Weaving demonstrations and activities – summer 2017

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Weaving Demonstration for Cotswold AONB Rural Skills at Sheep and Wool Day, Northleach.

In the next couple of months I will be taking a loom or two to the following shows.

I will be demonstrating weaving and where it is feasible I will have equipment setup ready for visitors to have a go at weaving.

The Cotswold Show held on Saturday and Sunday, July 1st and 2nd in Cirencester. I will be in the Rural Crafts area as a guest of the Northleach Spinners and Weavers.

The Stow Cotswold Festival held on Saturday 15th July in Stow on the Wold, with Cotswold AONB Rural Skills.

Also as a new tutor for New Brewery Arts, Cirencester, I will be assisting on their stand at the Contemporary Craft Festival this weekend in Bovey Tracey, Devon. The Festival runs from Friday 9th June to Sunday 11th June, I will be there on Saturday.

Woven design in British Wool submitted to the Bradford Textile Society Competition 2017

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Detail of design submitted to the Bradford Textile Society Competition 2017

Using the specified wool yarns, I developed a design suited to a light soft furnishing application. The wool was supplied in very dark brown, creamy white and a ‘marl’ (being the brown and white twisted together). I wanted to use these natural fleece colours in the main but chose to add a little colour by dyeing the white and the marl yarns with cochineal and indigo natural dyes. These were used sparingly in both warp and weft.

The design had a border of a zig-zag pattern, this would be a feature around the edges of a cushion.

For more images, see here.

Exploring weaving with a Rigid Heddle and Back-strap

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In recent months I have been kept busy with requests to teach weave workshops using this simple loom.

The wonderful things about this form of weaving are:
The equipment is very ‘low tech’ and inexpensive if you want to buy your own.
It is very portable so you can weave anywhere, inside or outside, standing or sitting.
I can have absolute beginners weaving within a very short space of time, both children and adults.
You can weave cloth in a ‘conventional’ form or weave an ‘art piece’ incorporating all manner of materials.
I have taught 2 groups of 14, A Level Textiles students at Cirencester College in a morning; a knowledgeable group of 11 from the Gloucestershire Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers and one-to-one with students in my studio.

I now teach on a regular basis at The Bothy at Vanessa Arbuthnott in Cirencester, Prema Arts in Uley and Cotswold AONB Rural Skills in Northleach (where my next day workshop is on Friday 28 April 2017). Check their respective websites for dates, availability and booking. If you send me an email and I will add you to my mailing list and I’ll let you know new course dates.

Echo of Our Fathers with photographer Chris Boulton

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Just after Christmas, Cotswolds based photographer Chris Boulton visited my weave studio in Calmsden near Cirencester, to capture images of me and my working environment for his ongoing project titled ECHO OF OUR FATHERS. He intends to produce a book and stage an exhibition of the images he has created; portraits of artisans whose practice embraces heritage craft skills. These beautiful atmospheric images are now on his website, please follow this link

Reproduced with kind permission of Chris Boulton,

 

Selected for Cotswolds Inspired Exhibition

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I made two submissions for the Cotswolds Inspired Art Exhibition and both have been selected for the show to be held at The Corinium Museum in Cirencester this month.

The Exhibition is to celebrate the culmination of the 50th Anniversary year of the Cotswolds being designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The open call to artists and craftsmen, was to create pieces in any media, inspired by any aspect of the Cotswolds AONB.

My designs made with the wool from British rare breed sheep, were developed and hand-woven on a wooden treadle loom in my studio. The wool was the catalyst for these designs; a friend gave me a large quantity of wool yarn she had laboriously hand-spun and dyed in an assortment of green tones with an interestingly uneven texture.

I decided on using the cloth for cushions; perhaps not for a posh sofa but more for a rustic kitchen and taken out into the garden on a beautiful day.

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