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Deirdre Wood: Peter Collingwood Trust Award Winner 2013

interlocking rings_ Dierdre Wood LRUK weaver Deirdre Wood is this year’s winner of the Peter Collingwood Trust Prize for the most innovative loom based textile. Founded in memory of one of Britain’s most celebrated weavers, this national award was given in recognition of Deirdre’s unique and inventive circular weaving technique that she uses to create woven rings and discs.

Deirdre, who has lived and worked in Winchester for almost thirty years, works as a hand-weaver and dyer creating abstract architectural tapestries using silk, linen, cotton and wool. The new approach to weaving she has devised uses the contrasting properties of linen and silk to create rings and discs. Although the cloth is woven straight, it becomes dramatically curved when cut from the loom and treated by finishing processes.

Strip woven fabric has long been a fascination for Deirdre and on winning the Clothworker’s Travel Award from the Royal Society of Arts, while a student in 1996, she travelled to Mali, West Africa, to study Bogolanfini and indigo textiles produced by the Bamana and Dogon tribespeople. These cloths are strip-woven on simple back-strap looms.

Earlier this year Deirdre was one of three textile artists selected to represent the UK at the 14th Triennial of Tapestry in Poland. After her woven rings were exhibited at the Royal Society of Arts, London, they travelled to Poland where they are now displayed at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, until Nov. 3rd 2013. Deidre Wood website
Deirdre Wood portrait LR

Exhibitions: Modern Makers & Model:Making – Ptolemy Mann

Ptolemy Mann

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Ptolemy Mann
will  be showing as part of the exhibition Modern Makers at Chatsworth House this September. Curated by Sarah Griffin and presented by Sothebys, it’s a selling exhibition of contemporary applied art across several disciplines. Exhibitors were invited to make work in direct response to the house and its collection in some shape or form. After several visits Ptolemy created an installation of nine 250 x 70cm artworks called Chromatogenous  (meaning ‘to generate colour’). Dates: 18th September – 23rd December 2013

Each artwork represents a single colour (from left to right; Ultramarine : Aquamarine : Indigo) that is in some way significant within the house and textile archive at Chatsworth.

Each piece is an exploration of deep emotive colour and will be shown in sequence on a long wall within the New Gallery. More details can be seen here.

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Publication: Digital Jacquard Design – Julie Holyoke

Digital Jacquard Design AW 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Jacquard Design. For centuries, the creation of Jacquard cloth required the collaborative efforts of teams of designers and technicians working on vastly complex equipment. In the past three decades, developments in loom technology and CAD systems have made it possible for a single individual to design and produce this most challenging class of textiles.

Digital Jacquard Design presents a comprehensive introduction to the creation of weave patterning in the era of digitally piloted looms. It offers both aesthetic and technical training for students of figured weaving, covering the Jacquard medium in fantastic breadth and depth.

The book is an essential guide for all who create figured textiles with modern materials and tools, and provides the reader with a ‘digital’ key to access and employ the great textile traditions of the past.

Digital Jacquard Design examines the design process from end to end, progressing from visual analysis, sample analysis and weave-drafting methods, to figuring techniques and the selection and building of weaves. It provides a guide to converting traditional drafts to digital polychrome format, a design terminology and a weave glossary. The book concludes with a rich set of case studies to demonstrate ingenious and effective weave and design solutions.

Publication date Oct 10th 2013

Julie Holyoke  is a textile designer for hand loom and industrial production; she teaches CAD textile design in Italy at the Lisio Foundation and abroad.

Text: Bloomsbury Publishing

New Designers: Stephanie Rolph selects 5 weave designers

Stephanie Rolph was asked to select her 5 favourite weave designers at New Designers 2013. Stephanie recently  graduated from Central Saint Martins, BA (Hons) Textile Design and is about to commence an MA in Woven Textiles at The Royal College of Art

Aston Bradley

www.astonbradley.wordpress.com/
Aston’s collection, ‘Aqua Abyss’, was inspired by the reactive qualities of jellyfish, coral reefs and sea anemones. A refreshing take on sea-inspired projects, her work focused on creating fabrics that reacted to changing environments. Combing natural and synthetic reactive yarns in particular structures she was able to create a strong collection of weaves with a beautiful depth and movement created by the shrinking and stiffening of yarns.
Images: Aston Bradley

