Welcome to Musings - The Loom Room Blog

What do jacquard cards and pigsties have in common?  Well, nothing really, except that I’m writing about both in today’s blog!!

Today we uncovered some history in our garden, and I found, by chance, a link to a blog showing jacquard cards used in an architectural way. 

First, whilst I can still remember it (!), here’s the link for the blog… http://maisdcharlottes.blogspot.com/2010/06/oslo-opera-house.html

I just love that jacquard cards have been used in this architectural way!  There is a musical connection here - the rolls of paper that pianolas use to play on were developed in a similar way to the jacquard loom cards, so it’s not quite so bizarre a connection to have the jacquard cards at the Oslo Opera House.  It is a binary code which means either yes, (where there is a hole) or no (where there is just the card). 

In weaving, there are not so many people who know how to translate the pictorial image into the binary code which the loom translates back into the pictorial form, and whilst we can try to change this in a limited way through teaching, it also kind of makes me very proud that I am one of those few and can pass this knowledge on….  I am also very proud to own my 4 sample jacquard hand-looms, and the beast that got me into jacquard in the first place, my industrial power loom from the 1930s, Hattie. 

The magic in the cards has enthralled me since I first set eyes on Hattie back in 2002, and I love that the picture is hidden in plain view within the series of holes in the cards.  It is a hidden language, only expressed through the physicality of weaving, but that expression is vast!  Our modern computerised jacquard hand-looms are wonderful with their ease of production, but there is something special and fundamental about the processes of reading and punching your own cards before the revealing of the picture during the weaving on the loom. 

OK, now for the pigsty bit……

Whilst the rest of the UK, and quite a lot of America, are settling down in front of the TV to watch the opening game of the World Cup for our two sides, I have just been revelling in the uncovering of a piece of history at our house.  Our house is fairly old, 1773 or older, and we have a pigsty.  Actually, we discovered today that we have two pigsties.  What we thought was an outside toilet for a couple of cottages which were demolished at least 30 years ago, turns out to have been converted into two toilets from a second pig-sty in our garden.  Although that’s interesting to us, that’s not what I’m excited about. 

What we discovered was hidden underneath some header stones on the outer wall of the sty. 

3 of the 4 external pig feeding troughs

This is apparently quite rare these days.  The hand-carved stone external feeding troughs were where the slops were chucked and led directly into the glazed troughs inside the pig sty.  Our sties have 4 of these, still in pristine condition, thanks to the stone blocks which have protected them for a long time.  So now we need to cut back all the undergrowth and buddleia which has grown up around them, so that we can show them in their true glory! 

We don’t know the full story of this house.  According to one source, we have a priest’s hole, which was a hidey hole for the catholic priests of rich houses to hide in when Cromwell’s Roundhead forces came searching for them back in the English Civil War of the late 1600s.  This house belonged to an estate, and wasn’t the main residence, being more of a farmhouse, but rumour has it that there was a priest’s hole to the side of the inglenook fire-place upstairs behind a walk-in cupboard in one of the bedrooms.  It was already knocked through to make a larger wardrobe/cupboard when we moved in, and we converted it into an ensuite shower room for one of our guest bedrooms.  If that rumour is true, then the house was built during or before the English Civil War, making it another 80 - 100 years older than 1773.  It has very ancient oak timber beams holding up all the ceilings, and the roof, so we know it’s old, but how old still remains a mystery. 

Enough for now.  If you are a football fan, I hope you enjoyed the game, whatever the result!!  As for me, I’m going to sit out by our fish pond, and enjoy the wonderful weather and the singing of the birds whilst the roads are really quiet!

I am sitting in my hotel room overlooking the bay towards the old Kuwait City.  Through the heat haze and the dust raised by the building works in the city, mingled with the higher dust raised by troops in the desert, I can see the murky outlines of some stunning high rise buildings.  To the far right, on an edge where the land peaks before scalloping back into another sweeping bay, sit the iconic Kuwait Towers - the water towers which are seen on TV whenever Kuwait appears on the news.  I hope to visit them today and to be able to post some images.  They are beautiful with circular mosaic patterns in blues and whites.  These towers used to be the tallest construction in Kuwait, with other buildings restricted to no more than 4 or 5 levels.  That has now changed.  The Liberation Tower, a communications building erected after the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait, topped the height stakes for a short while and that can also be seen from my window.  However, it has now been overtaken by office buildings and the latest under construction which winds around its centre.  Once complete, this building which is being clad in glass will be a very dramatic presence in the business centre of Kuwait. 

