Woven Textile Designer and Educator Laura Thomas has been running a Weaving Activity in the MakerShack at Cheltenham Science Festival and I’ve popped in a few times to lend another pair of weaving hands. The MakerShack has on average 1000 visitors each day, to have a go at a wide offering of both ‘techno’ and traditional making crafts. Children and Adults who had never woven before, were weaving their own mini masterpieces within minutes on little weaving frames.

Raw Talent is a biennial exhibition at New Brewery Arts in Cirencester showcasing the very best work produced by the students and tutors of our extensive education and participation courses and workshops.

Exhibition dates: Saturday 26th May – Sunday 17th June.

I will be exhibiting a long foot stool upholstered in my hand-woven British Wool cloth.

 

 

JANUARY 2018

Friday 12th , 9.30am to 12.30 and/or 1.30 to 4.30pm

Half day weave practice session primarily for students who have done my Introduction to Weaving workshops or are not absolute beginners. Wide range of equipment and materials available for you to experiment with or bring your own. Held at my studio at The Tallet, Calmsden. £22.50. Please send me an email/message to reserve a place as limited to 4 at each session.

Saturday 20th

Day Course ‘Introduction to Weaving‘ in The Bothy at Vanessa Arbuthnott, 12 Ashcroft Road, Cirencester. GL7 1QX. For information and booking please go to The Bothy website or phone the shop on 01285 831437.

Friday 26th

Day Workshop “Introduction to Weaving‘ for Lechlade Craft Barn at Lechlade-on-Thames, GL7 3DL. For information and to book please go to http://lechladecraftbarn.com

 

Cushions from my Cotswolds Inspired collection were snapped by Interior Designer Nicole Hood, on the Country Life / British Wool stand at Decorex International 2017; a show which is “internationally renowned for being the destination where interior design professionals discover the finest and most coveted luxury products from new, emerging and established talent” (www.decorex.com)

To see her blog post “7 ways to brighten up your home this winter”, go here

I designed the fabric for these cushions using hand-spun and dyed British Wool from rare breed sheep. The cloth was woven by hand, sufficient for only 3 of each pattern/colour combination. These designs are available (while stocks last) directly from Rebecca Connolly Design or through my only outlet, Vanessa Arbuthnott Fabrics

On Wednesday I arrived at Baker Street, London, to run a weave workshop for The Campaign for Wool as part of their Wool Fusion event. I was chuffed to see my name in the big list of contributors on the outside of the venue!  Thanks to Thomas B Ramsden for providing the British Wool yarn used by the workshop participants to explore weaving.

This “stunning collection of photography surrounded by fashion, flooring, fabrics, furnishing and film” is beautiful, colourful, inspiring and thought-provoking too! It’s on for a couple more days so try and visit.

I have been invited by British Wool and The Campaign for Wool to take part in their showcase event in Baker Street, London for this years ‘Wool Week’. I will be running a free weave workshop, bookable through Eventbrite.

At the end of the 4 day show, I wove with wool dyed orange from Dahlia flowers to finish off, just before disassembling the loom.

The two-tone warp in grey British Herdwick Sheep’s wool, produced three versions of the design I had planned prior to the show, and I will continue to sample creating new versions now the loom is back in the studio.

My aim was to sample with the same yarns in the weft, changing the height of the blocks as they increased in width across the cloth. However the change in the pattern within the blocks was visually too subtle, so by changing the number, thickness and colour of threads in each weft pass/pick I created three versions, the definition improving each time.

My designs often originate from the properties of the wool I am challenged to work with. Hand-weaving with this Herdwick wool, resulted in a fabric I can see being used on large floor cushions in a rustic kitchen or outdoor room.