Organisations that support the textile field

There are many organisations that support the textile industry. May that be a Yahoo group for the public to join or a charity organisation designed to raise awareness on specific parts of the textile industry, these organisations are endless.

I could say that there is a main organisation which dominates the rest but I'd be lying. Each organisation supports a different part of the textile field and each one has their own aims and goals. One of the bigger groups around is the Guild for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. This comes in two forms, the online guild and the land guilds'.

The Online Guild for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (OLG) is a yahoo group which was set up for people who are weavers, spinners and dyers. Each day every member is sent a forum email with all the discussions currently occuring on the group. Members can then view all discussions and conversations going on and take part in them and voice their opinion. The OLG is also used regularly for members to post their dilemmas/questions and other members who may have already had their dilemma can post back and help them out.  The website address is http://www.onlineguildwsd.org.uk/

The Land Guilds' for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (LG) are exactly like the OLG but there are hundreds around the country and the difference is that local weavers, spinners and dyers attend these land guilds and go to regular meetings with the other members. The LG works exactly the same as the OLG in that people help other people with their textile related problems. The LG have individual websites for every guild.

The Weave Shed is a website launched earlier this year set up for professional weavers. The website includes advice on everything from business prospects to technical weave structures all aimed towards professional/master weavers. The website also includes information such as education and research, publication and press and suppliers and services. The website address is http://www.theweaveshed.org/

The Textile Society is a website for the study of the history, art and design of textiles. The textile society is a forum set up for textile professionals and enthusiasts. The society also publishes an annual publication called TEXT, it contains educational resources, articles and information on exhibitions and conferences. The textile society was set up in 1982 as an educational charity to provide and share information for the textile world.

These are just a few examples of textile organisations, there are many many more out there.
Meghan

Universities

I recently spent some time researching universities as too what entry requirements they have and what courses they offer. Something my gold arts award helped me realise is that I want my career to be in textiles and therefore I want to study textiles/weaving at degree level. I did a bit of research into textile degrees around the country. The top university in the country for textiles is UCA Farnham so that was of course my first port of call. Aside from the fact that the course looks amazing, the university looks gorgeous. The whole university is focused on art courses in different forms, this appeals as I would be surrounded by arty people. Exciting!!

The options are endless as too what uni to attend, somewhere like the University of the Arts London also offers a BA (Honours) Textile Design. I do have plenty of time to decide which uni to attend but I do know that I want to do a textile design degree. As I said my arts award has helped me realise that. Before I started my silver arts award I was starting to drift away from textiles, I was starting to get bored. My arts awards' made me realise that textiles isn't something thats going away any time soon. I'm really pleased that the arts awards' made me realise this and I am now more excited than ever about discovering new techniques and designs.

Thats all for now
Meghan

Gabriel Dawe Exhibition

As I told you in one of my last posts as part of the arts award I have to review exhibitions I go to see. So lets start shall we.
I don't know if any of you have heard of it, but there is an arts centre in Sleaford called the National Centre for Craft and Design (NCCD). Well, I recently went to an exhibition there by a wonderful artist called Gabriel Dawe. He experiments with light and colour.

Threads

In this exhibition he uses various colours of sewing threads and hangs them at different angles to let the light come through in various beautiful ways.

A close up shot of the threads 

Threads again

When you walked into the exhibition hall at NCCD you were just blown away by immense scale of the project. What was even more admirable was a film that was being shown when you had finished taking in the exhibition. The film was showing you how the exhibition was put together. There were a series of hooks positioned on the wall and several people had what looked like fishing rods. They were in fact like a fishing rod but in place of fishing wire you had sewing thread. These people who did this (who included the artist himself), had to carefully walk back and forth with these thread rods, carefully taking each individual thread to its respective hook, making sure the thread didn't break. If that isn't dedication to a project I don't know what is.

Of course for me, this was the most amazing photo opportunity, and the photos above are just a couple of the ones I took (and there are loads, I just couldn't stop). I have been thinking whilst writing this post if there is anything bad I can say about it but no matter how hard I try, nothing is coming. I quite simply loved it. I must admit, I hadn't heard of Gabriel Dawe before this exhibition but now; I am a huge fan.

