The Clothworkers Foundation Awards

Just saw this on the Artists Newsletter website, and thought I must share the opportunity as its so rare to something of this ilk just to support weavers.  Look forward to hearing about the successful recipients of the awards in due course.

The Clothworkers Foundation Awards

WHO: weavers who demonstrate entrepreneurial spirit as well as creative excellence and craft skills.
WHAT: the Cockpit Arts/The Clothworkers' Foundation Awards helps weavers to set-up in business. The selection panel includes the acclaimed ikat weaver and designer, Mary Restieaux.
PAYMENTS: there are 6 Awards available. The award provides studio space and business support as well as shared use of looms within the creative community of Cockpit Arts at Deptford. 5 Awards are worth £2,000 with the remaining £2,000 fee being provided by the Award winners, payable on a monthly basis. 1 Award is worth £4,000 covering the full fee, awarded to a weaver taking responsibility for managing the weaving studio including shared access to looms and equipment and their maintenance (costs paid for by Cockpit Arts).
APPLY: full details available online.
www.cockpitarts.com/studios-support/awards
Deadline: 12 December 2011

Job vacancy: 0.6 Weave lecturer / senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University

Just thought I'd let you all know that Nottingham Trent University is currently advertising for a 0.6 Weave lecturer / senior lecturer. I've done a little teaching there - it's a great textiles department with supportive colleagues. Kinda wish I could do the job, but there isn't enough hours in the day, plus its a bit of a trek from South Wales! Further info here: http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/4369403/lecturer-senior-lecturer-post-ref-no-d1185-/

Ismini Samanidou & Gary Allson

CNC drawing derived from woven structures



CNC milled wood

Jacquard woven fabric



CNC drawing derived from woven structures





CNC drawing derived from woven structures
This particular drawing makes my heart skip a beat - I love it!

 

Jacquard woven fabric



CNC milled wood

CNC milled wood

CNC milled wood

Jacquard woven fabric

Jacquard woven fabric

In last years warp+weft exhibition that I curated for Oriel Myrddin Gallery, I was really excited to present the beginnings of a new body of work by jacquard weaver Ismini Samanidou in collaboration with Gary Allson. The work was a new exploration into digital mark making and CNC milled wood surfaces derived from woven fabrics. The samples were extremely well received and has left many waiting for the 'what next'. Well today I received an email from Ismini letting me know about a very exciting new exhibition entitled Craft Code for which she and Gary have created a new body of work that builds upon the warp+weft exhibits. Above are some images of the work you can see in the show which is at the Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives, Cornwall from the 11th Sept until the 30th October.  Having seen these photographs I'm super-curious to see the work in the flesh...... gonna have to figure out how I can squeeze a Cornwall trip in the coming weeks!  

Below is the text relating to their work from the exhibition catalogue published by the gallery:

Cornwall based Gary Allson trained at Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London graduating in 2001. Whilst at the RCA Allson specialised in design products. For a number of years Gary worked in industry including Raffo Design Associates and Habitat. His research interests and practice involve the use of digital production and cross discipline collaborations. Gary combines his practice with teaching at University College Falmouthprimary material is timber and through the use of hand processes he develops explorative surfaces and forms that are both functional and ornamental. Gary Allson regularly exhibits at the Crafts Council’s ‘Origin’.

Ismini Samanidou trained at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, London specialising in weaving. Her practice involves designing and making textiles for exhibitions, commissions and collaborations focusing on the use of digital weaving technology. Ismini has travelled and researched textile techniques worldwide, most recently spending 9 weeks in Bangladesh as an artist in residence with the British Council’s New Silk Road project. In 2004 she was awarded the Crafts Council’s Next Move residency, in 2006 she received the Crafts Council Development Award and in 2009 was jointly given the Jerwood Contemporary Makers award for Timeline – a large scale textile installation. Public collections include: The Worshipful Company of Weavers (permanent textile collection at V&A), National Grid Transco, Central Saint Martins’ Archive.