Anna Piper

 

An MA Design Innovation student at Nottingham Trent (completion Oct 2013), Anna’s collection focused on the process of woven textiles design and production for fashion. Her work is visually striking with strong geometric forms and a monochromatic colour scheme accented with a vivid red. Her work strives to create “single component garments” and through her research into doing this she has created a striking collection of technical fabrics that form a cross over between technical sports fabrics and woven heritage pieces. www.annapiper.net/#
Images: Anna Piper

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eTextiles Summer Camp: Priti Veja

eTextiles summer camp montage2 LowResIn July 2013 the eTextiles Summer Camp event took place in Paillard, France, generously hosted by Paillard Centre d’Art Contemporain & Résidence d’Artistes and meticulously organised by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson of Kobakant. The location of a French countryside village, in an old secluded 18th century paper mill was perfect for such an event.

This five day event bought together an international mix of some of the most involved and enthused e-textile practitioners working in areas such as design, art, research, professional industry, academia and computing. The full schedule consisted of a lot of e-textiles thinking, doing, making, talking and sharing, based around the theme of the event – ‘soft and slow e-textiles’. The focus was on making processes involving time intensive craft methods and hand making in collaboration with new technologies.

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Texprint Weavers 2013

The 2013 Texprint Weavers exhibited their work last week at Texprint London for a first view for press, sponsors, industry and supporters. The Designers will all be showing at Indigo/Premièr Vision, Paris from 17th – 19th Sept 2013.

The following five weave designers showed their work at the Texprint London.

Elizabeth Ashdown
Inspired by military and tudor embroidery and interlocking wires found in mechanical parts, Elizabeth Ashdowns’ woven and stitched textile collection incorporates a range of luxurious and unusual materials.

‘Stitched Connections’ is a collection of statement passmenterie trimmings that utilise  a fresh and contemporary colour palette to present a quirky and highly individual approach to an age-old craft.  She also designs a range of woven and switched textiles for both fashion and interiors

Website: http://www.elizabethashdown.co.uk/
Contact: Info@elizabethashdown.co.uk
Elizabeth graduated from Central Saint Martins, UAL. Ribbon images by the designer

 

Signe Rand Ebbesen
The inspiration for Signe’s graduate collection of woven fabrics is the colour shifts, the unpredictable structures, the glitter and the semi-translucent layering of minerals and crystals. She has sought to create textiles that change colour and pattern depending on the angle of light, movement and the draping.

The characteristics and aesthetics of treatments normally added to fabrics after production, like embroidery, foiling, embossing and waxing have been engineered into the weaving, to give a luxurious detailing.

Signe has used natural fibres like cashmere, silk and linen to give the fabrics good draping properties and woven synthetic materials like nylon and polyurethane on the top of the cloth to give a sculptural and unexpected surface. ”
Website: http://www.signerandebbesen.com/
Email: signe@signerandebbesen.com
Signe.ebbesen@network.rca.ac.uk
Signe graduated from The Royal College of Art.

 

 

Ffion Griffith
‘Unravelling the Welsh blanket’

With the aim of reviving and preserving Welsh weaving methods this collection reinterprets traditional techniques in an original way.

Studying historical textiles inspired the creative reinvigoration of Welsh double-cloth, honeycomb textures and classic striped designs. Correspondence with mill-owners set the challenge of adhering to the industry’s unchanged manufacturing capacities.

Championing the luxurious qualities of natural fibres influenced the choice of lambswool to create blankets of irresistible tactility. British woven Axeminster carpet is a celebration of a collaboration between traditional manufacturing and contemporary ideas. A range of digitally printed cotton furnishing velvet offers a combination of practicality and eye-catching design, which demonstrates the versatility of pattern application.

Focused on celebrating the wealth of Wales’ traditional manufacturing skills, the presentation of new captivating designs entrenched in historic poignancy will raise the profile of Wales’ woollen industry.

Blog: http://ffiongriffith.blogspot.co.uk/
Email: ffion_g@hotmail.co.uk
Ffion graduated from Cheslsea College of Arts and Design, UAL

Cherica Haye
Chericas collection is inspired by Savile Row opulence juxtaposed with crowd protest photography and group animal migration. She explores traditional/luxe yarns alongside less conventional materials such as horsehair and plastic.

