Have loom – will travel….
Isn't it funny how certain things make a house feel like a home? For me, as a weaver, it has to be a loom! The French house in Gascony now has a working loom in it, and the wonderful and familiar smell of wool yarn means that France is now home!! At the moment, I am...
Art that inspires – Christina Hesford article with textileartist.org
This blog is a sharing of an inspirational article by Christina Hesford in a recent newsletter from www.textileartist.org My last post was singing the praises of this site and it continues to inform and connect textile practitioners and enthusiasts from far and wide....
The Power of Connections
I feel very privileged to be living in an era where being an artist does not mean struggling on your own, trying to justify what you do and why you do it against more 'worthy' occupations. I know - most of us work on our own, and yes, we do end up trying to explain,...
The Power of Dreams
It's amazing to think how a seemingly inconsequential choice can change the whole direction of one's life, isn't it? And yet, so often that is exactly what happens. And once that initial choice has been made, other decisions compound the effect until suddenly you...
The Space Between Awareness and Unconsciousness
This morning I awoke with some ideas about how I can develop something I am working on. We are often aware of waking up, the gradual accumulation of senses bringing us slowly to consciousness, but not the other way around – or maybe that’s just me. And yet, that...
Textile Society Conference – Textiles and Architecture
It's been a while since I posted, but life has been busy. More on that in a blog later this month. However..... The Textile Society 33rd Annual Conference was held at the newly extended Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester this weekend. The topic was Textiles and...
Art and Architecture in Liverpool (a tiny snapshot of one of each!)
Bluecoat Display Centre is currently hosting a small exhibition of artwork based on sculptural textiles and textile-inspired ceramics. Also incorporated are a couple of jewellers inspired by sculptural qualities of textiles. Obviously, being a texture-driven weaver,...
Janus
"Look back to move forwards" - wise words (?) which were said to me more than once before I could understand what it all meant! But it's that time of year again, and this morning I was thinking back to exactly one year ago and what I was doing/thinking then. And no,...
What weaving means to me
I don't know about you, but I get sent a number of requests from students asking for me to complete questionnaires for their dissertation research. Some of them are not thought through and in that case I reply tactfully that they need to do a bit of basic research...
Technology v Longhand – Either/Or or Both? Reading, writing and weaving
Today I chanced across a post on my Facebook feed. I don't usually spend much time on Facebook, but this one article caught my eye and I read further.... http://mic.com/articles/99408/science-has-great-news-for-people-who-read-actual-books I have always had a...
Weaving as Meditation
It's been a while since I last sat down at my AVL to weave serious amounts. In fact, I warped 12 metres on back in February, and threaded up for the Complex Weavers study group samples for Collapse, Pleat & Bump. Those samples were finally woven in May after my...
Ruminations
I must admit to being a little shell-shocked with the past 7 months' activities. It has been a total whirlwind of travelling, teaching, experiencing new places and people and now I have landed back on planet reality! But time to reflect before plunging into the next...