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Monday 14 March 2011

Wonders of Weaving

Hellooo – happy Monday. Hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was magnificent in no small part due to the weather being distinctly spring like.
As it's Monday I am talking textiles. This is my first attempt at peg loom weaving.


Inspired by contemporary weaving with unusual yarns I had a go at making my first woven wall hanging.
The process was very relaxing due to the monotonous, rhythmic nature of the task and was it was ultimately rewarding to see the piece growing and developing. In the future I would love to weave with fabric and yarns I have dyed myself.
The beauty of weaving is that is can be done at a very basic level with young children or at an extremely high level on very complex looms. This weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting Farfield Mill  in Cumbria. (More about that on Friday) The Mill is a wonderful mix of the traditional and the contemporary and I got to see a traditional Dobcross loom being used. These looms were made from 1861 to 1970 and exported all over the world. They are extrememly noisy when in use and it is impossible to have a conversation when weaving.


There were many different sizes and types of looms to see and you could even try some out.





There was also an exhibition at the Mill called Pairings, by various artists from different backgrounds. These included cross-disciplinary collaborations from 32 different makers/designers. I was especially interested to see the pieces which incorporated weaving/glass and felt/glass. It's amazing what can be achieved by working outside the box. It got me thinking how I could merge different textile techniques in my own work.


(Margaret Eccleston & Kirsteen Aubrey -reflections on glass through weave structures) 

If you're interested in seeing the exhibition, it is running at Farfield Mill until Sun 3rd April.
Hope you're inspired to try a little weaving of your own. If you need somewhere to start check out this utube video. If you want more weaving inspiration take a look at http://www.sandrarude.blogspot.com/

Share your weaving experiences. Don't be shy. x



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