Trainee Sales and Design AssistantÂ
The Humphries Weaving Company Ltd.
Humphries Weaving is a leading British manufacturer of custom Jacquard fabrics, gaining an international reputation in weaving fine furnishings.
With a varied portfolio of works they undertake client led projects for prestigious historical restorations, alongside the high end decorator market. They are looking to recruit a Trainee Sales and Design Assistant to join their team.
The 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.
This 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.
2015Â residencies will run from approximately 10 – 31 August.
Symposium: 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.
Speakers 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.â€
The Design in Motion exhibition has been touring since Feb 2015 and will continue to tour across various venues. Click on link to find where it is currently and where it is going to.
Design in Motion, a collaboration with the Travelling Gallery, is part of our pre-opening programme. The designers featured all use digital technologies to push the boundaries of their discipline, enabling them to experiment, play and innovate. The exhibition demonstrates how design can be put to work to reconstruct our heritage, visualise the unseen, and create products not previously possible.
Designers featured are: Sara Robertson & Sarah Taylor, Anarkik3D, Digital Design Studio, Holly Fulton, Sophia George, Lynne Maclachlan, Geoffrey Mann
Text and images: Crafts council and Design in Motion website
The Handweavers Diploma Exhibition will be showcasing the work of the students of the 2013-15 course Dates: 1-25 June 2015 Time: 10:00-18:00, Mon-Sat Venue: The Handweavers Studio & Gallery 140 Seven Sisters Road London N7 7NS Continue reading →
Agnes Hauptli and Stacey Harvey-Brown will be giving two days of artists talks at Garnlager, Lyssach, Switzerland on 28th May and 6th June. Their exhibition, Nature in the Making, is on show until 7th June 2015.
Susie Taylor has an extensive background weaving on shaft looms and has 11 years experience designing high-end jacquard fabrics for the upholstery market. She has spent many years hand manipulating yarns, on the loom, to produce multi-layered structures and in 2012 she received the Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Certificate of Excellence in Handweaving, Level 1. Her work is exhibited extensively.
Susie combines hand-manipulated techniques with loom-controlled structures. Currently, she creates dimensional textiles that incorporate origami and weaving techniques together to create new woven forms without any cutting or sewing; only weaving and folding are used.
This work originates on the loom where discontinuous pleats are engineered and constructed as the groundcloth is woven; everything starts as a single layer of handwoven cloth. Continue reading →
The Heritage Craft Association Conference Sat 9th May 2015
‘A Place for Craft’ is the theme for this year’s conference on Saturday 9th May at the V&A Museum – which will place makers and craftspeople at the heart of the conference and the discussions.
The conference will highlight the relationship between crafts and location – focusing on those crafts which have developed in particular regions or locations, and why craftspeople have chosen to live and work in areas with a special tie to their craft. Speakers include Sir Christopher Frayling and Genevieve Sioka, artisan buyer for the National Trust, and makers and craftspeople will again be able to bring and exhibit the tools of their trade at the conference.
The conference falls during London Craft Week, 6-10 May. The HCA is a strategic partner for London Craft. This inaugural festival will celebrate traditional skills and new talent, and showcase the work and expertise of craftspeople in major galleries and individual workspaces across London. During the festival, the HCA will hold the first HCA craft photography exhibition, featuring finalists of a competition run by the HCA and sponsored by Furniture Village, at the Prince’s Foundation in Shoreditch
London 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 →
Katharine Swailes and Caron Penney will be exhibiting at Zimmer Stewart Gallery June 6 – 27th 2015. They both travelled repeatedly to New York City over a twelve year period whilst working on a large commission. During this influential time both artists were inspired by the urban landscape, street architecture, museum collections and natural environment. Mapping this journey through photography, note taking and sketches to their resulting work in woven textiles.
 ‘Manhattan’ is the beginning of a new chapter for both the artists, one which has involved shedding the past and emerging into new avenues.
 Swailes has created textiles for over 20 years, specifically working in tapestry for the last two decades. She specialises in both conventional flat wall works and smaller three-dimensional, sculptural pieces – as well as weaving large scale commissions at West Dean Tapestry Studio. Swailes is interested in the constructively open ended nature of the medium.
 Recent works explore the textures, systems and structure of Central Manhattan – using a limited palette of techniques, materials and colour. The inclusion of gold thread offers a contrast in structure to the natural fibres of cotton, linen and wool. This latest series of works draws on the collections in museums, the parks and streets of Manhattan.
 Penney has also been producing tapestries for over 20 years and is a Master Tapestry Weaver. As well as working on high-profile commissions for the West Dean Tapestry Studio and her own Weftfaced Tapestry Workshop, Penney is a prolific exhibition-led weaver in her own right. ‘A defining characteristic of her oeuvre as an artist is the use of visual semiotics in expressing autobiographical themes’ (from Tapestry, A Woven Narrative: Black Dog Publishing 2012).