It is wonderful to be here, and a bit of a relief!  With the big freeze in Europe, so many flights were cancelled that I nearly didn’t make it at all.  Happily, after 24 hours of delays, lots of queues and many phone calls to try to re-route, I managed to catch a flight to Bahrain and then a connection on to Kuwait.

  My hosts, the Kuwait Textile Arts Association, and especially Patricia Redding who is looking after me, are wonderful people.  The Kuwait Textile Arts Association, which is under the auspices of Al Sadu House, promotes the knowledge and skills of textile related arts in Kuwait and the Gulf region, and they frequently have visiting tutors and lecturers from around the world.  For example, next month, they have a speaker from Mali talking about Mali textiles.  They are also in the beginning stages of organising a textiles tour to China! 

The group is a multicultural non profit organisation and was established under the patronage of Sheikha Altaf Al Salem Al Sabah in October 1994.  The aim to nurture and promote the art and craft of textiles and fibre arts, and to facilitate sharing and exchanging of ideas, knowledge and skills in Kuwait and the Gulf Region.  Membership is open to any person interested in furtheringtheir knowledge of the world of textiles.   If anyone reading this blog is interested in joining, you can contact Patricia at presidentktaa@yahoo.com 

On Saturday morning, I led a Colour and Texture Workshop and met a diverse group of ladies, from countries across Europe, Canada, India, and Kuwait.  English is the language of communication (thankfully for me) and the workshop was held in the Al Sadu House, a beautiful old-style family house near to the Parliament Building in Kuwait City, which was re-opened in January 2007 after extensive renovations.  Al Sadu means weaving in Bedouin, and the house holds an interpretive exhibition about weaving in Kuwait, including the nomadic Bedouin weaving and urban weaving for bisht making.  A weaving co-operative has been set up and visitors may see and learn the skills involved in Sadu weaving. There are several warps set up in one room for weavers to weave.  Goods are sold in the shop, and courses in textiles are held.  Sadu House has instigated a programme for schools to help children learn about the weaving heritage of Kuwait.  There is also a lovely library with many Arabic, English and French books on textiles, including Peter Collingwood’s ‘The Makers Hand’, which was like seeing an old friend!  I have taken a few images but I hope to go back today and take some more to share with you, but photographs are not usually permitted at Al Sadu, so my images will be subject to Sadu House copyright. 

Last night I gave a talk in the central courtyard of Al Sadu House about the history and development of jacquard weaving, and told the story of my jacquard power loom.  There was a full auditorium and the audience was wonderfully attentive.  It was really strange to me to start my talk, only to be faced with some photographers standing right in front of everyone, snapping away!  If this is a tiny taste of paparazzi, then it’s just as well I’ll never be famous!!!  It was really unnerving, but I carried on, chatting away as if they weren’t there.  Apparently, this is quite normal, but it was a new experience for me.  One incredible follow-on to my story of Hattie is that one of my audience was at one time a lecturer in Constructed Textiles at Heriot Watt University in Galashiels, where Hattie lived before coming to me, and she had woven on Hattie!  What are the odds of that - travelling so far to find, quite by chance, someone who actually knew my loom up close and personal from the UK! 

I now have two days to discover more of Kuwait City, in the company of Patricia.  She comes from northern England but has been in Kuwait for many years so is an excellent tour guide!  Tomorrow, I hope to put up images from today’s sight seeing along with more of an explanation of Al Sadu weaving in Kuwait.

Sorry to republish this, but I was asked by Dusan from Arahne to make it clear that Arahne did not charge for my phone calls, but that I was referring to my telecoms provider.  I am more than happy to clarify that, with my apologies if anyone read it that way.  I also forgot to put in the links for my weaving friends, so I’m pleased to have got the opportunity to update those. 

I missed last week’s blog as I was working away on a TC-1, a computer jacquard handloom.  What was even nicer was that I was visiting fellow Complex Weaver, Belinda Rose.  Belinda has a TC-1 set up at the moment for 60 epi and 14″ wide, with 4 modules deep.  She has a black/white warp so that was ideal for utilising double cloth structures.  I was exploring a number of images to create dimensional effects.  I don’t yet know the total outcome as I have still to repair the various ends that need mending and then to photograph the work before shoving it in the washing machine!! 

