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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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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 →

Job Opportunity: BFTT | Dash + Miller R&D Project Lead

4 August 2021 Awards / General / Jobs / New weave developments / News / Reseach
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This post is an exciting opportunity for a Post Graduate, or Post-Doctoral Researcher (or equivalent demonstrable industry/research experience) to work as the Research & Development (R&D) Project Lead, facilitating a novel collaborative project, between UAL and Dash & Miller.

You will be employed by the University of the Arts London but predominately working remotely, with some travel within the UK and on-site delivery at Dash & Miller’s premises in Bristol.

The Business of Fashion, Textiles & Technology (BFTT) Partnership is a multi-million pound initiative lead by UAL aimed at accelerating the growth of fashion, textile and technology sector through collaborative R&D partnerships and projects.

Dash & Miller have been awarded funding within the BFTT R&D SME Support Programme. The principal aim of the project is to develop R&D around digital textiles to aid design and communication throughout the supply chain.

They are looking for an individual with flexibility to work at sites in Bristol and remotely, with a thorough knowledge of the digital fashion and textiles landscape, as well as the circularity and sustainability opportunities available within the sector.

You will have a PG qualification in the area of fashion and textiles with a focus on the application of digital within the sector, or equivalent research and/or industry experience.

You will have experience of managing textile supply chains from yarn to finishing, and ideally a knowledge of digital product development within the fashion context gained through research and/or relevant R&D industry work. Continue reading →

Call for Entries: 2022 Experimental Weaving Residency

21 July 2021 Awards / General / New weave developments / Reseach
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The Unstable Design Lab is excited to host a call for entries for their second Experimental Weaving Residency. This funded residency will take place in winter/spring 2022 and is focused on developing experimental textile structures and concepts in close collaboration with engineers and scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The Unstable Design Lab is hosting its experimental weaving residency with the goal of developing new techniques and open-source resources that can co-evolve fiber arts and engineering practice.

The chosen resident will work with the Unstable Design Lab, as well as researchers from the University of Colorado, to create a series of samples inspired by challenges currently faced by engineering researchers. For example, shape weaving techniques for creating form-fitting and/or compression garments for counter-pressure spacesuits, integration of power harvesting diodes, compostable or easily reusable textile structures for zero-waste manufacturing, or structures that dynamically fold and unfold to support mechanical structures or soft robotics (to name a few, but not all, possible spaces for experimentation).

Applicants should be open-minded, curious, and above all deeply knowledgeable about woven structures and their behaviours. No knowledge of computer science, electronics, or engineering is required for participation. Continue reading →

Holly McQuillan: Weaving Multimorphic Textile-Forms

19 June 2021 Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / Publication / Reseach / Weave Designer Profile
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When Holly McQuillan began her PhD almost 5 years ago, she knew very little about the process of weaving or its potential to transform her research practice, which was primarily form-focused in the context of zero waste fashion design and pattern cutting. However, her experience at the Department of Design in the Swedish School of Textiles provided access to exciting technology and skillful colleagues, and combined with her inherent curiosity to lead to a body of research that operates at the boundary between weave thinking and form thinking, helping to grow the emerging field of textile-form (or 3D) weaving.

Holly came to weaving through her experience consulting with industry and researching zero waste design practices and pattern cutting. Like weaving, zero waste garment design is inherently an ancient practice that values textiles first and foremost. In contrast the fashion industry values speed and cost first. As McQuillan discovered during one of her PhD case studies, the industry would rather waste 4km of virgin textiles (on a single style and size for a season!), than add a single seam. In response, Holly’s research began to explore alternative systems of garment and form creation, coming to focus on textile-form weaving, which, like 3D (seamless and fully fashioned) knitting, enables the simultaneous and on-demand creation of textile and form.

The majority of 3D woven garments have been developed by textile designers, so Holly was interested to explore the potential of applying a zero waste form-making lens to the design of weave-able 3D forms. Beginning with simple t-shirt forms (one shown below), the experiments in McQuillan’s PhD, “Zero Waste Systems Thinking: Multimorphic Textile-forms”, progressively build a foundation of the textile-form thinking skills needed to construct these complex topologies.

