Conference & Exhibition | Digital Weaving: Innovation Through Pixels

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Digital Weaving – Innovation Through Pixels: Conference and Exhibition
Date: August 12–15, 2025 | Sundvolden Hotel, Krokkleiva, Norway

In 1995, a small Hønefoss-based company called Tronrud Engineering set out to transform the landscape of textilecreation. Thirty years later, we celebrate the transformative legacy of the TC-looms, a tool that has enabled creativity, innovation and inter-disciplinary collaboration across the world.

To mark this milestone, Tronrud Engineering and Tronrud Engineering Moss (which assumed loom production in 2020) proudly present the Digital Weaving – Innovation Through Pixels Conference and Exhibition. Over four days at the scenic Sundvolden Hotel, this unique event will bring together textile artists, designers, technologists, researchers, and weaving enthusiasts to explore the ever-evolving possibilities of digital handweaving.

Conference Highlights:

Opening Exhibition (Aug 12): A curated showcase of woven works by 50 international artists and designers, all works created on TC-looms. All featured artworks will be published in a commemorative Anniversary Book, launching during the event.
Anniversary Book: Featuring contributions by Sarah Mills (San Jose State University, CA) and Norwegian writer and historian Jan Helge Østlund.
Speaker Series (Aug 13–14): Presentations by an international line-up of speakers, from across 20 countriesand three continents, representing the cutting edge of digital weaving, design, research, and innovation.
Key Speakers Include: Christy Matson, Holly McQuillan, Janice Lessman-Moss, Cindy Kao, LauraDevendorf, Ariana Moroder, Wen-Ying Huang, Kristina Andersen, Sarah Rosalena, Analyn Salvador-Amores, Anita Michaluszko and
Presentations: Art and design, cultural heritage, smart textiles, weaving animation augmented weaving, multimorphic textile forms, sustainability, and the intersection of craft and computation.
Special Sessions:
- “5 slides – 5 minutes” lightning talks
- Evening networking dinners
Optional Excursions (Aug 15):
- Visit Tronrud Engineering and the Kistefos Museum, or
- Explore Tronrud Engineering Moss and Gallery F15

There are spaces available. Join Digital Weave in Norway to honour the past, celebrate the present, and help weave the future of digital textiles. Learn more: Link

Press Conference: 7th Aug 2025 at Sundvolden Hotel (Krokkleiva, Norway) at 1200 hrs
Media Contact Geetika Nautiyal +47 90964969 Continue reading →

Amélie Crépy | Exhibition: ‘Traces of Nature’: Oak Gall Ink Natural Dye Textile Launch | London Craft Week

15 May 2025 Artist Profile / Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Weave Designer Profile

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Amélie Crépy is launching her own interior upholstery fabric collection in collaboration with internationally renowned Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company and the natural dye specialists AO Textiles. Woven in 70% linen and 30% silk, this fabric has been exclusively developed with a natural dye derived from oak galls formed by wasp larvae, and will be unveiled for the first time at Amelie’s solo exhibition during London Craft Week.

Venue:
67 York Street Gallery, London W1H 1QB
Dates: 12-18 May 2025
To fulfil her long held vision to create a fabric using dye from natural dyes, she partnered with AO Textiles and Gainsborough Silks where natural dyes extracted from plants such as madder, weld, and chestnut are used to colour yarn. These yarns are now effectively used for jacquard weaving for the ultimate sustainable luxury. Creating black using natural dyes though had been notoriously challenging for AO Textiles. At Amelie’s request, and after extensive experimentation, they perfected a recipe using Oak Galls and introduced this new biodegradable black dye designed specifically for linen.

Amelie is so proud to be showing this exquisite and unique textile at London Craft Week. It has been an amazing journey and the support from AO Textiles and Gainsborough Silks has been invaluable. Together they have demonstrated that fabrics dyed using naturally derived colour from sustainable sources is not only possible but scalable, repeatable, and of the high-quality required by today’s textile industry. This has also been Amelie’s continued quest: to challenge mindsets and inspire others to consider how art and textiles can contribute to a healthier, more sustainable environment. Continue reading →

Publication: Krokbragd – Contemporary Weaving With Colour Author: Angie Parker

11 February 2025 Company Profile / General / New weave developments / Publication / Reseach / Weave Designer Profile / Workshops

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Krokbragd – Contemporary Weaving With Colour is a practical guide to all aspects of a popular Norwegian weaving technique. With over 400 photographs and step-by-step instruction, it gives a detailed account of the techniques used by the author and other contemporary weavers. Written for weavers of all abilities, it features vibrant designs and patterns, and shows how this age-old Scandinavian technique can be given a 21st century twist to create stunning contemporary work.