The work is developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration exploring the relationship between weaving, milling and drawing. The three processes are linked by digital making technologies, methods of manipulating information where computer data is transferred from one object to another. This invisible information is visible in the surface of the made objects and the pieces are exhibited as a connected sequence. Surface is the key focus for the 3 different materials: wood, paper and weaving. It is the common qualities of these materials and their relationship with each other that form the basis for this body of work.

Tonal variation, grain pattern, and surface qualities of the timber contribute uncontrolled, and to a large extent uncontrollable organic elements. Timber as a material, changes form and size due to differing densities within, and to different environmental conditions. It continues to change through its life, all un-prescribed properties. This stands in contrast to the nature of the controlled digitally cut surface which is an ‘out put’ of a set of numerical instructions with stable, known accuracy.

The textiles are woven on a computerised jacquard loom using cotton, paper, silk and linen. The mechanical nature of the loom aimed at producing defined and controllable textiles is used by Ismini to make intuitive decisions responding to tensions in the yarns, the density of the warp and weft, and the nature of the materials and structures selected. Working with 2D and 3D digital techniques, the drawings are made substituting milling tools with pens and brushes on the digital router. This combines an interest in traditional mark making and the pathway of digital information.

Dani Marti

 Cast concrete Sydney, Australia Westfield, Urban Art Projects, John Wardle Architects & Mark Llewellynn Photography



 Cast concrete Sydney, Australia Westfield, Urban Art Projects, John Wardle Architects & Mark Llewellynn Photography



 Cast concrete
Sydney, Australia 
Westfield, Urban Art Projects, John Wardle Architects & Mark Llewellynn Photography

 

 Cast concrete
Sydney, Australia 
Westfield, Urban Art Projects, John Wardle Architects & Mark Llewellynn Photography



 Cast concrete
Sydney, Australia 
Westfield, Urban Art Projects, John Wardle Architects & Mark Llewellynn Photography

Beige, 2008
Nylon, polyester,leather & rubber on wood
260 x 190 x 14 cm

Beige, 2008, detail
Nylon, polyester,leather & rubber on wood
260 x 190 x 14 cm



George, 2001
polypropylene, nylon and polyester on wood
200 x 610 x 8 cm



George, 2001, detail
polypropylene, nylon and polyester on wood
200 x 610 x 8 cm

       Here's another example of me thanking the wonders of Google. A couple of weeks ago my mind wandered and I found myself googling images of 'extreme weaving' (yes, I know, I'm a weave nerd)...... and up popped a picture of the cast concrete images you see above. A big WOW moment.

Dani Marti is an artist producing woven panels of huge scale. Ropes, braids, strips of leather, rubber and chains are woven into giant twills, hopsacks and tabby structures. I long to see this work in the flesh, as I'm sure the impact must be utterly striking. The colour, textures and pure graphic impact of these panels is really exciting.  However the translation of these qualities into cast concrete is just brilliant. I love the idea of bringing the artisan, hand made textures into the architectural environment, and the huge scale of these familar surfaces must garner a huge level of curiousity.

Please do visit Dani's website - there are so many wonderful images to look through. For those of you in Australia, there is a solo exhibition coming up at the Newcastle Region Art Gallery opening on the 17th September until the 13th November.

John Paul Morabito

Plain Weave with Stripes 2009

Wool, weaving, burning, 84" x 45". Photo credit: Nick Ghiz



Plain Weave with Stripes (detail) 2009

Wool, weaving, burning, 84" x 45". Photo credit: Nick Ghiz



Strip Construction (detail) 2010
Silk, rayon, weaving, burning 33" x 69". Photo credit: D. James Dee

 

Tonal Warp Stripe 2010

linen, ramie, weaving, burning 96" x 27" x 23". Photo credit: D. James Dee



Tonal Warp Stripe (Detail) 2010

linen, ramie, weaving, burning 96" x 27" x 23". Photo credit: D. James Dee

 

