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Select Festival & Symposium 2017

17 April 2017 Conferences / Events / Exhibitions / General / Reseach / Symposium
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Select Festival 2017 is a celebration of visual arts on from 29th to April 28th May at various venues in Gloucestershire with over 150 artists taking part. There are  exhibitions, workshops, events, talks and a one day symposium plus  Select Trail Open Studios in the  Stroud Valleys

DIS/rupting Tradition: New Textile Languages. Select Festival 2017 presents a symposium linked to the lead exhibition DIS/rupt.

One Day Symposium - Co-ordinated by Dr Melanie Miller

Date: Sat 6th May 2017.
Times: 11am – 4pm

Dr Melanie Miller has convened a thought-provoking symposium to run alongside the Textile Study Group’s exhibition DIS/rupt. Focussing on the theme of disrupting tradition, the symposium will address issues around ‘new textile languages’.

Speakers: Dr Melanie Miller; Alice Kettle; June Hills and Michelle Stephens.

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Weaving Futures: Week 13 | Eleanor Pritchard

11 February 2017 Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Workshops
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Weaving Futures is an exhibition at London Transport Museum highlighting the importance of woven textile design to the London Transport system. The exhibition explores the process and making of digital woven textiles, as part of the Museums’, Designology season. Weaving Futures is curated by Philippa Brock and Samuel Plant Dempsey.

Each week, visitors will can see invited designers/artists in residence in the Designology studio, who will be working on a project brief and interacting with a weaver in their residency dates. The weavers will be interpreting the residents work live into digital woven textile prototypes and final works on a state-of-the-art TC2 digital jacquard loom. 

Week 13 features: Eleanor Pritchard

Closes the Weaving Futures season
Residency dates: 15th – 18th Feb 2017
Activity days: 17th & 18th Feb 2017

Eleanor Pritchard  are a small hands-on weave studio based in Deptford, South East London, who design and manufacture an upholstery and an interior accessories range.

Their signature style is characterized by bold geometrics and graphic reversible patterns in a palette that combines chalky and cross-hatched neutrals, sharp accents and deep inky tones. Their aesthetic is clean and contemporary with a nod to English mid-century design. The fabrics draw inspiration from traditional British textile crafts, re-interpreting the vernacular for a contemporary audience.

They work with different mills in the UK for their production and are closely involved with the production and finishing processes.

Their accessory collection is sold world wide through stores including,  Margaret Howell, Twentytwentyone and Artek.

The Aerial upholstery fabric collection has been used on a wide range of furniture projects including the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and Ham Yard Hotel and Eleanor Pritchard have  also worked with studios including Sfera Ricordi and Pelikan. Continue reading →

Weaving Futures: Week 12 | BeatWoven

7 February 2017 Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Workshops
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Weaving Futures is an exhibition at London Transport Museum highlighting the importance of woven textile design to the London Transport system. The exhibition explores the process and making of digital woven textiles, as part of the Museums’, Designology season. Weaving Futures is curated by Philippa Brock and Samuel Plant Dempsey.

Each week, visitors will can see invited designers/artists in residence in the Designology studio, who will be working on a project brief and interacting with a weaver in their residency dates. The weavers will be interpreting the residents work live into digital woven textile prototypes and final works on a state-of-the-art TC2 digital jacquard loom. 

Week 12: features: BeatWoven
Residency dates: 8th – 11th Feb 2017
Activity days:9th & 10th  Feb 2017

Award winning, avant-garde textiles label BeatWoven® pioneers globally in pattern exploration with its couture fabrics for the prestige interior design market. It uses its skilfully coded audio technology as an instrument to translate and reveal the geometric patterns created by the beats and sounds in music. Simply by playing songs and sounds it visualises and orchestrates pattern formations that fuse harmoniously with textiles, particularly with the traditional craft technique of weaving. Through innovation, woven pattern and form is reinvented, fabric aesthetic is challenged and music, fashion and lifestyle are linked. Each couture fabric creates a conversational art piece ready to contribute to an interior landscape of curiosity and emotional connection.  Continue reading →

Weaving Futures: Week 11 | Ismini Samanidou

27 January 2017 Company Profile / Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Workshops
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Weaving Futures is an exhibition at London Transport Museum highlighting the importance of woven textile design to the London Transport system. The exhibition explores the process and making of digital woven textiles, as part of the Museums’, Designology season. Weaving Futures is curated by Philippa Brock and Samuel Plant Dempsey.

Each week, visitors will can see invited designers/artists in residence in the Designology studio, who will be working on a project brief and interacting with a weaver in their residency dates. The weavers will be interpreting the residents work live into digital woven textile prototypes and final works on a state-of-the-art TC2 digital jacquard loom. 

Week 11 features:  Ismini Samanidou
Residency dates: 1st – 4th Feb 2017
Activity days 3rd & 4th Feb 2017

Athens born and South East of England based artist Ismini Samanidou trained at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. Her practice touches on the boundaries of craft, art and design with work developed for site specific commissions, industry collaborations and unique pieces for exhibition.  The work is often site specific and explores the way textiles can be articulated within a space. Ismini has travelled and researched textile techniques worldwide and is principally interested in the way weaving exists as an autonomous language crossing cultural and political

Her work has been exhibited internationally with solo shows in the UK and USA. Recent work includes commissioned textile panels for the National Theatre in London, an invited residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut, USA and work exhibited at the Espace De L’Art Concret in France and the Hangzhou Textile Triennial in China. Ismini’s textiles are held in private and public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

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Weaving Futures: Week 10 & 11 | Brock, Dempsey & Veja

19 January 2017 Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Symposium / Workshops
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Weaving Futures is an exhibition at London Transport Museum highlighting the importance of woven textile design to the London Transport system. The exhibition explores the process and making of digital woven textiles, as part of the Museums’, Designology season. Weaving Futures is curated by Philippa Brock and Samuel Plant Dempsey.

