Weaving Textiles That Shape Themselves sounds like a contradiction in terms, but this book sets out to show how textiles can do precisely that: shape themselves. Weaving with high-twist yarns and contrasting materials can create fabrics with lively textures and elastic properties. Although these fabrics are flat on the loom, they are transformed by washing - water releases the energy of the different yarns and the fabrics 'organize themselves' into crinkled or pleated textures.

Ann Richards trained and worked as a biologist, before going on to study woven textiles at West Surrey College of Art & Design where she later worked as a lecturer. Her background in biology has strongly influenced her textile work, which often draws on form and function in nature. Her work has been exhibited widely, both in the UK and abroad. In 1989 she won First Prize (MITI Award) at the 4th International Textile Design Contest in Tokyo. Over the past twenty years she has lectured and given workshops in the UK and elsewhere, including Europe, Canada and the USA.