THE late Canberra weaver, Fay Skyring, has been honoured with the naming of the new Faye Skyring Canberra Textile Works Gallery.

The naming by Arts Minister Tara Cheyne and Skyring’s widower Graham, took place alongside the opening of the Canberra Spinners and Weavers’ annual exhibition, ”Warped and Twisted”  (surely Canberra’s best-named show), on Saturday (June 4).

A lively crowd of admirers and former colleagues and students packed into the premises in the Chifley Health and Wellbeing Hub (old Chifley Primary School) to hear Cheyne speak about the   remarkable career of Skyring, who died in August at the age of 87.

Those present heard of her commitment to the broader arts in Canberra, notably dance, and the fame that had followed her engagement by the late Romaldo Giurgola and Pamille Berg to produce handwoven fabric for upholstery in the prime minister’s suite, the leader of the opposition’s suite, and the speaker’s suite in the new Parliament House.

She was eventually commissioned to reproduce the fabric three times, completing an extraordinary 650 metres in total.

Graham Skyring, a retired scientist, spoke of their “love at first sight” meeting in Brisbane when Faye was a young commercial photographer, their years in Canada with their three small children, their return to Australia and Canberra in 1970 and her graduation from a small loom set up on the dining table to the huge looms on which she was able to execute  her many major commissions.

“Warped and Twisted” continues at 70 Maclaurin Crescent, Chifley, until June 12.