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Study Day: Marianne Straub | School of Textiles

11 September 2017 Courses / General / Reseach
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Marianne Straub: A Weaver’s Life

On Marianne’s birthday, the School of Textiles celebrate her incredible life with a special study session lead by one of her close friends and colleague, Mary Schoeser.

After an introductory talk on Marianne’s work, Mary will lead a special detailed study session on her personal and commissioned woven fabric samples.

After lunch, you will have the opportunity to learn more about Marianne’s contribution to industry through her extensive knowledge of woven structures, followed by further a study session using Marianne’s personal collection of world and historical textiles.

Venue: School of Textiles, Coggeshall
Date: Saturday 23rd September 2017
Time: 10am – 3pm
Price: £35.00

 

Weave Graduates 2017

9 September 2017 General / New weave developments / News
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The following Weave Designers all graduated in 2017.

This is a showcase of their final collections.

Izzie Bagwell

(Image above) Inspired by work wear and protective wear, I explored the ways in which specialist materials have been used to cover bodies that are at risk, for example soldiers and firefighters.

My designs use fabrics that are typically found in protective wear, such as padding, high visibility fabrics, neon, metals and rubber and the inclusion of text. Function//Fashion mixes new and old fibers and materials together to create hybrid pieces that reflect and acknowledge the history of protective wear.

As my research progressed I became interested in subverting ideas of clothing that is meant to protect the body and began to create faux protective wear in which style would triumph over substance. Workwear and uniforms are a constantly recurring trope of much recent fashion design, and I wanted to play with the idea of subverting and commenting on high fashion, which is aimed at and designed for elite consumers, by overlaying themes and fabrics from protective and work wear clothing onto ‘fashion’ pieces.

Perhaps thinking about recent world events and the possibility of this continuing in the future: if life in developed, capitalist countries becomes more dangerous, even for the elite, protective clothes will become not the sign of the worker, but the sign of the elite, of those that can afford ‘protection’.

email: ialbagwell@gmail.com

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Competition: Knockando Woolmill

7 September 2017 Competitions / Events / General
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Knockando Woolmill  launches their  New Designer Competition

Knockando Woolmill is proud to introduce their inaugural New Woven Textile Designer Award, seeking emerging talent from across the United Kingdom.

The competition aims to uncover the best of new textile design talent, inviting current students and recent graduates to submit innovative, contemporary designs that push boundaries.

The competition is open to entries from 30th August and closes at midnight on 30th September. 10 finalists will be chosen by a judging panel consisting of the team at the Mill, Anna Freemantle, director of the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival, and a guest judge (to be announced closer to the closing date of submission).

Anna Freemantle describes the competitions as:

“A hugely exciting opportunity for young and relevant creativity and innovation to be implemented into an old functioning mill and its traditional, existing design”

The winning design will be announced by a top, internationally recognised judging panel as part of this year’s Edinburgh International Fashion Festival (8-12 November 2017).

The winning design will then be produced commercially and sold with custom labelling featuring the designer’s name.

The competition is open to  current undergraduate and postgraduate students, and recent graduates of Fashion or Textile Design, provided they are not yet in full-time employment within the industry and graduated after January 2017.

For more details, and to find out how to enter

Weave Workshops: Line Nilsen | Georgia Fisher

6 September 2017 General / Workshops
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Weave Workshops: Line Nilsen

One day weave workshops held in the Weave Studio at Primary

Primary is an artist community with studio spaces and galleries in Nottingham,
Venue: 33 Seely Road, Nottingham, NG7 1NU
Dates: 22nd, 23rd September & 13th, 14th October 2017.
The workshop will allow participants to explore five different warps, set up on five separate looms, giving  the opportunity to practice a variety structures of weave and learn some of the unique properties of different fibres.

Upon arrival the looms will be ready and all set up for weaving, allowing for 6 hours learning about weaving and exchange ideas with the workshop group.

No extra equipment is needed for this workshop as everything is provided and included in the workshop price. Participants can also  bring some of their own yarns to experiment with.  Participants will be able to take away a minimum of five different woven samples, all mounted on a technical sheet for their textile library.

All levels are welcome from beginner to experienced weaver.

£60 per person 5 spaces available per workshop

Weave tutor for this workshop is textile designer and hand weaver – click on link to contact Line Nilsen

Due to limited availability all bookings are to be made in advance.