Two Block Float Weave, 2009

Silk, weaving, burning 83" x 8" x 6". Photo credit: D. James Dee



Two Block Float Weave (detail) 2009

Silk, weaving, burning 83" x 8" x 6". Photo credit: D. James Dee

 John Paul Morabito produces beautifully woven cloth that he then begins to destroy through carefully applied burns and scorches.  I've only seen the work online and in print, but I long to see it in the flesh: there is a real poetry in the presentation of the work which I find quite absorbing. The work appears hung eloquently within space, which emphasises the handwoven delicacy of the fine threads. I also find myself wondering if any 'burnt cloth' smells remains.... I hope so.

In his own words:

I am interested in hand labor. Hand processes manipulate materials to create both form and content in my artwork. I begin at the loom, building cloth line by line. Once woven, the work is destructed either through an immediate intervention or a slow, mediated process. In all cases, the cyclic relationship of creation and destruction is at the heart of the work.  

Of late my work has concerned itself with the actions of hand weaving and systematic burning. The process of weaving cloth by hand and then repeatedly burning it is an act of creation juxtaposed with an act of destruction. This sacrifice of cloth woven by my own hands is not a violent act. It is rather a quiet meditation. The holes are not burned quickly with ravaging flames. Instead each hole is made individually and slowly to create a contemplation of each moment that has been burnt away.  

Inherent to this work is the compulsory behavior of the obsessional. I am particularly interested in how this behavior relates to the death drive and it is this thanatological compulsion that is the impetus of the work.

Perhaps left over from when we first realized our mortality, we have built into us a yearning for all things impermanent. To be human is not only to create but also to destroy. Called Thanatos, the death drive draws us to the end. I find myself in some ways ruled by Thanatos. There is a need to make and a need to destroy, neither can be ignored.  

The hand that makes is the hand that destroys.

Laura Daley

The River Thames by Night (detail)



The River Thames by Night

 A little while ago I was invited to the University of Creative Arts to talk about my work and to do tutorials with the textiles students. One of the final year students I met was Laura Daley who showed me some utterly exquisite samples which I knew were going to develop into something showstopping. I'm therefore delighted that she went on to win the prestigious British Contract Furnishing Association (BCFA) Award at New Designers last month. 

Her graduation collection of work is a highly sophisticated interpretation of photographs of city lights by night. Hand-dyed spun silk weft yarns have been hand-woven in satin and sateen constructions that perfectly capture the essence of her photographs. She has also managed to bring a fresh aesthetic to the ancient art of ikat weaving through her judicious eye for composition and restraint.

I look forward to watching her career develop...... I feel quite sure she's going places.

Laura Miles, WOVEN studio

(C) Laura Miles Tweed Collection

(C) Laura Miles Tweed Collection



(C) Laura Miles Tweed Collection

 

Brushed mohair floats. (C) Laura Miles WOVEN studio



Structural floats with slub yarn. (C) Laura Miles WOVEN studio

(C) Laura Miles WOVEN studio



(C) Laura Miles Tweed Collection

 Last week I had the pleasure conducting my first interview for this blog (well, more like had a good chat) with Laura Miles, founder of WOVEN Studio, a woven textile design consultancy for fashion fabrics.

Laura studied Fashion and Textile Design with Business Studies, specialising in weave at Brighton University, graduating in 1997. Laura then took full advantage of the various opportunities that exist for graduates to support ‘the next step’. Exhibiting at New Designers, Donna Karan purchased work from her final collection. She was then selected to exhibit with Texprint at Indigo, where she won the Weave Prize, and sold lots of designs to Italian mills, some of whom became long term clients.  Buoyed by this success, she applied for and was awarded a setting up grant from the Crafts Council; support from The Princes Trust; and a Clerkenwell Green Association Award which gave her a free studio for one year.