I’ve been using ArahPaint4 and ArahWeave, and after overcoming some teething problems with the Operating Software, and several expensive (but well worth it) phone calls to Dusan and Anton at Arahne, and a helpful email from fellow weaver and friend Sheila O’Hara, I was able to do what I wanted to do….  The weaving community is a wonderfully warm and helpful one! 

Since I’ve been back in my studio, I’ve mostly been tidying up and getting everything in order so as to de-clutter my mind before I fling myself back into the sample weaving on the AVL dobby loom.  I’ve been thinking how to translate some of my jacquard thinking into dobby weaving, and am looking forward to trying a few things out. 

I find December to be quite a strange month.  There’s the frenetic activity in schools and shops, compared with the quieter times in the studio with less teaching and fewer workshops and lectures.  I actually like this down time.  It’s a time for reflection, a time for planning, a time for re-evaluating priorities.  This economic downturn we’re all in has repercussions for most of us, and I am no exception.  It’s really easy to feel low when the money dries up and times are tough, but we have a choice in how we react to these circumstances.  Today I made my decision -  I’m going to relish the challenge of overcoming the difficulties.  So this winter, I am using my existing stash and not buying any more yarn.  I am selling off yarn I no longer require (such as a 6ply cotton rug warp!!) and some books that I have duplicated.  I am tidying up so that I know what I have, and I am using my book resources combined with my own weaving experience to develop my work.  Technology is wonderful, but I sometimes forget how resourceful we humans can be, and when pushed to it, it’s good to rediscover that side of us. 

One of the many sayings that sounds good to me is “Want what you have, not have what you want”.  Right now, that’s a good place to be!!

I’ve just done a very successful swap.  I had a 16S Harris table loom that is very heavy, takes up a lot of floor space in my studio and isn’t used much.  I suddenly decided that I needed to sell it and buy an 8S table loom that folds away, so that my students don’t find it so daunting, and I have space available when it’s not being used.  Then I started thinking about the logistics of selling one and buying the other and frankly, it felt like a weight was landing on my shoulders!  Just the thought of it made me want to abandon the idea. 

Then I had a little brainwave!  What about a swap?  No money changes hands, someone gets a more sophisticated loom that can do far more in the way of complex weaves, and I get a loom that my students will be happy using, that gives me the floor space I need when I want it. 

My husband thought I was a little cuckoo - after all, downsizing 16 shafts for 8 when you’re a self-confessed shaftaholic seems a little bizarre - but I don’t actually use this loom much myself - it’s way too slow for my multi-shaft weaving, and it’s very heavy trying to transport it for the occasional workshops that I attend.  I could see where he was coming from.  After all, I did pay £700 for this loom just a few years ago.  Probably way too much, but I needed it for something and that was the only one around that I could get to… 

And now I wanted to swap it for something at least half the monetary value.  He has a point.  So I asked him if he’d like to take over the transactions…  Suddenly there were no more objections. 

So I went to the Virtual Market part of the UK Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers, and posted the information in the For Sale part as a swap.  I got three responses, one of which matched my requirements, and we did the swap, meeting midway (roughly) in a motorway service station car park today just before it started raining - again!! 

So there are two people who are happy with the win-win transaction and no money to mess things up!  I like swaps… 

Now, is there anyone out there with a TC-1 computer jacquard handloom to swap with a 1930s industrial jacquard powerloom?????  We could go halves on transport costs!!

I’ve been lacing jacquards cards to make my woven Xmas cards today and whilst doing so, I listened to several CDs, including Jamie Cullum’s Catching Tales, and one song really pushed a button with me. 

“When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life, I see so much magic though I missed it at the time.” 

I had been wondering what to write for my blog this week, and had wanted to write about simple things giving so much pleasure - like my 20-year-old son making a pumpkin lantern this week but not in the normal run-of-the-mill jagged pumpkin faces.  Oh no!  He decided he wanted to create a Japanese anime face, so he quickly drew it on a piece of paper, and then disappeared into the kitchen where he spent about 30 mins carefully carving the image, and using permanent marker and rafia to decorate it.  I loved it!  A pumpkin lantern with a difference!  It looked really good with the tea light lit!  The pleasure he had in making it was touching in these days of computer interaction with games, social networking and chat rooms! 