Now that I have finished gushing, its time for me to depart my trusty laptop and get on with other arty pursuits. Goodbye for now. Just as a final thought, if any of you readers have a twitter account my account is @meggiesdesign  I will be updating my twitter account when ever I publish a new post.

Meghan

Making day at Wysing 2

Its time to tell you about my second making day at Wysing. When we arrived we were introduced to our artist. The artist was Jackie, who we worked with last time. We started with filling out a form for a session each of one to one time with Caroline to discuss our ideas. I was up first. I talked to Caroline and she really liked my ideas, she had a couple of suggestions which I found really helpful.

After finishing my session with Caroline, I went back into the white room. As we were working with Jackie, I decided to focus on photography. I started with taking a photo of a tree in Wysing grounds which I thought would be perfect for my PT piece.

This is the photo I am going to get printed onto fabric

After taking photos of the tree I decided to take photos around the site. Below is a selection of what I took.

This is a handmade house made entirely from recycled bits

The beehive skyscraper

Meghan

Textile Art Piece

Good news, I have completed my textile art piece.
I started with making the felt in various shades of oranges and reds as I had discussed with you before but when searching through my stack of fleece I came across a orange and red blend with a small amount of white silk. I thought this would be ideal so I have also used along with the oranges and reds planned.

Me felting the felt I need for my TA piece

The finished piece of felt

Now that the felt is done, its time to paint the canvas. I have found a canvas which is roughly a bit bigger than an A4 piece of paper. I have painted it fully red and then used a dry brush to paint highlights with orange.

Then I cut the pieces out of the felt and put them together the way I want them to look. I then put gold paper fasteners in all the visible corners. After putting it on the canvas, my TA piece is done, what do you think.

The finished piece

Meghan

Final Exhibition Piece

This post is about the exhibition that the young artists and I have the opportunity to take part in at the end of the five month programme, for this I need to create a final exhibition piece. This can be any art form, anything we want to do. I have been thinking about what I want to do and I have come up with an idea. I have decided to create a little "room", consisting of a chair, a lamp, a photo and a hanging. The whole piece will be inspired by the four seasons.

The chair is a gold banquet chair which I am going to re upholster in a very rustic beige fabric. The fabric I have in mind has also got a deep red design on it. The chair will represent autumn.

The lamp is a silver tall corner lamp and the shade is square and cream. I intend to use a lemon gingham check fabric and cut out four squares of the fabric, one for each side. As a bonus, each side of the lamp shade will have a different sized hole cut in it, starting with a small hole and ending up a big diamond. This lamp will represent spring and the holes represent how a flower grows in spring. I would also like some sort of lime green detail but I am not sure what yet.

The hanging is going to be ten pieces of fishing wire with hand crocheted white circles hanging off. The circles represent snowflakes. There will be five snowflakes on each piece of wire and ten pieces of wire hung on the wall. I will also use fishing wire tie backs to take it back a little in the middle to create a wall space free. This hanging represents winter.

The photo is going to be a close up photo of a rose. This will be mounted in a frame and I intend to "decorate" the frame with orange lace ribbon. This photo will be placed in the parting of the hanging. This photo will represent summer.

As a final thought, there will be a set of headphones which will be playing Vivaldi Four Seasons.
Meghan

Ideas for Arts Award

I am just buzzing after my day at Wysing. Ideas are just constantly floating about in my head and I just have to share them with you.
For my arts award I have been thinking what I want my art challenge to be. I have decided my challenge will be to combine my three areas of interest in a number of pieces. My ideas so far are the following:
One piece that combines Textiles and Art
One piece that combines Art and Photography
One piece that combines Photography and Textiles
One piece that combines all three

I am thinking that the Textile Art piece (which from now on I will call the TA piece), could be inspired by the musical boulder in the grounds of Wysing. Its exterior is several rectangles of metal abstractly placed on top of one another to form a really amazing design. I would like to recreate this with felt. My thinking is that I make 2 big pieces of felt in oranges and reds and cut it in rectangles and lay them on top of one another to create the same effect. As this piece combines textiles and art, the art side will be the canvas that I put the pieces on. I will paint the canvas red and then very lightly do highlights of orange.

