2020 Plans afoot!
Autumn has been late arriving here in Gascony, South West France. It’s a lovely time of year here - the sun is still beautifully warm, the rainy days few and far between, the fields a range of yellows, browns and green which turn golden, orange and russet colours at...
Texture in all its 3-D glory!
Image: Samira Boon, Self-folding fabric. As many of you know, I am a texture fanatic. Creating dimensional surfaces in woven fabric really intrigue, delight and inspire me, often with ideas taken from nature. Philippa Brock has done a lot of research on self-folding...
Floppy Cloth, Simple Dimensional Cloth and Why We Make Things & Why It Matters,
This summer we are having a great time at The Loom Room France with weaving guests and non-weavers alike. The cherries have now been supplanted by the emerging plum harvest, and the swallows have now finished constructing their nest and are laying a number of eggs so...
Summer Weaving Gascon-style!
Happy Summertime! After strong spring sunshine in February (3 weeks), March (3 weeks) and then back to more wintry chills in April and some of May, we are now at the right time of year, with sizzling temperatures, fruiting trees, and new chicks on the way. Weaving...
Jacquard japes and George is looking for a new home!
With Spring well and truly in full bud and leaf, my studio is resounding to the clunk of jacquard looms in action! My lovely babies are now awaiting new designs from an experienced weaver who is coming to learn how to design on these varied and fun looms. These...
Book Review – Craft Economies – Susan Luckman, Nicola Thomas (eds)
Craft Economies Ed Susan Luckman and Nicola Thomas (2018) London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic ‘Comprising a collection of 20 essays from 28 academics, practitioners, Craft Economies spans a wide landscape of craft practices, sites and forms of making from...
Book Review – Steal Like an Artist – Austin Kleon
Steal Like an Artist – 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative Austin Kleon 2012 New York: Workman Publishing If you’re like me, I have always been aware that to copy is a cardinal sin for an artist, and yet, as a classical musician, that is what I was...
New book review – Pattern & Loom – John Becker
Pattern & Loom: a practical study of the development of weaving techniques in China, Western Asia and Europe John Becker (with collaboration of Donald B. Wagner) Nias Press 2nd edition 2014 It's taken me a long time to read this book. I remember posting that I...
Weaving in the field of Science
The end of the year always leads to reflection, and this year I was reading through the essays that I wrote for my MA coursework. Each year we were required to write an essay on contextual studies that we had done through the year, and for my first year, I selected...
Art & Nature
There always seems to be something interesting going on here, whether involving weaving, work on the house, cultural activities in the area or simply watching nature. Firstly, there was a wonderful Complex Weavers Study Day in...
Unexpected Opportunity for Honeycomb Hybrids
We're experiencing a superb crop of figs right now, and figs and honey together are a winning combination, so when an unexpected space opened up in my Honeycomb Hybrids course from 21 - 26 October, I figured (groan) I'd better let you know, just in case you fancy a...
Dye, print, stitch – book review and UK Online Guild series What Inspires Contemporary Weavers?
I know - I'm like a London bus - nothing for a while, then two posts come along together!! Over the summer I've been dipping into a book by Prof Brenda M King that I picked up in April at the Foxlowe's Art Centre in Leek where I had my solo exhibition. Dye, Print,...