You are browsing the News category


Competition: Bristol Tweed

3 July 2015 Competitions / General / New weave developments / News
1 comment

Farm8byAlexIngram2014-2low resBristol Cloth have launched an open competition to design a Tweed for Bristol. The cloth will be a 100% wool fabric of classic heritage-inspired design, prioritising locally sourced materials and manufacturing processes from the South West of the UK.

Design Brief
What does Bristol’s social fabric look like?
What kind of cloth does Bristol need?
How would you weave Bristol?
What woven designs were traditionally borne out of the South West?

The winning Bristol Cloth design will encapsulate the  very diverse city, while also referencing traditional woven design. Participants will choose their own starting point from which to explore a design theme and follow Bristol Cloth’s Instagram for inspiration.

The Bristol Cloth will be broadly and commercially appealing to local designer-makers, local brands and retailers as well as the general public with end use being for accessories, outerwear and/or interiors.

Continue reading →

Resource: The Weaving Communities of Practice Website

22 June 2015 General / New weave developments / News
No comments

Fig1The Weaving Communities of Practice website, the result of an AHRC-funded project on textiles, culture and identity in the Andes, provides a great resource for anyone interested in Andean textiles and an inspiration for textile designers. The database is easily searchable around a number of themes and provides high-resolution full colour images of textiles from collections around the world.

The project is based at the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) and the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at Birkbeck, University of London, with the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), in La Paz, Bolivia, in partnership with museums in the UK, Bolivia, Peru and Chile.

The principal feature of this website is a database of Andean textiles. Using the Textile Product Search, you can:

  • Search the database by key terms
  • View high-resolution images of textiles from collections around the world
  • Make thematic searches: on structure, technique, place, region, period, material and iconography
  • Make advanced searches, crossing and filtering data
  • Save text, images and searches
  • Print, export and send data

There is also a detailed guide to processes of textile manufacture, including images and video clips of techniques, instruments and structures; a glossary of textile-related terms in English, Spanish and Andean languages; an introduction to textile heritage; and bibliography.

Text and images: Weaving Communities of Practice website

 

 

 

British Council & Anou: Open Call for Residencies

10 June 2015 General / Jobs / News
No comments

201408_BC_Common_Thread_Project_009_jpg_940x528_q85_upscaleThe British Council and Anou are launching an open call seeking 3 UK-based design and craft practitioners for the second round of the Common Thread residencies.

The residencies will take place over a period of 3 weeks, when the residents will live in the High Atlas Mountains with artisans who are part of the Moroccan e-commerce artisan-led platform Anou. Residents and artisans will lead workshops and share their practices with each other in this exciting opportunity.

201408 BC Common Thread Project 049This residency is for UK-based practitioners. Applicants from design and craft backgrounds are preferred, though applications from other practitioners will be considered.

Residents will be given the opportunity to learn from artisans working across weaving, leather, jewellery, woodwork, ceramics and metalwork.

2015 residencies will run from approximately 10 – 31 August.

Continue reading →

West Dean Tapestry Symposium

8 June 2015 General / New weave developments / News / Symposium
No comments

Black Cat for Tracey Emin woven at West Dean Tapestry StudioSymposium: What is handwoven tapestry’s place in contemporary art?
Date: Friday 31 July 2015
Venue: The Old Library, West Dean College, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex
Time: 11.00 – 17.00
West Dean Tapestry Studio, one of only two commercial studios in the UK, has announced a Tapestry Symposium to be held at West Dean College, internationally renowned for Creative Arts and Conservation. The symposium will explore the status of hand woven tapestry within the context of contemporary art and craft practices.

Lesley Millar Portrait2 Photo Credit - Damian ChapmanSpeakers include; Professor Lesley Millar, Director of Anglo Japanese Textile Research Centre at the School of Craft and Design;

Yvonna Demczynska, Founder and curator of Flow Gallery in Notting Hill, a consultant for the Crafts Council.

“A distinct feature of art can be its immediacy,” says Alison Baxter, Head of Creative Enterprise, West Dean Tapestry Studio. “Hand weaving is a time-rich creative practice and by its very nature the making of a tapestry is a lengthy, highly skilled process. Hand weavers are producing complex and innovative pieces.”

Continue reading →

London Craft Week

2 May 2015 Company Profile / Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News
No comments

Daniel Harris at London Cloth CompanyLondon Craft Week  6 – 10th May 2015 is a new annual, not-for-profit event which showcases exceptional craftsmanship through a journey-of-discovery programme featuring hidden workshops, celebrated makers, other lesser known makers and highly specialised skills alongside famous shops, galleries and luxury brands.

Founded on the ethos of making, London Craft Week aims to put craftsmanship at centre stage of the world’s creative capital by introducing the talent, people and techniques behind beautifully made things to a wider audience. They will be able to experience craft not just as static branded objects in smart shops but understand the context of how they were made, why they are special and even have a try themselves.

