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Job: Assistant Professor with a Focus on Weaving | Rhode Island School of Design. USA

21 October 2021 General / Jobs
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The Department of Textiles in the Division of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, invites applications for a full-time faculty appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor with a focus on weaving to begin fall 2022.

The Textile Department seeks candidates with an extensive understanding of woven structure and its potential for two and three-dimensional work who can teach a range of courses in the weaving area including hand and digital weaving technologies. Candidates should demonstrate expertise in their field and professional work that shows a high level of proficiency, commitment to the ongoing evolution of the textile field, and active engagement with contemporary art and culture. The ideal candidate will support students interested in pursuing weaving for fine arts work, as well as fashion and interior/architectural applications. Candidates whose creative practice and/or teaching centers on works and bodies of knowledge from historically underrepresented communities will be prioritized.

Rhode Island School of Design is an undergraduate and graduate college of art and design with approximately 2,400 graduate and undergraduate students. RISD supports faculty professional practice with sabbaticals, pre-critical review leave, conference funds, and professional development grants. RISD has a critical review process, which is very similar to the tenure process. For more information about RISD

One of RISD’s founding departments, the internationally renowned Textile program instructs students in the concept, method and practice of textile art and design. The department has approximately 100 undergraduate and 12 graduate students, 4 full time and 12 -15 part-time faculty offering a two-year MFA degree and a four-year BFA degree. The curriculum hones artistic identity through visual and material research built upon a foundation of strong technical skills, and emphasizes a thorough understanding and integration of process, structure, material and technique. The faculty support the development of students as artists and designers who energize the field through personal vision and understanding of the larger artistic, cultural and social contexts of the discipline. The department is committed to anti-racist pedagogy and curriculum and is working towards realizing this with the RISD Textile Department Anti-Racist Commitment and Plan of Action. Continue reading →

Identity Launch: ReWeave | Here Design | London Craft Week

6 October 2021 Artist Profile / Company Profile / Events / Exhibitions / General / Lecture / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Weave Designer Profile
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ReWeave: Textile Waste Transformed

ReWeave is a novel approach to exploring how fabric waste can be transformed into design-led woven textiles on an industrial scale to meet the increasing demand for circularity in designing fashion and textiles.

Led by textile designer Kirsty McDougall, ReWeave is a Hastings-based design studio specialising in woven textiles and product, and supported by the BFTT. The project intends to develop a viable business model for a more circular approach to design and fabrication, and to analyse the environmental impact of repurposing fabrics at an industrial scale.

By exploring new models of textile design, ReWeave aspires to serve as a blueprint for ideas about reuse and repurposing for manufacturers and brands, spearheading industry change.

ReWeave will be at the Hoxton Gallery to launch their new identity created by Here and Kirsty will talk about the processes and ideas behind ReWeave and their collaboration.

Event: Sat 9th Oct 2021
Time: 11.30 – 12.30
Venue: Hoxton Gallery, 17 Marlow Workshops, Arnold Circus, Shoreditch. London E2 7JN
What3words: extend.union.motor
Tickets: To book event click here

Instagram:
@re_weave_
@heredesign

With thanks to ReWeave & Here for text and images

Exhibition: Craft by Residency | An immersive showcase for London Craft Week 2021

6 October 2021 Artist Profile / Company Profile / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments
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This London Craft Week (4th-10th October), innovative, pop-up retail solution, Residency, plays home to 14 talented makers who will showcase a plethora of crafts and the processes behind them. Craft by Residency is featuring a vibrant curation from Future Icons, and an exhibition debut from marbling artist and designer, NAT MAKS, the space will be transformed into an interactive and immersive showcase that celebrates the technical skill and technique as much as the finished product.

Marble wallpaper artist, NAT MAKS, founded by Natascha Maksimovic, will be unveiling her new Marble Tapestry. Made using wallpaper offcuts, Maksimovic breathes new life into her designs to create a spectacular wall hanging. Maksimovic will also be showcasing her recently launched Metamorphosis collection, a range of 3D fashion garments formed from marbled paper that pay homage to the ancient craft of Suminagashi.

On the Marble Tapestry, NAT MAKS says: “Taking my responsibility further as a print maker, I have found it impossible to throw away my marbled wallpaper off-cuts. In order to celebrate these pieces and reduce my production waste, I have created these curated Tapestry wall pieces. Each one is unique and celebrates the hidden pieces of my art that would usually have been discarded.”

Following acclaimed showcases at the Burlington Arcade and Oxo Tower Wharf, Future Icons presents the work of 13 of its makers spanning a range of disciplines from ceramics to embroidery, to intricate metal and enamel projects to a range of textile and leather based artworks. Continue reading →

Event: London Craft Week

6 October 2021 Courses / Events / Exhibitions / General / Lecture / New weave developments / News / Workshops
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London Craft Week (LCW) returns for its seventh edition with a curated programme of events across the capital, showcasing exceptional craftsmanship and creativity from emerging and celebrated makers. This represents LCW’s most ambitious, wide-ranging festival to date, featuring over 380 events, more than 450 makers and over 240 partner organisations.