The inspiration, musical boulder

I am quite excited about my idea for the Art Photography piece (PA piece). My idea is that I take a photo of a stunning landscape of some sort, maybe something on the beach, and then draw and paint the photo the exact same size. I then cut a portion of the photo out and line it up, hopefully exactly, with my drawing. If it works I am really looking forward to seeing this piece.

My idea for the Photography Textiles piece (PT piece) is that I take a photo of a tree and crop it so only the tree is visible and no foreground. I then highlight certain parts of the tree with various textile, eg- felt, fabric etc. I will also make a couple of leaves to highlight that part of the tree.

My final idea needs to combine all three art forms (this will be called the PAT piece). My idea is that I create a piece of wood with four pieces of dowelling sticking out. I will then hang nine fish from the dowelling using fishing wire. The fish will be cut out of mdf board, I will then cover three in textiles (felt, fabric and something else I haven't decided on yet), three in photos (one of the sky and sea, one of the sea and one of the sea and sand), and three in art ( one pastels, one watercolours and one pen and ink).

I have chosen this arts challenge because I already have a good knowledge in textiles and photography and art is my new skill. I really loved the idea of combining two art forms that I am comfortable in with one that I'm not comfortable in. Textiles is the art form which I have the most experience in and it seems a good idea to broaden my horizons as too its potential.

Thats all for now, sorry I've rambled on a bit, I just had to write my ideas down somewhere.
Thanks for reading
Meggie

First making day at Wysing

 I'm sure you are all aware, I have completed the three taster days at Wysing, next its making days and arts award sessions. I am here to tell you about one such event.

November 19th 


So, this is my first making day at Wysing. This morning is a making half day and this afternoon is an arts award session. Lets start with this morning.

Basically, these making days are for us to use all the materials at Wysing to make anything we want and to talk about our ideas so far for if we want any input. I decided to use a sheet of A2 paper and paint on the word austerity in big, bold letters.

In the afternoon, it was the arts award session. This involved Kirsten explaining to us about all the different units involved in a gold arts award. This is basically what is involved.

Unit 1 
Part A
This part involves working with artists to create various pieces of art. This is the art challenge.
Part B
This part involves getting involved in your local art world. You need to research different occupations and courses involving art in your local area.
Part C
This part involves you going to and reviewing various exhibitions and events.
Part D
This part involves forming and communicating a view on something going on in the arts world.

Unit 2
Part A
This part involves planning an arts project. This could be anything from a workshop to an intensive course in your chosen subject.
Part B
This part involves delivering the planned arts project.
Part C
This part involves reviewing the project, how it went, anything you would change etc.

This pretty much sums up my day at Wysing.
Au Revoir blogees
Meggie

Wysing Day 3

Today I wanted to fill you in on my third training day at Wysing.

Day 3


Its my last taster day at Wysing, really excited to see what we have in store today. We were introduced to our artist for the morning, Jackie Chettur. Jackie is a photographer amongst other things which I was really excited about as photography is one of my favourite art forms, to look at and to pursue myself. Jackie firstly took us all to her studio to have a look at the project she was currently working on.

After looking at her fabulous work, we went to our very own HQ, yes you guessed it , the white room. In there she explained what we would be doing today. We were going to create a scene in a particular colour scheme which we could then photograph. We together decided that the colour scheme would be a majority of red with a sky blue and a darker blue as accents. We all got to work. I worked on the backdrop which was literally painting a curtain red. It wasn't going too well as the curtain was creasing up and printing paint onto another side so I decided to do a paper backdrop. So, starting again, I painted a large piece of paper red which was tremendous fun as I could just basically splash paint on the entire thing.

When we had all finished, we assembled the scene and took photos of it. We were all pleased with it, we had made a strange looking house style structure with the most exquisite wire bird nesting on top. To the right we had a small backdrop scene with a cardboard house in front. Really amazing team effort. We all got our cameras out and took photos from all different angles possible. Jackie was also aware that I was particularly interested in photography so I stayed behind after and she gave me a couple of amazing books to look at over lunch. Awesome morning.