We’ve had quite a few of those days recently when you start out with a glorious day and by mid-morning, it’s turned grey.  Whilst walking Charlie during one of these with its beautifully blue skies which accompany a frosty morning and early sunshine, I reflected on the fact that blue sky is always there - although we don’t always see it or remember that it’s there.  It just seemed to me to be one of those magical things - although of course, there’s no magic whatsoever about it.  But just for a minute, indulge me.  If we suddenly remember that there’s a blue sky above the ranks of grey clouds, it can lift our mood.  If we can recall the sunshine and how we feel when we see the sun, we can lift ourselves out of a sombre mood, and smile.

I know this is really easy for me to say at the moment.  Nothing sad or traumatic is happening in my life right now so I’m thinking these thoughts from a positive, optimistic mind set.  I know it’s much harder to imagine when life is doing its thing and dumping on you from a great height.  Still, if we can remember the better times when our hearts are lifted by the simple things in life, it can help us through the tougher times. 

So, remember the blue skies and look for something to raise your spirits when you’re feeling down.  Little Chinese lantern seedpods in their lattice work cages did it for me this evening…

I don’t often write about what I’m up to, but the reason you haven’t heard from me in the last 2 weeks is because I’ve been in Montreal.  I ostensibly booked a week on the intermediate jacquard course with Louise Lemieux Berube at the Centre for Contemporary Textiles in Montreal, but I added the two weekends either side so that I would have time to look around Montreal, and also allow myself time to complete work if I needed it.  As it happened, I managed to complete all the work within the 5 days so I had the extra 2 1/2 days to explore some more.  I stayed at a wonderful B&B - a tiny room and a shared bathroom, but so quirky and served breakfast by 2 lovely lads with freshly baked (on the premises) croissants every morning, and interesting fellow guests to chat to over breakfast.  Because I had the luxury of several days to look around, I didn’t feel the usual pressure of rushing to see everything at once.  In fact, on the first day, I only visited one museum, the Science Museum, which was great fun! 

Montreal is a vibrant place.  Although French is the first language, everyone seems to be bilingual and as soon as I asked something in my halting French, I was answered in perfect English!  The City of Montreal does its best to promote Canadian makers and I really enjoyed browsing in the galleries and quality craft shops in the evenings.  There are also 2 great contemporary art galleries, and a fine arts gallery, and I also managed to fit in a visit to the Redpath Museum which houses archeological artefacts and minerals.  St Catherine’s is a great street for clothes shopping.  In fact, everywhere around Montreal there are little pockets of great shops and restaurants.  You turn a corner and voila, another little gem of a square or area where there are loads of quality eateries (!) and shops. 

I’m not a city person, but I loved Montreal!  It feels very safe to a woman travelling on her own.  The people are warm and genuinely friendly.  The temperature was quite high and humid whilst I was there, although the weather has not generally been good in Montreal this year (as in most places I know!!) but I did wonder to myself how it would feel in the depths of winter when it can reach 40 below and they have an underground city to alleviate having to go outside too much in blizzards and freezing conditions. 

My fellow students were fun, and we shared a lovely meal together in the middle of the week.  On the Friday night, three of us decided to go out together to the old town and have a look around some of the galleries and share a meal together - we ended up having crepes which were sweet with a filling of curried chicken and Swiss cheese!!  A very different experience!! 

I hadn’t realised that I wouldn’t be doing any weaving, and I was quite looking forward to trying out the Samtex jacquard to see how it compares with the TC-1 and the Jacq3G, so I was a little disappointed about that.  However, it was quite nice to spend the time designing, and not have to wait in line to weave my 400 picks.  Because there were 13 of us on the course, not all the designs could be woven whilst we were there, so I’m waiting on a parcel arriving in the post sometime soon.  It would have been lovely to have seen everyone else’s work actually woven and to have learnt from each other’s successes and mistakes, but I guess that’s the drawback of a week.  Some folk had been at the previous week’s course - an introduction to Photoshop and Pointcarre software, whilst others had previously attended the intermediate course.  I was at a slight disadvantage through not knowing Photoshop as well as I perhaps should have, but Louise was kind enough to help me in the initial stages where I required Photoshop, and then I worked in Pointcarre.  I last encountered Pointcarre in 2004 when I went to the Lisio Foundation to learn jacquard weaving, so at least I had some experience with it, and it’s not so different from other jacquard software which I have used, such as Scotweave and ArahWeave.  There are some really useful gizmos in the programme, but not enough in my mind to justify the huge price tag.  For value for money for individual weavers, ArahWeave comes out way on top, in my opinion.  The only drawback is it uses Linux, and that’s a whole new ball game if you’ve been weaned on Windows!  Still, all this learning keeps the mind active and that’s no bad thing! 