Email: cherica.haye@network.rca.ac.uk
chericahaye.tumblr.com

Cherica graduated from the Royal College of Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taslima Sultana
Taslima Sultana designsTaslima’s work is inspired by the way insects and plants use their natural designs to attract and protect. From the use of colour, texture and pattern she has produced a vibrant textural collection designed for luxury interior accessories.

Email: tsultana@live.co.uk
Website: www.taslimasultana.co.uk
Taslima graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, UAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

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‘Weave’ symposium review: Stacey Harvey – Brown

Eleanor Pritchard‘Weave’ symposium Sat 11th May 2013
Stroud International Textile Festival

A weave symposium now seems to be an annual event at Select 2013 in Stroud, Glos and enthusiasm for it has not dipped if attendance was any judge. In fact, the event could have sold twice as many tickets if space had allowed, which is heartening for all connected with weave.

This year’s event was chaired by Philippa Brock, with speakers grouped in twos; Laura Thomas paired with Deidre Wood, Eleanor Pritchard with Tim Parry Williams, and Nadia-Ann Ricketts alongside Helga Matos with a final presentation from Philippa. Q&A sessions followed each pairing with a final session of questions to the entire speaker panel.

Laura Thomas, in common with the other speakers, is a portfolio weaver, mixing commission and personal work with industrial collaborations. A regular at the Select 2013 she talked about developments of her Loose Thread acrylic pieces from the original concept of capturing the beauty of unwoven warp effects in resin blocks to now including unwoven weave techniques, such as threads creating colour-and-weave effects, and clasped weft tapestry techniques turned 90o to create unwoven clasped warp ikat effects.

Laura has developed the work further to incorporate wall pieces mounted on barrel fixings to allow for the play of shadows on the wall behind her pieces. Through her public art commissions, the ideas behind the resin pieces have grown both larger and more complex, with both threads and fabric sandwiched between panes of glass, starting with a Museumaker project at The Beaney in Canterbury where Laura had a series of 3 internal windows to address which joined the old museum at The Beaney with its new development. This was the first time Laura had used glass for her work and has led to further collaborations with the glass company. Another public art commission was for the Cynon Valley Hospital where she created 9 panels of loose threads picking up the colours from the hospital’s way-finding scheme. A recent commission from Llanelli is for a glass canopy for the town centre, in which she has incorporated industrial fibres such as carbon thread, folded steel mesh, folded copper mesh (which give moiré effects) and light-reflective yarns. An older commission, to create a presentation gift for the Australian Cricket Board, incorporated narrow bands of double-sided fabric which were twisted within a curved resin shape informed by the spin of a cricket ball. This linked neatly with the following speaker, who also features narrow bands in her work. www.laurathomas.co.uk/
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Yolke: a new company using UK weave manufacturers

YOLKE_DB-6974Launching this week, a new label Yolke.

Yolke is the brainchild of weave designer Heloise Ringner  and interior designer Anna Williamson. The label ensures all the woven products are make in the UK and they aim to ‘make life a little more beautiful’ with silk cushions, and super soft lambswool blankets all in unique Yolke prints and soft neon shades. The products focus on the quality and craftsmanship of UK homegrown textile industries. Yolke also have fashion items on sale.

The cushion fabrics have been woven at Vanners, Sudbury Suffolk and the blankets at the Cotswold Woollen Weavers.

Yolke sourced the commission weavers and yarn suppliers from The Weave Shed website.

Contact: info@yolke.co.uk
Tel:+44 (0) 77860 72532
YOLKE_DB-7006

Feasibility Study: weave sampling & short runs facility – urgent survey

Toril Branche photo credit
Calling all weaver & designers

Laura Thomas is  currently undertaking some research for a feasibility study into providing support services to the weave sector. She has  compiled a short survey which she would be very grateful if you could fill  it in – http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2H3Y3KL

She realises how pressurised your time is, but hopes that the information gleaned from this survey will help secure funding for a much-needed weave facility which could directly benefit your business in the future.

Laura is working to an extremely tight timescale to submit this feasibility study and so would be extremely appreciative to receive your valuable answers, by this coming Saturday, 16th March.

Please do forward this link on to anyone you think might be interested and keen to offer their thoughts.
Photo credit: Toril Branche

Future Fibres, Fabrics & Finishes – Seminar

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