From heritage crafts to immersive experiences to pioneering practices using the latest materials and technology, LCW celebrates the art of making and champions the talent, skill and stories of both independent makers and behind leading luxury brands. With workshops, tours, tastings, pop-up stores and unique exhibitions over seven days, visitors are invited to engage with extraordinary craftsmanship from London and beyond, with 31 countries represented in this year’s programme.

Spanning the fields of art, design, craft, luxury, fashion, food and beauty, the festival will highlight how the pandemic has been a catalyst for creative development and new collaborations, spotlight innovative sustainable practices and showcase unique, collectable pieces that enrich our lives and homes.

London Craft Week runs from 4th-10th Oct 2021
You can find the programme of events by clicking here

With thanks to LCW organisers for text and images

Event: British Textile Biennial 21

5 October 2021 Events / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Workshops
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British Textile Biennial 2021 returns this year with new artist commissions, exhibitions and performances presented against the backdrop of the impressive infrastructure of the cotton industry in Pennine Lancashire. The Biennial runs from the 1st – 31st Oct 2021

This October, BTB21 turns its attention to the global nature of textiles and the relationships they create, both historically and now, with a major new commission by Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid, fashion historian Amber Butchart as guest curator, a groundbreaking and  sustainable fashion project with designer Patrick Grant and a collaboration with artist James Fox and actor Maxine Peake. The final element of the programme is announced with C.P. Company Cinquanta, a retrospective of the Italian Sportswear company’s 50th anniversary.

In line with celebrations for the brand’s 50th anniversary, C.P. Company will be taking part in the British Textile Biennial 2021 programme, presenting a retrospective dedicated to five decades of Italian Sportswear, and Massimo Osti’s lasting legacy. Taking place in Darwen, Lancashire, from 1 – 10 October, the display will feature exclusive C.P. Company archive pieces from throughout the label’s illustrious history.

An arrangement of activities will run alongside this exhibition, including student workshops and panel talks, which will include speakers from the brand, as well as respected names in sportswear and casual culture.

With an abiding interest in the history of textiles within both an African and European context, Turner Prize winner, Lubaina Himid will present a major new work responding to the Gawthorpe Textile Collection in Burnley, exploring the histories of industrialisation, female labour, migration and globalisation in the Great Barn at Gawthorpe Hall.

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Exhibition | Symposium : Thread

29 September 2021 Artist Profile / Events / Exhibitions / General / News / Symposium
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Thread is the gathering of four artists from different cultures and lived experiences sharing common ground; an overwhelming interest in the very stuff of textile practice, of lives lived in and through the literal and metaphoric language of thread. Their work is shown at the Elysium Gallery and is curated by Angela Maddox , Anne Jordan and Lorna Hamilton-Brown

Each artist recognising the potential of one drawn out, spun out, teased out fibre – in both singular and multiple forms – to perform as storyteller, witness, soothsayer, and to be simultaneously capable of healing and harm.

A thread twisted and plied with others, passed through the eye of a needle, the shed of a loom, the tip of a hook, slipped from twinned needles. The wrapped, pieced, tangled, bound, plied, woven, folded, stretched, torn, printed, hooked, knitted, unravelled, stitched, unpicked, blocked, eased, and dyed. All of this.

The thread of stories and narratives, of myths and constructed truths, of obsession, violence, and celebration. Threads worn at and through the body. All life is to be found in a thread.

Thread is an imperative, an instruction. Its practices of joining, increasing, and attaching are ones of expansion and growth. This Thread, and its gathered together fabric, its tales of objects and making, is a hopeful thing. It marks an emerging and new language of textile practice. Continue reading →

Talks | Journeying: Weavers – Ismini Samanidou & Fadhel Mourali

28 September 2021 Exhibitions / General / Lecture
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The first of a season of Europe House Talks organised by the European Parliament’s office in London featuring leading writers and artists discussing issues of contemporary interest with a European focus.

The discussion will be chaired by Tanya Harrod, who writes on art, craft and design, and touches upon the importance of roots and the possibility of new freedoms acquired when one journeys away. This event anticipates London Craft Week, from 4-10 October 2021 at various venues around London.

The Artists

Fadhel Mourali is a hand weaver and textile artist with roots in Sweden and Tunisia who seeks to re-contextualise the universal values of handicraft in a contemporary context. He recently graduated from Central St Martins.

As a hand weaver, he is intrigued by re-contextualising traditional handicrafts to explore their contemporary meaning.