So I’m back with a deeper understanding of what I’m doing when I design for my sample jacquards, and hopefully it’ll make me a better teacher as well.

You know how there sometimes seems to be a time when many things relating to the same subject seem to slot into place – whether it is a political mood such as we saw in the US and in the UK and elsewhere during this recession, or a vogue for an artform such as glass or ceramics where they suddenly become more popular with the general public – well, it seems to me that textiles are currently enjoying a rise in fortune, and along with that, jacquard weaving.

I know I’m biased, but there seems to be a resurgence of interest in this creative mode of weaving, largely due to the increased and cheaper availability of computerised jacquard looms suitable for study in university or the private studio.  Jacquard weaving has more of a presence now in conference topics and exhibitions and in textiles courses at university and this leads directly to increased interest in past techniques, historic  equipment and contemporary interpretation.

I find it really interesting and exciting to be involved in jacquard weaving.  My particular take isn’t a traditional one, although I use old looms and employ historic techniques of cutting cards, and lacing the cards together.  I find that having to use these old techniques has taught me so much about designing successfully for jacquard, especially as my looms only have small repeat sizes and different methods of repeat.  This is where you miss out if you do everything by computer.  That ‘up close and personal’ method of creating a mise-en-carte and ensuring it is going to repeat correctly, and working it so that you can use the same mise-en-carte to be able to cut several different versions of the same design, is something that just using the computer with a non-repeating design page will never give you. 

The possibilities of the non-repeating huge hook potential of some of the computerised hand jacquard looms is very exciting, but you can learn so much from having to keep within certain boundaries.  You can push those boundaries to the very limits and then some!  Sometimes unlimited choice is too much and you need to reduce your focus so that you can develop skills and knowledge. 

This is being brought home to me particularly at the moment as I have a student from New Zealand with me who is firstly learning with me, and then will be developing her skills further with Vibeke Vestby at the ETN conference workshops in July in Linz.  Agnes Hauptli is an experienced weaver but she has never woven on jacquards before, and studying on my sample hand-jacquards and visiting Macclesfield Silk Museum and Paradise Mill has given her an understanding that she just wouldn’t have had if she had learnt purely on a computerised hand jacquard loom. 

With conferences such as the ETN conference in July, with its emphasis on education and exhibition of jacquard work, as well as the interesting conference on jacquard held in North Carolina in January this year, jacquard is enjoying a well-deserved place in the sun.  How long it lasts is anyone’s guess, but whilst it is here, museums are set to benefit as well.  Museums such as Macclesfield Silk Museum, Whitchurch Silk Museum, Tilburg Textile Museum, and many others are wonderful centres of heritage equipment who are working with existing practitioners and new designers to make their museums relevant to today’s visitor as well as keeping alive the traditional skills that are in grave danger of disappearing. 

There is room for both computerised jacquard looms and the old traditional ways of doing things.  For me, creating a mise-en-carte, cutting and lacing my cards, whilst occasionally frustrating in the length of time it takes, is also a way of feeling connected to the weavers of the past, and elsewhere in the world.  It is a way of checking, double-checking and confirming that the design decisions I’ve made are good ones and of understanding deeply the main fundamentals of jacquard weaving.  With the computerised looms, there is increased accessibility for people from non-textile and non-weaving backgrounds. 

The computer age has enabled its technological predecessor to take centre stage again.  Long may it continue!!

With a title like that, you would be forgiven for thinking that I am going to talk about Kate Adie, BBC reporter extraordinaire, as that’s the title of her autobiography.  That may come once I’ve read the book, but in the meantime, last weekend, I visited the Stroud International Textile Festival, a festival that’s been going for a few years in the Cotswolds, and one that has increased in stature over the years. 

