Talks/Lectures/Historical Research

Guilds

"One of the most enjoyable, informative and amusing speakers we have had in a long time was professional weaver Stacey Harvey-Brown. Stacey's enthusiasm is unbounded, her friendly, informal style kept us enthralled and the quality of her work speaks for itself. How I wish I had half her talent and dedication. She is an inspiration to us all'.
Gillie Russell-Mann - Bucks Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers

I give several talks/presentations to guilds – Weavers, Spinners & Dyers, Embroiders Guilds, WIs etc – based on my work. Here are some titles and brief descriptions.

Ever Increasing Circles - the subtle influence of designs and synchronicity. How ideas can come to you and how to take advantage of them when they do by connection with co-incidences. The talk is about moving outside your comfort zone with confidence and thinking laterally and creatively so you can do what you are dreaming of doing with your craft.

"Stacey's talk on Ever Increasing Circles enthused everyone who heard it. She was a thoroughly organised, professional and engaging speaker, and had an excellent variety of work with her to illustrate her talk and prompt discussion afterwards.I think everyone came away feeling motivated to push beyond their personal comfort zone, in most cases with some idea of how to do it. And everyone thoroughly enjoyed hearing how Stacey had pushed way beyond hers." Wendy Morris - London Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers

The Textural Canvas - Using examples of woven fabrics, this lecture encourages the audience to think about creating structural texture to form interesting dimensional fabric which can be an end product in its own right, or the start of further manipulation. Using examples of my work, I show how the inspiration of a textural fabric occurs to me and the stages I go through to create my version of the texture. For anyone interested in structure and fabrics that go bump, as well as those who like to mix techniques and embrace several crafts to create special effects.

Looming Life - an autobiographical lecture about how I began weaving, personal development, business development and technical development including dobby weaving and jacquard weaving, right up to my current work.

"It was our great pleasure to hear your talk...a most interesting evening. The examples of your work were not only inspiring but so beautifully executed and so original."
Margaret Hansford - Glamorgan Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers

Pictorially Speaking - this lecture shows that you can create images in your loom-controlled weaving without being a tapestry weaver. Utilising several techniques and showing examples of my work, I encourage the audience to dream of what they want to create, and then to work out a way to do it. I illustrate how you can create pictorial images on a table loom, dobby loom and jacquard loom as well as ways which don't include any sort of loom. This is based on my own work.

Hattie’s Tale - short history of jacquard development through to today’s computerised looms, plus the acquiring, moving and re-installing of my 2 ½ ton jacquard loom, my training in Italy and the new use of the loom today.

Here is what Lichfield Embroiderers said about my talk to them :

"Stacey 's enthusiasm is infectious. She is a lively, extremely knowledgable speaker who kept us spell bound with tales of her journey through weaving. I can still envisage her working and learning in Italy and then back home trying to move a huge jacquard loom into her workshop. Stacey is a talented weaver who understands not only her craft but also how to inspire an audience. What a pleasure it was to meet her."

If you would like me to talk on other topics, please contact me with your suggestions.

Fees 2009/10 £95 + 35p/mile. * (From April 2010 - £110 + 35p/mile. * )

Although I am happy to travel anywhere, if the distance is greater than 2 hours travel, I may ask to stay overnight. I am very happy to stay with a host family.
Please note, this is a suggested mileage rate. From time to time, depending on the state of petrol prices, I may have to increase the mileage allowance for bookings taken a year or so in advance. I will always contact you in advance if this is the case.

Lectures (University / Textile colleges)

From Archive to Contemporary Using fabric analysis to inform a modern design approach, using my own research of the Macclesfield Silk Museum's woven archive collection, the ULITA (University of Leeds International Textile Archive) and fabrics from the Warners Textile Archive in Braintree, Essex, as well as including recent research into other UK woven textile collections (see Historical Research below) I show how you can take ideas from the past and use them as a starting point in developing modern, contemporary textiles. This is a PowerPoint presentation with over 200 images to inspire, provoke thought and promote discussion.
Contact me.

Hattie's Tale This is a more in-depth look at the development and history of the jacquard loom, using Hattie as a starting point to go back in time and follow the extraordinary story of drawloom development and the emergence of the jacquard loom and the industrial revolution. It brings the story bang up to date with the development of computerised hand-loom jacquards and shows exciting examples of jacquard weaving from around the world today. This is largely a Powerpoint presentation with real-life samples of hand-jacquard weaving on older looms and a TC-1 hand-jacquard loom.
Contact me.

Historical Research

My interest in historical textiles was awoken when I acquired my jacquard loom and whilst in Florence, Italy I had the opportunity to examine closely C15th and C16th Florentine fabrics, including velvets, brocades, and lampas fabrics at the Bargello Museum. I realised then what a wealth of design and manufacturing talent has been lost since those days and vowed to spend time on historical research into jacquard woven textile archives in the UK.

Since then, I have developed links with Macclesfield Silk Museum, under its director Richard de Peyer, and have spent time researching their extensive archive to ensure the skills of past designers do not get lost to posterity. I gave two lectures in June 2008 at the Complex Weavers' Seminars, held at St Petersburg, Florida. One lecture was on jacquard weaving, historical to present day, both machinery and fabrics and also showed contemporary art work from around the world. The other lecture was on using archive collections as inspiration for designing, and I used research from Lyon (France) at La Maison des Canuts, Soierie Vivante and La Musee des Tissus, the Warner Textile Archive at Braintree, Macclesfield Silk Museum, Wigan, Bolton and Leeds.

I have been carrying on this fascinating research and now have visited the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, and the Paisley Museum in Scotland, and plan to visit St Fagans National Wool Museum in Wales, and also the Irish Linen Centre in Lisburn, N Ireland before presenting a more comprehensive seminar for the Handweavers Guild of America at Convergence in Albuquerque in the summer of 2010.