After purchasing a loom, Laura industriously wove a new body of design samples, and flew to Italy to visit the contacts she’d made through Texprint to sell more work and then on to New York to visit the Donna Karan studio and other fashion houses. And thus her business was firmly established.

Laura has had an interesting and varied career working with some the luminaries at the very top of the fashion sphere. Generally the focus is on producing hand woven swatches which are then put into commercial production, but she also produces handwoven meterage on occasion.

She has a  vital role acting as the conduit between the mills and the fashion designers. She translates, designs and articulates what fashion designers need, and then often liaises with mills for production. Indeed she has a number of long term consultancy roles with various mills, with UK silk mill Vanners being one of the most interesting and illustrious. Fabrics from her biannual collection for them have been sold to the likes of Balenciaga, Giles, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Roland Mouret, Ungaro, Vera Wang, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan and Christopher Kane. 

A new focus for her is her Laura Miles Tweed Collection, launched in 2010 and now into its third season.  Working with Marling and Evans, a mill in Huddersfield, Laura has created a collection of forty summer and winter weight tweeds that are all woven off the same warp using stock yarns. This approach gives flexibility to respond quickly to both small and large meterage orders as the dedicated mill loom is always ready with this set-up.

When I visited her studio which is currently in the basement of her beautiful house (a converted shop) in Islington, her assistant was busily working on the current project to produce inspirational hand woven fabrics (swatches and lengths) for the new biannual Spinexpo yarn fair in China working with the new seasons yarns from their exhibitors. In evidence on two of the three ARM looms, were some delicious samples exploring structural weft floats in fine mohair.

Accompanied by her lovely 3 month old daughter Maia, we had a great hour chatting not only about her career, but also the challenges facing the UK textile industry and our mutual dream of owning a mill one day!  Although I readily admit that my business brain wouldn’t be up to it! By contrast Laura has an in-depth understanding of the demands of the international fashion industry and her the idea of her being at the helm at a mill is truly exciting...... fingers crossed!



Laura stood in front of her 'moodboard' wall, with Maia



The studio



Yarns.....



Katie Davies & Gwennan Thomas, Coleg Sir Gar BA Textiles weave graduates, 2011

(C) Gwennan Thomas, 2011

(C) Gwennan Thomas, 2011



(C) Gwennan Thomas, 2011

 

(C) Gwennan Thomas, 2011



(C) Gwennan Thomas, 2011



(C) Gwennan Thomas, 2011



(c) Katie Davies, 2011



(c) Katie Davies, 2011



(c) Katie Davies, 2011



(c) Katie Davies, 2011



(c) Katie Davies, 2011

(c) Katie Davies, 2011

Am delighted to share with you the work of my two Coleg Sir Gar weave graduates this year: Katie Davies and Gewnnan Thomas.

Gwennan set herself the ambitious task of completely renovating an old Mini, both inside and out. Inspired by vintage florals, picnics and tea parties, she hand wove lengths to reupholster the entire interior in an eclectic style. The interior door panels were lined one of her digitally printed floral designs and hand felted woollen balls hang from the rear view mirror. I still can't quite believe it, but the car was actually maneuvered into the college gallery space for the end of year exhibition. As you might expect it caused quite a stir, with many lusting after the car!

Katie created a beautiful collection of knitted and woven garments inspired by the weird and wonderful underwater world. The fully fashioned knitted garments were constructed from hand dyed cotton and viscose yarns, with some garments being dip dyed afterwards. Inspired by an excellent Jessica Light workshop at Craft in the Bay, Katie wove some extraordinary passementerie which trimmed and edged the knitted garments. The collection has wonderful sense of movement and fluidity, underpinned by impeccable craftsmanship.

Both Katie and Gwennan, along with the other Coleg Sir Gar textile graduates in print, felt and stitch will be exhibiting at New Designers in the Business Design Centre in London next week, from the 29th June to the 2nd July. Please do come and see the work in the flesh. If you want to get in touch with either Katie or Gwennan, drop me a line and I can send you their contact details.