This year, of special interest to me was a lecture series involving some textile artists and weavers who I respect and wanted to meet.  The first of these is Michael Brennand-Wood, well known in the UK and Europe, but less so in the US I think.  I have met Michael on a number of occasions, but particularly wanted to see his latest work and hear him talk as he is coming to be our lead speaker at the Midlands Textile Forum Symposium in November.  The talk was interesting and thought-provoking, and I’ll look forward to hearing more from him later in the year. 

The other speaker who I wanted to hear over the course of that weekend is Philippa Brock, the Weave Leader at Central St Martins, London, who was showing slides and actual fabric from a wonderful project she’s been doing in collaboration with Sir Aaron Klug, Nobel Laureate.  I had heard about Philippa from a number of sources, but could never find any information on her other than her connection with Central St Martins and she’s working in an area of textiles that really interests me.  I love science, art and nature, and her involvement with a sci-art project on this sort of scale was something I just had to find out more about.  Her lecture was also informative, insightful and stimulating and I got the chance to chat with her before the lecture. 

Anyway, the title of this post doesn’t actually refer to the festival, but to a wonderful couple I stayed with.  I’m usually pretty well organised when it comes to going anywhere, but this time, I managed to get up late, meet up with other dog walkers and make myself reaaaaaally late in getting going, so I bundled everything I needed into a larger bag, and set off in a hurry.  I had one of those vague feelings that I’d forgotten something, but it was only when I pulled into the local supermarket car park to grab something to eat before Michael’s lecture, that I realised what it was!  I had forgotten to transfer my wallet, complete with all my cash and cards, from my usual bag to the one I was using.  Ironically, I had actually gone back to pick up a few business cards which are the usual thing I forget!!

You can imagine – for a second, total blind panic.  Then I breathed again, and the heat flooded through me as I berated myself for being such a total brainless idiot!  Then some deep breathing while I tried to calm my thoughts so I could actually do some useful thinking.  Well, since I was there already, it would be daft to go all the way back without hearing at least one of the lectures I’d travelled 120 miles to attend, so I went to the lecture.  Sitting calming myself before it started, I thought – ‘Oh well, hopefully something will sort itself out’, so I focused on the talk, deciding to deal with the problem later.

After the talk, I went for a walk through the park.  I rang my husband and explained the situation to him, and bless him, he was prepared to meet me half-way with my wallet, but I knew he had a concert to play in and that would cut into his free-time and possibly make him late if the traffic was bad.  I had the phone number of the B&B people I was due to stay with, but they were out, so I left a message.  A short while later I had a reply.  No problems, I could stay there as planned, they would lend me some money for an evening meal (thankfully I had a bag of mixed fruit & nuts in the car, and a bottle of water) and whatever I needed for the following day and I could send them a cheque when I returned home.  And these are people I had never even met!

When I met up with Terry and Nan Dyer, my hosts at Silver Street Farmhouse, in Coaley, Worcestershire, I couldn’t have hoped for a more lovely couple.  The wonderful smell of fresh homemade bread wafted out of the kitchen, and then Nan brought me a couple of thick slices of the warm bread for me to keep me going until my evening meal!  The room was a lovely attic room in their farmhouse from the 1600s, there was tea and coffee, and I was able to relax and count my blessings.  The meal at a local pub was good with a lovely walk through country paths, across fields and bluebell woods and I watched the sun go down over the horizon on the way back.  After a great night’s sleep, breakfast was guaranteed to last me the whole day until I got home! 

So if ever you find yourself in the beautiful area of Stroud, do make a point of visiting Terry and Nan Dyer for a night’s B&B and say that I recommended them.  One good turn deserves another!  They were wonderfully kind and generous to a stranger!

One of the lessons that weaving teaches is patience.  All kinds of patience - the ‘take a deep breath and count to 10’ patience when something easily preventable happens;  the ‘am I dedicated enough to the quality of this piece that I unweave those picks to sort out that mistake?’ patience;  the ‘can I be disciplined enough to weave a sample to check how it’s going to end up when wet-finished?’ patience; and just the normal sort of patience that you need to go and fix that broken end rather than weave on.

