Profile: Alicia Rowbotham

9 February 2020 |
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Alicia Rowbotham, a recent graduate of the BA (Hons) Textile Design course at Central Saint Martins is a designer amongst a growing group of emerging talent exploring the relevance of fast fashion against the environmental destruction it ensues.

Working within the fashion industry as a stylist for a leading online fashion retailer throughout her degree gave her great insight into the destructive cycle of fast fashion and disposable products. This provoked her to create the collection ‘Waste not, want not’.  The collection aims to emphasise and encourage collaboration between manufacturers and designers to harness the potential of textile mill waste and utilise this resource for the benefit of both the industry and the designer.

The collection consists of handwoven body adornments and fashion accessories made entirely from textile industry waste including reams of beautiful waste silk, miscellaneous fibres and ‘deadstock’ materials from textile mills in the UK.

The collection was shortlisted for the LVMH x MAISON/0 Green Trail awards 2019 as well as The Mills Fabrica sustainability prize 2019. The collection was then shown as part of the London Design festival exhibition ‘Designing in Turbulent Times’ amongst other provoking Central Saint Martin’s graduate projects. Rowbotham finished 2019 being featured as ‘one to watch’ in the winter issue of textile publication, Cover magazine.

Starting the new year, pieces from the ‘Waste not, Want not’ collection were showcased as part of the innovation hub in the Sustainable Angles 9th Future Fabrics Expo; the world’s largest showcase of sustainable materials for the future fashion industry.

Rowbotham continues to pursue her fascination for a more circular fashion and textile industry through the aid of craft and design working in collaboration with Evan James Design to create interior accessories for the Surface Design Show 2020. Continue reading →

Profile: Orkney Cloth Company

7 February 2020 |
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Orkney Cloth Company
Orkney had a rich heritage of textile weaving which had been lost for over 30 years, and the Orkney Cloth Company is hoping to revive it once again.

Weaving in Orkney completely disappeared in the mid-1970s, when the two mills, Argarden and Sclaters closed. Orkney’s cloth was once more renown than Harris Tweed, well regarded for its softness and lightness, and sold all over the world. Unlike Harris Tweed, without a well known tradition of weaving, Orkney tweed weavers were able to create new and contemporary designs, using bold accent colours.

However, by the mid-1970’s the industry had moved on, with the arrival of ready to wear garments and synthetic materials. Their reluctance to invest in wider looms meant that Harris Tweed had the competitive advantage, and both mills closed down.

The Orkney Cloth Company was started by India Johnson, who aims to revive the industry once again. After arriving in Orkney on a graduate weaving placement with ScotGrad and Orkney Creative Hub in October 2018, she began teaching hand weaving.

Continue reading →

Exhibition: Ruth Holt

7 February 2020 |
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Ruth Holt is based in  a studio in Halesworth, Suffolk.  Since 2012 she has exhibited regularly with Suffolk Craft Society and other galleries including the Scottish Gallery and Shipyard Gallery in Wivenhoe.

Ruth designed and then commissioned Whitchurch Silk Mill, a traditional Victorian Mill,  to weave cloth for a limited edition of scarves for the Society of Apothecaries (a City Livery Company). Continue reading →

Grants: The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers

17 January 2020 |
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The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers aim to encourage and support weavers in the United Kingdom to enjoy artistic freedom so that they may contribute to the development of handweaving and the education of future weavers.

Biennially they award grants to younger weavers in the early stages of their careers who show potential and commitment, as well as to more experienced weavers for a particular project or for time out to develop their work.

Those who have recently completed higher education need to have two 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.

Trust information
The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers has been in existence since 1990 and aims to be a valuable resource for both young and experienced weavers. The Trustees want to ensure that the grants that are made enable individual weavers to maintain a high standard of work, and through this, to promote weaving as an art form.

Often a small grant can make all the difference at a key stage of development, by allowing time to think through ideas, train in a particular technique, or through the provision of a physical space or equipment. Short-listed applicants are interviewed, so that they can talk through their work in detail with Trustees.

Full details of the application process can be found on their grants page.

Grant details
Grants are awarded biennially.
The closing date for the next application is 1st March 2020.
Applications received after this date will not be considered.

Selection date: 9 March 2020 Interview date: 23 March 2020

Scholarship: Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust

12 January 2020 |
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The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) offers Scholarships of up to £18,000 for the training and education of talented craftspeople. They want to sustain vital skills in traditional and contemporary crafts and contribute to excellence in the British craft industry.