Each week, visitors will can see invited designers/artists in residence in the Designology studio, who will be working on a project brief and interacting with a weaver in their residency dates. The weavers will be interpreting the residents work live into digital woven textile prototypes and final works on a state-of-the-art TC2 digital jacquard loom. 

Week 10 & 11 features:  Collaboration with Dr. Priti Veja, Samuel Plant Dempsey & Philippa Brock
Residency dates: 23rd – 28th, 30 & 31st Jan 2017
Activity days: 25th / 26th & 30th Jan 2017

Researchers & Design consultants Philippa Brock, Samuel Plant Dempsey & Dr. Priti Veja will be coming together in Weaving Futures to work collaboratively on  concept  issues based design for transport, combining their expertise in design thinking, 3D digital woven jacquard/haptics, product design/3D printing and woven E-textiles.

Samuel Plant Dempsey
Samuel Dempsey is a Product Designer at Transport for London (TfL) designing more effective solutions for transport in London across all modes, from walking to trains. Collaborating with experts, from electrical engineers to textile weavers to create innovative designs through rigorous research that are both highly effective and aesthetically engaging. Currently he is working extensively on improving the both the ambience of underground train interiors and usability for passengers with reduced mobility and vision.

Previously he studied at the RCA exploring how design can provoke critical public engagement through the creation of products as actors, translating estrangement techniques from Epic Theatre into both critical and pragmatic design solutions. Sam previously worked for Nokia and Microsoft as a 3D Printing Specialist and Industrial Designer. Continue reading →

Company Profile: Rare Thread

16 January 2017 Company Profile / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach
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Rare Thread is a textile studio/collective conceived by Laura Miles and Kirsty McDougall and incorporates a team of designers and specialists including Ruth Greany, Stephanie Rolph, Sophia Fenlon and Hannah Auerbach George.

The designers of Rare Thread work collaboratively on collections and projects as well as retaining autonomy on other aspects of their practice.

With combined experience in industry of 35 years, Laura and Kirsty decided to merge their individual creative studio businesses to champion hand and machine woven textile design and finishing for a broad variety of textile outcomes including Fashion, Interiors and CMF to Material Development and Trend.

From their studio in Dalston, London- Rare Thread will celebrate, question and promote weaving in all its forms and contexts. The studio offers loom hire to emerging designers and industry and also offers support and advice to new graduates starting out in woven textiles.

Rare Thread welcome projects and collaboration from the fashion, interiors and manufacturing industries, artists and scientists alongside organisations and individuals interested in developing sustainable textile solutions.

Woven textile designers are often the hidden force behind many of the extraordinary textiles seen on catwalk. Between them Laura Miles and Kirsty McDougall have worked with Marc Jacobs, Valentino Couture, Calvin Klein, Balmain, Proenza Schouler, Chanel, Balenciaga, YSL, Erdem and Christopher Kane, to combine innovative material mixes and constructions. They have excellent global networks across yarn, material, woven manufacturing and finish. Continue reading →

Weaving Futures: Week 8 | Takram

6 January 2017 Company Profile / Events / Exhibitions / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach / Workshops
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takram-cloplWeaving Futures is an exhibition at London Transport Museum highlighting the importance of woven textile design to the London Transport system. The exhibition explores the process and making of digital woven textiles, as part of the Museums’, Designology season.

Each week, visitors will can see invited designers/artists in residence in the Designology studio, who will be working on a project brief and interacting with a weaver in their residency dates. The weavers will be interpreting the residents work live into digital woven textile prototypes and final works on a state-of-the-art TC2 digital jacquard loom. 

Week 8 features:  Takram
Residency dates: 9th – 14th Jan 2017
Activity days: 12th & Loom running 14th Jan 2017

Founded in 2006, Takram is a creative innovation firm with studios in Tokyo and London. Specialists in concept, product, and experience design, they work with leading international businesses and institutions across transportation, automotive, consumer products and technology, retail, finance and media.

Multi-disciplined, they thrive on the synergy of different talents and professions, and the scope of their projects range from hardware to software, from architecture to digital art, and from organisational communication to education programs Continue reading →

Ethnographic Research Project: The Woven Kind

20 December 2016 Company Profile / General / New weave developments / News / Reseach
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extraweft

The Woven Kind is a new ethnographic and global Artisan Textile project, working to document, promote and preserve global traditional weaving techniques.

Designed to establish international relationships with global artisan textile communities and their NGO partners, the work will help encourage widened appreciation of each country’s cultural heritage in textiles, stimulating an interest of woven textiles in a global context.

Juliet Graziano and Caroline Donaldson of illae woven studio  are developing this project to enhance their understanding of an ancient craft, which remains fundamental to the economic sustainability of the local artisans and their communities.

With their initial trip to India in January 2017, Juliet and Caroline hope to continue this project globally, researching and visiting different countries with a rich heritage in hand-weaving, to build an extensive and exciting body of research for public dissemination.

The research will inform a series of outcomes.

  • Online database of research
  • A series of lectures and article
  • An informative film
  • An exhibition
  • A self published book
  • Textiles archive

Each outcome will be accessible to all weavers and artists in the UK to engage with India

The initial trip will see Juliet and Caroline visit the Western Rajasthani village of Pokhran with their partner NGO Rangsutra .

Their research will focus on several stages of weaving, from initial design idea to loom set up and their use of tools.rangsutra-1

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