I think weaving should be compulsory to teach patience!  I am smiling as I write those words because I know that many would disagree with me, and to some extent, I disagree with myself!  Patience is a valuable life lesson to learn and many of us find that, through our weaving, we are more patient with other people, and also with things that go wrong just for the sheer hell of it!!  On the other hand, would I want weaving to be seen as a life’s lesson?  No, of course not.  If someone has no interest in it, it would be purgatory for them and put them off weaving for life – like liver and peas for me!! 

And of course, we learn best when we are doing something we enjoy.  There are many other ways to learn patience, but for me weaving has been the best teacher.  I can’t honestly say that it works every time.  Just today, one of my baby jacquard looms was having a hissy fit – not lifting certain ends – and in the end I realised it was down to my lack of a maintenance routine on the card-cutting and lacing equipment, and the loom itself.  Whilst I realised and appreciated that, I was somewhat frustrated because I was in the middle of weaving a project, and the cards were not presenting themselves accurately to the jacquard head which meant that quite a few cards ended up mangled with resultant mis-picks.  At the beginning of my 2 hour session, I went up and down the ladder quite frequently, and with a certain amount of laissez-faire.  By the end of my 2 hour session, I was more bad-tempered whenever the recalcitrant cards came up, and less likely to go up the ladder to fix it.  A salutary tale to remind me that maintenance must be done when I’m not actually using the machinery!!! 

Patience with machinery is one thing – they can’t answer back so it doesn’t matter if you vent a little – but patience with people is totally different.  Some people are incredibly patient – I’m thinking particularly here about people who care for little ones, for the elderly, for people with disabilities, to name but a few – and they are never valued financially as they should be.  Trying to be patient with my little problems in weaving makes me appreciate much more the incredible job that so many people do for so little reward. 

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I’m in the US to attend a conference on innovative textiles and digital technology in jacquard weaving. It was run by the Centre for Craft, Creativity & Design at Hendersonville, in south North Carolina and took place at the Blue Ridge Community College.

Inspired Design: Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textiles featured speakers from the US, Canada, UK, Scandinavia and Australia and presented a wide range of fields across five design growth areas of Smart Textiles, Performance and Interactive Textiles, Textiles for Boutique Clothing, Interior Design Textiles and Corporate & Public Art Textile Commissions. The delegates were largely a mixture of educators, students and professional textile artists. It was an exhilarating and full-on conference with each speaker hard on the heels of the one before, interspersed with breakout sessions between each topic area, and a key-note speaker from different fields on each day. An exhibition including works from the speakers as well as other artists was held in conjunction with the conference, with its own comprehensive catalogue.

Conferences like this are essential, I think, as they pull us out of our daily routines and force us to connect intensively with other ideas, concepts and people in a flurry of activity and connections before depositing us once more in our normal environment but with a brain buzzing with juxtapositions, key phrases, ‘aha’ moments, and many new possibilities. It takes time to filter this intensive experience and to emerge with a path that may or may not incorporate some of the thoughts that arose from this communication with others.

Some of the key points to come across time and time again in this conference was communication, connection, collaboration and disruptive thinking (neat – cccd!) and that was also the essence of any meeting like this. New people to meet; faces to fit to names that you know, have corresponded with, have read articles by; conversations that lead you to wanting to work with someone and a whole host of new possibilities thrown into the arena by inspiring speakers. It’s like a smorgasbord for the brain!

Such over-stimulation leads to sleepless nights as your brain whirls and swirls, trying to make sense of what you’ve absorbed, but it also leads to new work, exciting research, and new partnerships.

To me, as important as the seminars are, the social interaction is as vital a part of the experience. The chance dinner partners, the discussions over coffee, the shared bus rides, even a random comment whilst washing hands in the rest room, can be pivotal in a change of course or the way you might think about something Serendipity plays a big part in these events and can lead to long-term friendship and collaborations.

So a huge debt of gratitude and thanks goes to everyone who comes forward to organise such events; in this case, Dian Magie, Katie Lee, Terri Gibson, Catharine Ellis, Bethanne Knudson, and all those wonderful assistants and drivers, all fellow artists, who made it happen, and to the speakers who gave us so much brain fodder!

The knock-on effect from events like these is incalculable! Wouldn’t it be fun to canvas delegates in 5 years time and see how this event changed lives – artistically or otherwise? Or even an exhibition of work stemming directly from attendance at this conference? I think the results would be fascinating!