About the Scholarships
Who can apply?
Their QEST Scholarships fund the education and training of any individual UK resident, aged 17 or older, who would like to improve their craft skills.

What do they fund?
QEST funds traditional college courses, vocational training or one to one training with a master craftsperson.

They want to support excellence in British craftsmanship so are looking for established makers, planning to stay in the UK and contribute to the craft sector.

They encourage applications from a broad range of crafts and are excited by contemporary craftsmanship and innovative applications of traditional craft techniques. To see the types of craft they have funded, and the standard of excellence they are looking for please review their Alumni page.

In addition to training costs, they can cover costs directly related to your training such as transport, equipment, materials, accommodation and living costs as long as it is proportionate to the grant request. Continue reading →

Job: Hand Weaving Assistant | Araminta Campbell

3 January 2020 |
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Araminta Campbell
Embracing traditional craftsmanship and timeless design, Araminta Campbell create textiles that express Scotland’s natural beauty and weaving heritage.

As a small team of designers and artisans, they keep things personal and put quality at the heart of everything they do.

Their mission is to create beautiful products that stand the test of time as well as helping to sustain the traditional skills, rural suppliers and talented craftspeople of the British Isles.

From their weaving studio in Edinburgh they hand craft their Signature collection of British alpaca accessories as well as offering Minta, their contemporary interiors line and the Heritage bespoke tweed and tartan service. Continue reading →

Happy New Year 2020 : The Weave Shed

1 January 2020 |
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Photograph: Adam Briggs

Exhibition: Over Under : Under Over

21 December 2019 |
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Over Under : Under Over
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Upper Galleries
Dates: 22nd December – January 30th 2020

Exploring Weave in its widest context. Presented by the Cordis Trust.

The Cordis Trust are presenting a special exhibition in conjunction with Visual Arts Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. Over Under : Under Over explores weave in its widest context through the work of six contemporary artists.

The work of Elizabeth Ashdown, Celia Pym, Dail Behennah, Sue Lawty, Sarah Jane Henderson and Sadhvi Jawa have been brought together in order to explore the wider applications of the woven form.

Cordis states:
‘Straying from their usual adherence to the traditional principles of woven Gobelin tapestry, this project aims to explore the wider applications of the woven form. Cordis have selected six artists whose work is constructed in a similar way to tapestry, or whose techniques resonate with the principles of weaving, whether that be through the interlacing of materials or of repetitive gesture’.

Text & Images: Elizabeth Ashdown/Cordis

Woven Jacquard Engineered Garment Research: Graysha Audren | Maike Jansen

20 December 2019 |
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Graduate Research Weaver Profiles: Graysha Audren | Maike Jansen

Seamless by Graysha Audren
Textile designer, Graysha Audren is a recent weave graduate of Central Saint Martins with a focus on sustainable innovation.  She believes good designers are problem solvers at heart with the power to invoke change, disrupt systems, and design out inefficiencies. The textile industry interweaves global politics, economics, trade, society, and business. The industry is a web of complicated supply chains where sustainability needs design-led systemic transparency. To change the entire system and to affect real change, Graysha focuses holistically on questioning inefficient and unsustainable systems, starting at the beginning: the making of the cloth.

Her current project, Seamless, exhibited at the London Design Festival in partnership with Maison/0 and LVMH, proposes a revolutionary way of seamlessly weaving clothing for material waste reduction and supply chain efficiency. Continue reading →

Exhibition: African Textiles from the Karun Thakar Collection

6 December 2019 |
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SOAS is hosting an exquisite exhibition at their Brunei Gallery of African Textiles from the Karun Thakar Collection,  arguably one of the world’s largest private collections of African textiles. Featuring high quality material, that highlights the sophistication of historical African textiles art and design, which have been little understood and appreciated, the exhibition will examine the links between west and north African textile traditions through a selection of important and rare examples of textile art, being shown here for the first time.

The exhibition  includes a selection of over 150 exhibits and textiles from west and north Africa including Morocco, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.

Further details on the Karun Collection can be found by visiting http://www.karuncollection.com/ follow on Instagram @karuncollection and more of the African Textiles Collection can be seen in the book ‘African Textiles’ published by Prestel, 2015.

Closing Date: Dec 14th 2019 5.00pm

Exhibition supported by: HALI Magazine

Text: taken from SOAS.Photograph:Philippa Brock

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