Weaving a Wall Hanging: Georgia Fisher
Venue: Heal’s, 196 Tottenham Court Road. London. W1T 7PJ
Date:   Sat 9 September 2017
Time:   13:00 – 16:00 Continue reading →

Dashing Tweeds: Collaboration with Joe Whitbread

5 September 2017 Awards / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News
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Dashing Tweeds  have worked with Joseph Whitbread in their first collaboration with a Royal College of Art student. The company has put one of his designs into production. 

An award winning student of Weaver, Kirsty McDougall – Joe’s final degree show was also chosen for a prestigious Texprint award and with his skilful designs he is definitely on the path to making a name for himself within the weaving industry.

Joseph is influenced by upbeat individuals the world over, from gregarious and colourfully plumed bee-eaters of Central Africa to the exotic stars of rock embodied by Bowie and Prince.

In addition his course work led to detailed analysis of the classic menswear tropes of the 20th century and the weave designs of cloths from the 1920’s and 30’s, especially William Watson’s influential book on colour and weave.

Dashing Tweeds saw Joseph’s work during a mid term assessment earlier this year and were very impressed by his sense of colour and the technical deflected double cloth lifting patterns he had devised.

The Dashing team then asked if he would like to produce a guest design to sit along side their AW17 fabric collections. Fortuitously their selected palette including oranges and turquoise blues in common with his inspirational bee-eaters. Continue reading →

Job: Account Manager | Stephen Walters & Sons Ltd

31 August 2017 General / Jobs
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Account Manager opportunity
Due to increased demand and business development Stephen Walters have a requirement to expand their busy sales team and appoint an additional Account Manager.

This exciting role involves working with creative people to grow sales. Please write to the company and tell them how you would do the above and what you could bring to their team.

Company profile
SWS is a sales division within the Walters group designing, marketing and selling woven fabrics, generally to high end international designer brands. Fabric is manufactured and woven on the Sudbury Silk Mills site in Suffolk.

The company is fully vertical, including fabric design, yarn dyeing, warping, weaving and finishing.

The role
The purpose of the role is to introduce and manage a portfolio of customer accounts to deliver a sales revenue target in line with our sales strategy.

The role is customer facing and forms the link between their customers and the mill and does include travel nationally and internationally.

The candidate
The successful candidate will have an understanding of the luxury fashion market with an affinity to creativity and design, and a desire to grow and develop new business.

A willingness to learn and understand our niche products, markets, processes and company vision is essential as well as excellent organisational and communication skills.

Proficiency in Microsoft Office productivity software and an ability to understand industry and company specific systems will be required.

Sales experience within textiles and a textile or fashion related degree would be desirable but not essential.

As they are a manufacturing company some experience of manufacturing and jacquard woven textile knowledge would be an advantage however they are committed to a full and thorough training program.

Hours of work: 8am – 5pm Monday to Friday (40 hours) with some additional travel.
Location: Sudbury, Suffolk.
Salary: Dependant on experience
Training: Necessary training provided.

Closing date for applications: 22nd September 2017 to

Apply to: sales@stephenwalters.co.uk

 

Exhibition: Madeleine Jude | One Warp, Infinite Designs

31 August 2017 Exhibitions / General / New weave developments
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One Warp, Infinite Designs: An exploration of block design and multishaft weaving

One warp, Infinite Designs showcases a three year project by London / Surrey based textile designer and weaver, Madeleine Jude, to take one warp threading and see how many designs and structures can be produced by experimenting with different tie-up and treadling possibilities.

The threading uses a block design initially developed to weave a twill damask version of her table linen design called Dukagang – woven using a Dukagang weave structure. The strongly geometric design is inspired by antique Scandinavian linen towels woven in this structure.

The versatility of this initial threading became a source of play and exploration of its potential for creating other designs. The result is a collection of boldly distinct designs.

The exhibition follows the progression of this project from its early iteration as dukagang table linen and kitchen textiles, to the lambswool throw that Madeleine Jude is best known for and includes a preview of her latest work created using new weave structures on the same block threading.

The Handweavers Studio is a fitting place to mount this exhibition as Madeleine Jude was one of the first intake of students to the 2011-13 Handweavers Studio Diploma.  Since then she has been building her studio and collection and teaching her weaving techniques in Denmark. Continue reading →

Texprint 2017: Weave Designers

25 August 2017 Awards / Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News
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Texprint interviews, mentors and promotes the UK’s most talented textile design graduates with the support of industry professionals worldwide.

Those selected are introduced to buyers, press and sponsors at the Texprint London event, and at Europe and Asia’s leading yarn and textile exhibitions.