Coming from a mixed background, with roots in both Sweden and Tunisia, Fadhel is intrigued by identity and finding that certain place of longing in his work. Working in between theory and practice, he explores storytelling through tactility in the hope to reach the core of a subject, to fully understand a medium or narrative.

Fadhel is driven to keep discovering the possibilities of material processes and how to translate them visually to create new meanings and concepts. Through in-depth research studies, he aims to investigate, question and develop these notions through techniques that can express contemporary narratives and functions.

Ismini Samanidou was the first weaver-in-residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. Born in Athens, her practice crosses the boundaries of art, craft and design with work developed for exhibitions, industry collaborations and site specific commissions. She works with weaving, drawing and photography.
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Job Opportunity: Dash + Miller | Studio Manager and Woven Designer Maternity Cover Role

23 September 2021 General / Jobs
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Dash + Miller studio regularly works with trend agencies, fashion houses, fabric manufacturers, sportswear brands, automotive companies, lifestyle brands, editors and contract suppliers to inform and inspire the creation of beautiful fabrics. Their hand-crafted approach to industrial design combines with their breadth of experience to provide relevant and unique design-work.

The Maternity Cover Role is to commence in November 2021 under a part-time fixed-term contract (24 per week). Salary £20,000 pro-rata

They are looking for a creative, innovative and technically confident woven textile designer with meticulous attention to detail, and experience in both handloom weaving and CAD design. As a Woven Designer, the successful applicant will work closely with clients and other members of the team to deliver projects within tight timescales. The ability to assume the aesthetic identity of both the studio and a wide range of clients is essential. The candidate should be able to handle multiple client projects at once, while also contributing to their internal R&D projects and portfolio of designs.

As Studio Manager, this role requires excellent organisation and communication skills to oversee the smooth day to day running of the studio. Multitasking, maintaining existing systems and introducing new ones where necessary, the successful candidate will be able to effectively plan and prioritise. The ability to self-motivate and work independently as well as in a team is essential.

A thorough grasp of the technical elements of weaving and woven fabrics is needed to support the design and administrative elements of this role. These skills are vital for accurate, relevant sample development as well as enabling clear communication with clients, suppliers, and subcontractors. A real passion for hand-weaving and woven design is essential for this opportunity to contribute to a small, but growing creative business.
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Basketry : Rhythm, Renewal & Reinvention

16 September 2021 Exhibitions / General / New weave developments
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“Basketry: Rhythm, Renewal & Reinvention is a visual slice across contemporary UK basket making. There are some 35 makers spilling over all three galleries at Ruthin Craft Centre. The exhibition shows what is being made today – and by whom – across basketry’s beautiful variety of shapes, materials and weaves.” Jane Audas, August 2021

Amanda Fielding, then Curator of the Craft Council Collection, wrote in 1999 for an exhibition titled Interwoven: Objects, Baskets, Forms “as the full title of this exhibition suggests, the term basket is too constraining to describe the plethora of objects to find their way under its umbrella…… there is more to contemporary baskets than orthodox containers and ways of making.” Now some two decades on Basketry: Rhythm, Renewal & Reinvention continues and updates that trajectory of investigation to promote and extend the understanding and appreciation of contemporary basketry.

Basketry is a broad church of intelligent diversity; from the meticulous observance of ancient lore to ‘out-there’ iconoclastic revolutionary forms that challenge both materiality and function. There are of course those who make beautifully woven contemporary vessels informed by the rhythm of tradition; the seasonal pattern of the growth of materials, harvesting and making. Of these some techniques are steeped in history of specific use, others are renewed and adapted for today. While some use and reinvent technique as a springboard to push boundaries and celebrate innovation. Continue reading →

Drawing With Threads: Royal Academy

1 September 2021 General / New weave developments / Weave Designer Profile / Workshops
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Join the Royal Academy for a weekend-long weaving course, to reclaim the magic of making through a simultaneously universal and often-overlooked artform.

Taking inspiration from self-taught artists and visceral art making practices – themes that RA Summer Exhibition Coordinator Yinka Shonibare RA will be exploring in this year’s show – artist and weaver Ismini Samanidou leads a course exploring the physicality of working with threads.

Over the weekend, using a small frame loom and threads from Ismini’s studio materials collection, you’ll choose and adapt images, as well as learning to develop a colour palette. You’ll focus on using colour, proportion and texture to develop ideas for a finished piece of work – an approach that is central to Ismini’s practice.

This workshop is part of the RA Summer Exhibition 2021 programme: Reclaiming Magic. Focusing on celebrating the work of historically marginalised and overlooked practitioners, this workshop will celebrate the artistic processes of traditional makers (very often women and people of colour), whose work is often deeply embedded in their cultural worlds.

Participants can bring their own visual references to work from, or will be able to choose from a selection of works relating to the Summer Exhibition and the RA’s permanent collection. Continue reading →

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