After a fully booked class on the first Weaving Day workshop I ran for Prema Arts Centre in Uley, Nr Stroud in Gloucestershire, they have invited me back to run a weekly evening class over 4 weeks. For further information and to book, please contact them directly.
Category: British Wool
Woven design in British Wool 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
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.
Weaving Courses at the Bothy
A new venture … in October I will be running my own weaving courses at ‘The Bothy‘, which is a fab “creative space” next door to Vanessa Arbuthnott’s shop in Cirencester. Please spread the word, it would be lovely for this to be a success so classes could run on a regular basis.
Cotswolds Living Landscape Festival
I will be demonstrating hand-weaving on a floor loom, using British Wool, at the Cotswolds Living Landscape Festival on Sunday 18th September. This event has been organised by Cotswolds AONB in conjunction with The National Trust and is held at NT Lodge Park, running from 10.30 to 4pm.
Cotswold AONB Sheep and Wool Day 2016
The Cotswold AONB’s 2nd Sheep and Wool Day took place at their Visitors Centre in Northleach on Bank Holiday Monday. I was invited, along with my folding floor loom, to demonstrate the craft of weaving.
Local groups and businesses supported the event, bringing spinning wheels, home grown wool yarn and of course some Cotswold Sheep. To showcase local wools, I warped my loom with Lleyn from Abbey Home Farm’s flock and wove with Cotswold from Adam Henson’s Cotswold Farm
Always popular with children (and adults too), I brought a little loom so they could do some weaving which they could take home. The loom of choice for beginners, the rigid heddle and back-strap, was warped up ready to weave and many visitors had a go, amazing themselves at how good their weaving was!
I will be leading one of the Cotswold AONB’s 50th Anniversary Weekend Creative Courses in June, which will include weaving and natural dyeing.
Bradford Textile Society Design Competition 2016 – Award Winners Ceremony and Exhibition
I travelled up to Bradford with friend and fellow Bath Spa University Alumni, Rosie Smith, for the Bradford Textile Society Design Awards on 6th May. Entering the annual competition for the first time as Independent Designers, we both received a Commendation for our woven designs in British Wool.
In my designs I used wool from different sheep breeds in a range of thicknesses to weave fabric for ‘throws’ in two weights. The colours developed from working with a variety of natural yellow, red and grey dyes which I extracted from plant (or other) substances, layering one over another.
The samples were woven in my studio, by hand (and feet!) on my restored old wooden floor loom.
More information and images here
rebecca connolly design 