Weavers involved in London Craft Week include :

Daniel Harris, who set up The London Cloth Company in 2010,  has single-handedly sourced, rebuilt and restored numerous power looms of historical significance dating from as early as 1870 to 1970. Since then the London Cloth Company has grown into a renowned international brand, supplying a range of cottons and woollens to top designers.  He will set up a power loom and be weaving at DAKS, 10 Old Bond Street, London W1S 4PL, on May 7th 2015 from 10.30am – 17.00

London Cloth Company image credit: Beth Saunders Continue reading →

Exhibitions & PhD: Barbara Jansen

6 April 2015 Conferences / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Publication
No comments

3 - temporal patterns - colour flowBarbara Jansen will be displaying two projects (physical prototypes): “rhythm exercise” and “Sinus 64 + blue” at Techtextil Fair in Frankfurt on the stand from Smart Textiles/University of Boras, stand 3.1 C76, 4th-7th May 2015.

She will be on site on 4th-6th May. She will also give a lecture on  her PhD research at Elfack Fair in the Light Forum at the Swedish Exhibition and Congress Center in Gothenburg 7th -may 2015.

Temporal patterns – Solo Exhibition.
Textile Museum Boras, Sweden. 17th February – 29th March

7 - temporal patterns - Sinus 64 + blueIn this exhibition, textile designer Barbara Jansen presented her PhD thesis, in which she investigated the visual effects of movement using light as a continuous time-based medium. The textiles displayed in this exhibition showed a varying range of examples which explore aesthetic possibilities of how light can be integrated as an active part into textile structures. Thereby ranging from weaving, to knitting and braiding techniques, both hand crafted, as well as industrial produced.

Continue reading →

Studio Houndstooth launches The Houndstooth Project

28 January 2015 Events / General / News
No comments

launch event low res A4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio Houndstooth launches The Houndstooth Project – a serious play, ludic, egalitarian project, which uses the well-recognised, houndstooth textile motif as the starting point for a public engagement making project for everyone and anyone as either individuals or as collaborators, using any media or approach, actual or virtual. See the website to download instructions and how to participate. Continue reading →

Symposium: Cultural Threads

21 January 2015 Conferences / General / News / Publication
No comments

Cultural-Threads-Launch1

The Open West 2015: Call for Entries

19 January 2015 Competitions / Exhibitions / General / News
No comments

openwestlogo_red_2

 

 

 

 

The Open West 2015 is putting out a call for entries. The exhibition will be at The Wilson Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum.

The deadline for applications is 20th February 2015 and the exhibition will be from 16th  May to 28th  June 2015. You can apply online or by post. All work is  invited from UK and international artists aged 18 and over

Curators : Lyn Cluer Coleman and Sarah Goodwin

Guest selectors: Neville Gabie and Alastair Gordon

The open west is inviting submissions from national and international artists and makers practising contemporary and conceptual art inclusive of painting, installation, film and sound, textile, photography, ceramics, print, drawing, performance, sculpture, glass, metal and plastics.

Up to 45 shortlisted artists will be selected and the exhibition will run for a six week period from 16 May to 28 June 2015, at the new purpose built galleries at The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum. There will be an opportunity for selected artists to participate in an educational programme and a day of artist talks at The Wilson.

Ambitious curatorial vision – the open west is an exhibition well worth the trip to Cheltenham. It offers a bold vision by its curators and a fresh and current insight into contemporary art practice. Artlyst, June 2014

The panel of selectors for 2015 will include the curators Lyn Cluer Coleman and Sarah Goodwin, and artists Alastair Gordon and Neville Gabie. The Curators’ Award and the University of Gloucestershire Award will be announced on the Private View night of Friday 15 May 2015.

Full application details can be seen at theopenwest.org.uk along with information and images from the open west’s previous six exhibitions at The Wilson, the National Trust’s Newark Park, Gloucester Cathedral and the University of Gloucestershire.

The open west is a not for profit organisation dedicated to providing opportunities for emerging, mid-career and established artists.

Sarah Goodwin
Lyn Cluer Coleman
info@theopenwest.org.uk
theopenwest.org.uk

Publication: Cultural Threads

18 January 2015 General / News / Publication
No comments

cultural threadsCultural Threads  by Jessica Hemmings considers contemporary artists and designers who work at the intersection of cultures and use textiles as their vehicle. Ideas about belonging to multiple cultures, which can result in a sense of connection to everywhere and nowhere, are more pertinent to society today than ever. So too are the layers of history – often overlooked – behind the objects that make up our material world.

The roots of postcolonial theory lie in literature and have, in the past, been communicated through dense academic jargon. Cultural Threads breaks with what can read as impenetrable rhetoric to show the rich visual diversity of craft and art that engages with multiple cultural influences. Many of these objects exist in an in-between world of their own, not wholly embraced by the establishments of art, nor functional objects in the conventional sense of craft.

Cultural Threads is an exploration of contemporary textiles and their relationship with postcolonial culture. However, the postcolonial thinking examined here shares with craft an interest in the lived, rather than the purely theoretical, giving a very human account of the interactions in between craft and culture.

Jessica Hemmings is Professor of Visual Culture and Head of the Faculty of Visual Culture at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, Ireland. Jessica is editor of The Textile Reader (Berg, 2012), In the Loop: Knitting Now (2010) and Warp and Weft: Woven Textiles in Fashion, Art and Interiors (Bloomsbury, 2012). She also regularly contributes articles and reviews to publications including Selvedge, Embroidery, and Surface Design Journal.
Text & images from the  Bloomsbury website.
← Older Entries
Newer Entries →