Angie Parker has a worldwide reputation for weaving krokbragd, and her passion for this technique shines through in her work. Her expertly-executed rugs, wall hangings, furnishings and artworks are known for their joyful colour combinations, as well as their exquisite finishing. In addition to exhibiting and selling her work, she regularly teaches and is a passionate advocate for running a profitable craft business, and the sustainability of craft practices for the contemporary maker.

Text & Image: Courtesy of Crowood Press

Exhibition: Around The World With 80 Textile Artists | Louise Lemieux Bérubé

7 January 2025 Artist Profile / Awards / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / Reseach

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Around The World with 80 Textile Artists is being exhibited at MUMAQ – Musée des métiers d’arts du Québec from December 12th 2024 to March 9th 2025.

The exhibition, a celebration of textile arts on a global scaled is curated by Marie-France Bégis, and invites visitors to explore a highly personal and universal project, the result of the relationships forged over a 40-year career.

In 2022, on the eve of her 80th birthday, Louise Lemieux Bérubé began an ambitious project, the result of 40 years of career and collaborations with textile artists from all over the world.

From 1997 to 2016, Louise shared her expertise in Jacquard weaving with more than 400 participants at the Montreal Center for Contemporary Textiles, as well as through universities and international events. These enriching encounters inspired her new project, Around the World with 80 Textile Artists, a vibrant tribute to the diversity and uniqueness of the artistic practices that have marked her career.

This project was structured around three key stages:
1. Reconnecting: Through the Internet, Louise invited 80 international artists to contribute to her project, rekindling exchanges with this precious artistic community.
2. Imagining and creating: The artist has dedicated herself to the design of an innovative
work, combining different textile techniques and integrating for the first time the
knotting of paper threads.
3. Discover and assemble: Participating artists each sent a package containing a piece or sample of their work, along with a souvenir text and a portrait or photo.

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Job: Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers

7 January 2025 Awards / Company Profile / Competitions / Courses / General / Jobs / Publication / Reseach / Scholarships / Symposium / Workshops

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Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers

Vacancy: Trust Administrator

The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers is a small Trust that aims to support individual weavers through biennial grants.

They are recruiting an administrator to support the Trustees in this work. Applicants should be enthusiastic about textiles, with administration experience in an arts context, have good communication and computer skills.

This is a part-time role with a fixed fee of £1500 per annum.

Application deadline: February 28th 2025
Email: theomoormantrust@gmail.com for full details.

Research: Mono-Material Library x Schoenkwarteir | Sophia Fenlon + Stephanie Rolph

6 October 2024 Awards / Company Profile / Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Weave Designer Profile

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Mono-Material Library: Designers Sophia Fenlon + Stephanie Rolph

What is the Mono-Material Library?
The Mono-material Library aims to showcase how mono-material design, created with a single fibre such as wool, can achieve diverse textures, forms, and functions through engineered use of woven structures.

This innovative approach shifts focus from selecting fibres based on their inherent properties, to engineering, through woven structure, functionality and transforming a fabrics mechanical properties.

As an emergent area of design, mono-material designing responds directly to the climate emergency by prioritising material or product recyclability or biodegradability at the end of life. This project has evolved from the Designers shared interest in the role textiles can play in achieving Net Zero.

Mono-Material Library x Schoenenkwartier
This collaboration challenged conventional approaches to woven design and shoemaking through an interdisciplinary partnership. This process driven project explores how jacquard and dobby weaving can be used to create mono-material footwear uppers. Focusing on the ability to engineer multi-layer woven textiles on- loom and then transform them through finishing techniques to create functional footwear components. Through an in depth exploration of woven structure, the project investigates how to strategically engineer areas of flexibility, rigidity, stretch and cushioning where required within the uppers.

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Publication | Woven Optical Illusions : Pattern and Designs from Four to 24 Shafts

18 May 2024 General / New weave developments / Publication / Reseach

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Woven Optical Illusions: Patten and Design from Four to 24 Shafts is authored by Stacey Harvey-Brown and Katharina Kronig. Published by The Crowood Press Ltd. ISBN no: 0719843391

Optical illusions are very much part of our time but have been around for hundreds of years. They never cease to fascinate.

Woven Optical Illusions is a newly published book which explores how these effects can translate into woven cloth, the scientific background behind illusory effects and how they can inspire the handloom weaver to develop their creativity.

