Gilbert and Wendy KilBride tell Annabel Hughes about their life making exquisit silk garments.

Silk cloth hand woven in a Monmouthshire workshop is made up into unique ecclesiastical garments which are worn and displayed all over the world.

Recent commissions for Gilbert and Wendy KilBride have ranged from the gold enthronement robe for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams - a gift from the people of Wales - to a habit for a hermit monk in Ireland!

The KilBrides have been working together since 1985, specialising in the making of copes, chasubles, stoles and altar frontals. Examples of their magnificent pieces may be seen in churches, monasteries and cathedrals in England, Scotland and Wales, Australia, France, Italy and the USA.

Gilbert learnt silk weaving from his father John Valentine (Val) KilBride and still uses his 1880 hand loom. Wendy is responsible for the intricate hand-stitching of the vestments and also makes church banners and repairs ancient vestments, frontals and banners. Both agree 'it's not so much a job as a way of life'.

Gilbert said: "My father's first commercial venture was to weave 70 yards of silk to make habits for the monks on Caldey Island (off the Pembrokeshire coast). "He set up his loom there, in the old priory above the dairy. And that's how he met my mother, who was a dairymaid on her father's farm. They were married on the island."

In 1926 Val KilBride joined the Guild of St Joseph and Dominic in Ditchling, Sussex, where he was an associate of Eric Gill, David Jones, Hilary Pepler, George Maxwell, Edward Johnson and Frank Brangwyn. He became a world-wide influence on the design of ecclesiastical garments, emphasising the importance of the beauty of the woven fabric rather than the embroidered adornment. "My father used to buy silk from a country where, in keeping with Buddhist beliefs, each cocoon would be opened to let out the moth before the silk was gathered!"

Silk worms take three months to spin a cocoon, producing a thread about a mile long.

The spun silk used by the KilBrides is about 60 thicknesses of thread. Gilbert worked for his father until he was in his 20s, then went to sea.

But even as a sea captain he carried on silk weaving during his shore leave and, after his father's death, took over the business in Sussex before moving to South Wales in 1983.

Initially the workshop was at Tredegar House in Newport. Then he and Wendy moved to a farmhouse on the Llanover Estate where a neighbouring barn was specially adapted for their needs.

More recently, with the family grown up, the couple have taken on a small cottage at Upper Llanover. Their new workshop is a converted cow barn just a few steps from the front door. "We're the only people in the UK making vestments from start to finish," said Gilbert. "Raw silk comes from various sources but mainly China, South America and Australia.

It's spun in Switzerland and we buy it in one kilo cones from dealers in Bradford. "Our first task is turning it into skeins using a winder. We then wash it in pure soap to remove the serica, which is a natural gum used by the silk worm to seal the cocoon. "The skeins are sent to my sister for dyeing and returned here to be woven and made up into garments. "Our work is very individual in the sense that the emphasis is on the cloth and the way it hangs when you wear it so you get a beautiful garment that lasts for years. We use two different shades of thread to give the cloth more 'life'."

Gilbert weaves the silk to a finished width of 150cm, allowing a chasuble or cope to be made with a minimum of seams.

Setting up the loom takes two weeks. Once in operation it weaves one and a half yards of cloth a day.

The woven silk is soaked in hot soft water and stretched on a traditional tenter frame in the garden to dry. Finally it is ironed to bring out the lustre. The silk is then ready for cutting and making up.

Orphreys to adorn the simple, hand woven silk are produced on a 'braid' loom in the workshop.

Copes worn by archbishops, bishops and abbots are made up in five colours - red, green, purple, gold and white. Particular colours are associated with different events in the church calendar such as Advent, Lent, Christmas and Easter. "We always recognise my father's work and our own. We were once commissioned to make a vestment for Chartres Cathedral, as a gift from the cathedral in Chichester - its twin town. "Years later, when we were taking our son to university in Toulouse, we visited Chartres Cathedral to see the famous blue stained glass windows. We joined the congregation for Mass and, to our complete surprise, the priest appeared wearing the vestment we had made!"

Vestments made by the KilBrides have also adorned cathedrals and parish churches in New York, Chicago, Washington, Brisbane, Westminster, Salisbury and Ely.

Church banners designed and made by Wendy KilBride can be found in far flung locations too. One recent commission was a banner for the Mothers' Union of Christ Church Parish in Barbados.

All the applique, embroidered lettering, figures and flowers are individually designed and worked by hand using pure silk thread and gold metal thread.

If you want to learn more about the KilBride's fascinating craft you can visit their workshop during an 'open weekend' on November 25, 26 and 27 (10.30am to 6pm daily).

Tea and coffee will be available and hand woven silk shawls, scarves and ties will be on sale. Admission is £1.