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Exhibitions & PhD: Barbara Jansen

6 April 2015 Conferences / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Publication
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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.

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Studio Houndstooth launches The Houndstooth Project

28 January 2015 Events / General / News
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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
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The Open West 2015: Call for Entries

19 January 2015 Competitions / Exhibitions / General / News
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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
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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.

Crafts Council Hothouse: Heather Shields

18 January 2015 Company Profile / General / New weave developments / News
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hshieldsloomHeather Shields is a woven textile designer based in Glasgow, who has recently been selected on the Crafts Council Hothouse scheme.

This scheme  is a “free programme of professional support for craft makers, delivered by the Crafts Council and partners and run over the course of six months” (ref: crafts council website). 39 Makers have been selected for 2015 including previously featured on The Weaveshed, weavers Rita Parniczky and Nadia Anne Ricketts.

Graduating with a BA (Hons) in Textile Design from Glasgow School of Art, Heather  went on to pursue an internship with Margo Selby to assist in weaving samples for her book “Contemporary Weaving Patterns”.

On returning to Scotland, Heather took up a part time post as weave technician at Glasgow School of Art. A year later she joined Glasgow Clyde College as a weave tutor and began writing the curriculum for their first weave course in partnership with Heriot Watt university.

Alongside her work in education, she developed a new collection of fabrics and was determined to start up her own textile design business. She participated in Nightriders, an 8 week pilot business programme created by service design company, Snook, and began showing her work at local exhibitions. In December 2014 she was selected to join the Craft Council’s Hothouse scheme for emerging makers.

Her designs combine playful colour palettes with bold pattern and quality craftsmanship. A fascination with contrasts, beauty in the unexpected and unusual juxtaposition has always been at the forefront of her design work. She explores these elements through carefully considered yarn choices and specialist construction techniques to create textiles that celebrate the charm of everyday objects. Inspired by childhood puzzles and games, her latest collection of contemporary homeware uses super soft lambswool and a double cloth construction to create luxurious cushions with a strong graphic edge. Heather’s fabrics evoke a sense of fun and are destined to be covetable statement pieces within the home.

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Making it in Textiles: Report

19 December 2014 Conferences / Events / General / News
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WCW ConferenceOn 14th/15th October 2015, 120 woven textile and textile degree students, tutors and manufacturers from the UK attended a conference in Bradford,  fully funded by The Worshipful Company of Weavers, The Clothworkers’ Company, the Campaign for Wool and the WoolMark Company.

The conference was held in response to Course Tutors feed back ,that at times it was difficult to take students on visits to manufacturers to see industrial processes, therefore making the links to what they were studying about manufacturing at university.

Additionally the students are not always getting first hand experience at talking to manufacturers.

The Conference  provided the chance for manufacturers to discuss other career opportunities, not just in design for textile graduates but also in manufacturing and quality control. as there is currently a resurgence of employment opportunities in UK textile manufacturing, alongside a skills and talent gap.

All delegates had the opportunity of a visit to manufacturers on the 15th Oct. The participating mills were Abraham Moon, Hainsworth, Pennine Weavers, R Gledhill Ltd and Mallalieus of Delph

WCW Conference Pennine Weavers Continue reading →

Winner: Amber Roper

15 December 2014 Competitions / Exhibitions / General / News
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fur 3aAmber Roper is a recent graduate from Central Saint Martins, specialising in hand woven textiles . After graduating, Amber presented her woven textiles collection at the New Designer’s  exhibition held at the Business Design Centre, Islington. Soon after, she was selected as a finalist for the 2014 International Creative Pattern Design Competition, held in Hangzhou, China.

Amber’s degree show collection ‘The Changeover- Modern Samurai’ was recognised for it’s highly innovative and individual use of traditional and experimental materials.

Her collection was placed in the top 3, receiving one of the grand prizes of the competition and winning the award for Best Material Creative.

China Academy of Art and the Hangzhou Municipal Government hosted the competition. It received over 400 entries from around the world and out of these Amber was the only candidate from Great Britain shortlisted to present her collection in China as one of final 30 exhibitors.

She is currently working as a weave designer for menswear shirting company David Howard. She is also working as a freelance textile designer, and has been invited back to china in 2015 by Tao Yin, Dean of Fashion and Textiles at China Academy of Arts. She will be exhibiting a new collection of exciting textiles.
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Teresa Georgallis & Universal Assembly Unit

18 November 2014 Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News
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bondstreetwindowsThis collaborative project brings together a woven textile designer, Theresa Georgallis with a digital media studio, Universal Assembly Unit to explore a new visual language between textiles and 3D interactive environments.

Collaborating for the first time for this installation, the designers worked together to create a digital fabric that responds to sound inputs.

These sounds were collected from New Bond street – both above and below the surface and they are high and low frequency sounds that humans cannot hear. They are more like vibrations.
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Stephanie Rolph: The Peter Collingwood Trust Fund Winner 2014

4 November 2014 Company Profile / Competitions / General / New weave developments / News
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(im)Permanence.

“It is our perception of space that alters the space.
It is consciousness that finds meaning in all spaces.”

This Bryan Lawson quote inspired Stephanie Rolph’s research project: (im)Permanence. The project was part of her final year BA (Hons) Textile Design course at CSM, which was an investigation into the potential for creating rigid, self-supporting woven materials. The materials she  developed were designed to form a modular furniture system.

Her studio practice focuses on the role of textiles within spaces, both architecturally and as products and objects, looking not just at the appearance of textiles but at the form and physical properties. She aims to challenge preconceived ideas on what woven fabrics can be and how they can be used, believing that unusual applications of fabrics can help to redefine the textiles themselves.

Interior textiles are often generally drapes, rugs and upholstery fabrics. There is general feeling that fabrics within space are decorative: a cushion on a wooden chair or the drapes to accent a room. Often then, the textile is an after thought; some consider them less important because of this. Her project set out to see if she could disturb this relationship, creating woven structures that existed both as ornament and have function within a space.
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