There are five different chapters, each looking into one particular group of effects and taking the reader from an image to the finished sample. Examples are given to show how to develop the initial inspiration further along with analysis of the visual processes and how to observe them to create the illusion in weaving.

From four shafts through to 24 shafts, the book offers possibilities for weavers at any level of expertise. Particular attention is paid to weavers with eight-shaft looms. The principles behind the development of each sample are explained and all samples are accompanied by explanatory drafts. Plain weave, a large array of tied weaves, colour-and-weave structures, doubleweave and its variations are all used and explained throughout the chapters. A final chapter with technical weaving notes explains these weave structures in more detail.

Within the publication there is a gallery with complex weavings by experienced weavers, mostly with multi-shaft looms, shows the unlimited potential for woven optical illusions.

With many thanks to Stacey Harvey-Brown & Katerina Kronig for the text and image

Grants: Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers

16 August 2023 Awards / General / Reseach

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Theo Moorman Trust

Applications for grants are invited from weavers living and working in the UK. Those who have recently completed higher education need to have two and a half years working experience before applying.

Grants are available to enable weavers to purchase equipment and materials; take a sabbatical to reassess the creative nature of their work; pursue a specific project; or develop in any other way approved by the Trustees.

The closing date for applications is 1 February 2024

Criteria and application forms are available here

Email application and good quality images to the Trust’s administrator: email here

With thanks to the Theo Moorman Trust and Jacy Wall for the detail image and text.

Opportunity: Whitchurch Silk Mill | Trainee Weaver

12 August 2023 Company Profile / General / Jobs / News / Reseach

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Whitchurch Silk Mill is looking for a Trainee Weaver who is keen to learn about making silk on their Victorian machinery. As a working museum, they need someone with a practical hands-on approach with a genuine interest in heritage and weaving silk on tappet and dobby looms. During this one-year training post the trainee will learn how to wind, warp and weave and work in this working museum in the heart of the Hampshire countryside.

The Trainee Weaver will receive:
Full time, paid placement
£19,000 pa
Training in the operation of a Grade Two* listed Silk Mill, including winding, warping, weaving and the operation of a visitor attraction
Time to study
Work alongside the Weaver Tacklers, Mill Engineer and the Mill team
Learn about all aspects of silk production on our historic machinery
Develop skills, such as guiding and working in a visitor attraction

To apply, please send a CV and a covering email letter to Sue Tapliss (click on name for address) by Monday 4th September 2023.

Please do not send portfolios / photographs
Closing Date: 5.00pm Monday 4th September 2023

With thanks to Whitchurch Silk Mill for text and image

Weave Designer Profile: Fiona J Sperryn

21 June 2023 Artist Profile / Company Profile / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / Reseach / Weave Designer Profile / Workshops

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‘Scapes Series’

Fresh from London Craft Week…

‘The Cornish landscape always evokes an emotional response in me. The sun dazzling off the water, the splash of the sea, the salty breeze on my face, the call of the gulls. In ‘Scapes’, I’m responding to these sensations, escaping into my imagination, conjuring a landscape’.

Fiona J Sperryn’s recent body of work has been developed on the TC2 digital jacquard loom from her original mark-making. The creative journey started with dirty charcoal drawing outdoors, using local materials and responding to the essence of landscapes visited and imagined.

This was followed by photography and scanning, a clean digital translation into the coded files recognised by the loom. Bobbins were wound with multiple strands of colour and the pieces were handwoven, indigo dip-dyed and painted once off the loom.

The largest hanging in the ‘Scapes’ series measures 76 x 170cm and the smallest pieces 18 x 15cm within 28cm frames made of recycled ‘Polcore’. Continuing Fiona’s work with colour blending on the loom in this series, strands of yarn of varying thicknesses are used together with subtle grading of tone and colour as each piece progresses.

The artworks are handwoven using mainly industrial ‘deadstock’ yarns, which include tencel, linen, bamboo, rayon, silk and cotton. It is important to Fiona to limit purchase of new yarn and the creation of waste.

The series was recently exhibited as part of London Craft Week with Future Icons Selects at the Oxo Tower Bargehouse alongside 70 artists and makers, including a number of tapestry and hand weavers.

Fiona hand weaves her artwork in a rural studio in Cornwall and is an active member of Design-Nation. She produces woven pieces to commission for artists and designers.

Fiona additionally offers expert tuition in digital jacquard weaving on the TC2 loom in her studio and is a lecturer at Falmouth University.

Contact: Fiona J Sperryn
IG: @fionajsperryn
FB: Fiona J Sperryn Art