Texprint is entirely funded by the generous sponsorship of industry and by British charitable foundations, who believe wholeheartedly in supporting textile design talent and in encouraging design innovation and excellence.

The following Weave Designers were selected for 2017, and their work can be seen at Première Vision Designs, Paris, Europe’s leading textile design specialty show, where the designers will exhibit their unique textile design collections, meet international buyers and make contacts.

The Texprint Awards Presentation, promoting the talent of British-trained textile designers to an international audience, takes place in the Texprint ‘village’ in Hall 5 and is attended by industry guests and press.  The 2017 Prize Presenter in Paris will be star Japanese designer Yuma Koshino.:

Julia Lidell ( Top image)
The Hen Folk Dress Collection. Hen is a new Swedish word referring to he or she. This is used when the gender is unknown or has no significance for the comunicated message.

Hen Collection is a lifestyle collection, made applicable to gender neutral fashion and accessories, as well as interiors.

The collection explores both heavy and light designs that celebrate the potential of wool and natural materials. Research into the wider heritage of Scandinavia: garments and ships from the viking age, folk dress and craft techniques that are still used today, has inspired a multi-functional collection. This collection is inspired by objects that hold a history and traditional Scandinavian craft techniques as a tool for contemporary design.

I have a wide passion for crafts and materials. Textiles have always been an interest of mine, previous to my woven textiles degree in London, I studied tailoring and design for three years at college in Sweden. Textiles has become my specialism but I have a wide interest for many different crafts, ceramics, silversmithing, embroidery. The key for me is the authenticity of materials and the value of old craft technique.The last year I have been focussing on creating delicate but heavily textured contemporary woven designs, with a high wool content in earthy grounded colours, inspired by objects that hold a history, and by traditional techniques.

E:julia.lidell@gmail.com

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Jobs: The Bristol Weaving Mill

13 July 2017 General / Jobs
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The Bristol Weaving Mill is looking for two full-time weave design/textile graduates to join their growing team. A Sales and Design and a Production and Technical role.

Both positions are for immediate start.
Location: Bristol
Salary: £18,000 PA starting wage.
Submission deadline: 2pm Friday 14th July 2017.

Sales & Design Role
The Bristol Weaving Mill are looking for a confident and driven sales person with a solid technical understanding of weaving and excellent design skills to help us establish, nurture, and maintain client relationships for The Bristol Weaving Mill through pro-active and responsive communication and design development.

This job will involve working closely and strategically on sales, building upon the existing client database for the Bristol Weaving Mill. Each of their client relationships is based on offering a service catered to their individual needs, with most of the customers seeking not only the small-batch and locally managed production capabilities of the mill, but also looking to them to provide input and direction creatively, offering technical advice where necessary.

The creative and technical elements of this role are essential to the main sales element.

Responsibilities:
– Maintaining communications with existing clients remotely, via phone and email;
– Managing client lists and contacts;
– Meeting with existing and new clients in-house and on sales visits;
– Identifying and targeting new potential clients in the UK and worldwide;
– Co-ordinating the aesthetic development of client projects through trend research and hand- weaving trials;
– Product development for our own branded fabric and products through CAD and hand- weaving;
– Working with the production team at The Bristol Weaving Mill to be able to inform clients about the viability, scope, and limitations of their proposed projects and the different options open to them for any given project;
– Communicating pricing and lead time information to clients;
– Contributing to the development of our in-house fabric collection including personal design
input of trends and hand-loom swatches. Requirements:
– A BA degree in Textiles (specialised in woven constructed fabrics);
– Confident hand-weaver (practical and technical);
– Professional and diverse creative portfolio;
– Excellent interpersonal skills;
– Sales experience preferred but not essential;
– Adobe Suite and Microsoft Office;
– Full UK drivers licence.
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New Designers: The Swedish School of Textiles Borås | Weavers

13 July 2017 Exhibitions / General / New weave developments
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Agata Ciechomska holds a Master of Fine Arts in Textile Design from The Swedish School of Textiles. Her work explores colour perception in relation to material, colour and light through
weaving and hand-tufting.

Color in Loops
Exploring colour perception in relation to light in weaving and handtufting technique

The motivation for this work is based on the challenge to the preconception of handtufting through material, colour and light. When imagining a rug, a very specific image appears in our mind. Some details of that image could vary from person to person, but what is almost certain, dense and heavy, probably made out of wool, woven textile will pop up in front of our eyes.

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