Sian O'Doherty

 

Sian O'Doherty is one of my very talented graduates from the BA Textiles course I teach on in Coleg Sir Gar. She won the Lucienne Day Award at New Designers this year, and has many other accolades under her belt including the second prize in the Hand & Lock embroidery competition in 2010. Her final year collection was an ambitious exploration into highly complex quadruple cloth structures incorporating hand manipulated floats and an eye-popping colour palette. Some of the woven structures were developed into digital prints for upholstery and covetable cushions covers. This is a weaver to watch: she's going places......

 



 

 

Photographs by Dan Staveley

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.

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.