyes, I focus on sustainable, small-batch production. I source many of my dye materials from native Irish Ogham trees, using their bark, leaves, and berries to create a natural palette. Each colour is a reflection of the Ogham alphabet heritage and folklore, weaving narrative and ancestral connection into the fabric itself. My work blends traditional craft with contemporary design, drawing inspiration from the Irish landscape, its tones, rhythms and textures. I’m drawn to tactile surfaces, exploiting the fibres, earthy colour stories and woven forms that bring warmth and depth into interior spaces. Looking ahead, I hope to continue developing my studio practice, collaborate with like-minded makers and share my love of natural dyeing and weaving through workshops for both adults and children.

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Roots of Ogham

Category: Interior

Competitions: Home Competition 2025

Roots of Ogham is a homeware textile collection inspired by the ancient Irish Ogham tree alphabet, an early script where each letter corresponds to a native tree. This projct reflects that sacred system, where language, landscape, and ancestral knowledge are deeply interwoven. Rooted in hand-weaving, the collection explores how textiles can carry heritage while nurturing regenerative, sustainable futures. Using natural fibres such as wool, linen, and cotton, I collaborated with my environment, foraging locally from Ogham trees to create a palette shaped by place. Oak bark, rowan and birch leaves, hawthorn berries, and alder cones became the source of natural dyes, while undyed yarns offered contrast and harmony. Weaving techniques such as extra weft, floats, and double cloth allowed me to sculpt tactile, three-dimensional surfaces that hold story and presence. Roots of Ogham honours Ireland’s ancient language through fibre, offering a grounded narrative that is lived, felt and eventually returned back to the earth.