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New Loom Developments: vLoom Jacquard & The Oxford Frame Loom

18 June 2021 Company Profile / General / New weave developments
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This post features two new weaving loom developments. The vLoom is a prototype and The Oxford Frame Loom  is available now

vLoom

Miles Visman is a computer programmer by profession, creating games for consoles, PCs and mobiles. He learnt how to code in the late 1980s while doing a Fine Art degree which led to programming computers to generate visuals for pop videos and interactive installations. In the last ten years he has been teaching himself to weave and he codes algorithms to create both the patterns and weave structures which he then hand weaves.

Six years ago he attended a Jacquard weaving course, run by Julie Holyoke and Eva Basile, at Lisio Foundation in Florence and learning how traditional Jacquard looms work and their part in the development of computers. Subsequently he visited the TextileLab in the Netherlands where under the guidance of Stef Miero he learnt how to produce textiles on their state of the art computer controlled looms.
Inspired by these experiences he developed an obsession to build his own Jacquard loom. With the wide availability of laser cutting and 3d printing combined with the whole electronic maker world of Arduinos etc it is much easier to build prototypes. (And over the years there have been quite a few!) In the last twelve months he has found a design that works and has steadily built up a loom capable of controlling 176 individual warps. Alongside which he has developed software available on his website  to both generate new patterns and that can also be used to fill those patterns with weave structures. Continue reading →

Job Opportunity: BFTT | ReWeave R&D Project Lead

18 May 2021 Company Profile / General / Jobs / New weave developments / News / Reseach
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ReWeave R&D Project Lead  is an exciting opportunity for a Postgraduate or Post-Doctoral Researcher (or equivalent demonstrable industry/research experience) to work as the Research & Development (R&D) Project Lead to facilitate a collaborative project with ReWeave – a woven textile studio based in London and Hastings that has been awarded funding within the BFTT R&D SME Support Programme.

The aim of the project is to develop R&D around sustainable woven textile design and manufacture using industry waste fabrics.

The role involves working collaboratively with Academic Mentors from the Centre for Circular Design and Textile Futures Research Community at University of the Arts London and the Company Lead at the Reweave Ltd.

You can find more information about the role here.

Instagram:@re_weave_

With thanks to BFTT and Kirsty McDougall for text & images

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Company Profile: AKHL

27 April 2021 Artist Profile / Awards / Designer of the month / General / New weave developments / Weave Designer Profile
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AKHL was founded by Akhil Nagpal in 2019.

AKHL is defined by its commitment to innovation, experimentation and the crafting of evocative pieces of fashion by contemporising traditional Indian handcrafting and handweaving techniques.

Essential to its designs are distinctive and complex textiles, engineered using unusual and often upcycled materials, employing a wide range of processes including hand weaving, traditional Indian hand embroidery, hand printing, applique and spectrum dyeing.

Ultimately, these signature textiles, in conjunction with handwoven and new age fabrics, are meticulously tailored into inventive and evocative luxury womenswear.

Since its founding, AKHL has been a recipient of various awards and honours. It showcased its debut collection at Lakme Fashion Week SS20 as the winner of the prestigious Gen Next Competition and won The Grazia Young Fashion Award in 2021.

It has also been awarded the curated title ‘Black Sheep’ on Not Just A Label, given to the most innovative and striking designers on the platform.

AKHL has been featured on the ‘Label Alert’ segment in Harper’s Bazaar India and Grazia India as well as in various other editorials by leading Indian fashion publications including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Grazia and Cosmopolitan.

Reflektor SS21 Collection
AKHL SS21 collection has been visually inspired by interactions and distortions of light and colour. The studio has  studied these interactions in highly-engineered and uniquely processed reflective installation artworks by Olafur Eliasson and James Turnell, as well as in softer, yet equally compelling, natural reflective surfaces.

These vivid colour and light visual studies helped them develop new-age handwoven and hand-embroidered textiles as well as sharply-cut sculptural silhouettes, all of them ultimately culminating into an innovative and evocative collection of modern ensembles.

The most dominant textile in this collection has been their handwoven/hand-embroidered silk-raffia mesh. This textile is first meticulously woven on a handloom, it has a raw silk warp and a raffia weft.

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