The red and blue scene

A gorgeous little house

Really exquisite wire bird

After a lunch break, we came back into the white room to be introduced to our artist for the afternoon. Solveig Settemsdal. She had told us before hand to bring in an item to draw that was interesting in shape and texture. I brought a Tibetan bottle. We had to not be able to see the paper but we could see the item and draw it as best as we could. When we had all finished drawing our items we were given really strong wire and we had to mould our drawing in a 3D form with the wire.

We were then given clay to form around the wire. The point wasn't to cover the wire, it was to make the wire part of the sculpture and use the clay in certain places. The finished result wasn't to bad at all. All our sculptures looked quite good together. So after photographing our pieces we had finished our three taster days at Wysing.

They have been truly brilliant and I am very happy with what I have done. It is now time to start thinking about the exhibition, how exciting.
Meghan

Wysing Day 2

Its time to tell you all about my second training day at Wysing.
Day 2


When I arrived on my second day at Wysing, we were introduced to the artist we would be working with in the morning. Caroline Wendling. After the introductions, Caroline explained a little about what we would be doing this morning. She wanted us to have a short walk around the site, in silent, really taking in everything that was around us. We would then go back to the white room, as I like to call it, and express this walk in any piece of art we wish.

So, we went for a walk. The things that I noticed most were the colours and pieces of art around the site. For me, the colours were a prodomenence of greens and blues with streaks of colour. When we returned to the white room, we were all given an A2 sized piece of paper and told we could use any materials we wanted to depict what we saw. I decided to draw a couple of pieces of art around the site which will be intertwined with green and blue pastels with streaks of colour to represent flowers. The two pieces of art which I decided to draw were the skyscraper beehive and what I like to call the musical boulder.  I found it really interesting to see everyone else's depictions of the exact same walk.

My depiction of the walk

After a lunch break we returned to the white room to be introduced to our artist for the afternoon, Elena Cologni. Elena had brought with her a variety of different pieces of furniture including a desk, a chair, a lamp and a box. We then had to arrange these pieces to form a scene for us to draw. When we had arranged the pieces in the strangest way possible we all took a chair and picked a view to draw from. We had to memorise our view and go away and draw it.

It was such a lovely day that we decided to draw outside. In the end all of us didn't do too badly in remembering the set up.

My half decent attempt at remembering my angle of the set up

So that was the end of my second day at Wysing. Really enjoyed it, just as good as the first day. Really looking forward to day 3.
Meghan

Wysing Day 1

Today I wanted to tell you about the first day of training at Wysing Arts Centre. I first discovered Wysing Arts Centre Young Artists Programme a couple of months before the programme was due to start, I discovered it when I was looking for something art related that I could go out and do. I was looking for something to improve my arts skills and advance me in a drawing sense, its fair to say that Wysing was the most amazing opportunity to come across. I went along to a day a few weeks ago at Wysing Arts Centre and got to meet Kirsten Bicknell. Kirsten is the course director and me and the other young artists will work closely with her in developing our portfolios over the course of the programme and helping us with our gold arts award. At the start of the programme we get to work with a variety of artists over a period of three days to introduce us to different art forms. I am now going to tell you all about the three days.

Day 1

The first day at Wysing, really exciting. After the introductions we were introduced to the artist we would be working with that day, Caroline Wright. We started off with splitting into pairs and doing a couple of little exercises. These included one person holding the top of a pencil and the other person holding the bottom and drawing something together. This resulted in several laughs as something that was supposed to look like a car, ended up looking like a scribble of lead on paper. 

We then went on to all eight of us kneeling on the floor around a large piece of paper. We all chose our desired drawing tool and Caroline played us roughly a minute of a piece of music. In that minute we had to draw on the paper "doodles" which were influenced by the music playing. In total we heard 10 pieces of music ranging from pop to classical. We ended up with a really amazing, artistic piece of art which had each of our interpretations of the music on.

Cake drawing

Then it was time for a lunch break. After lunch, we all went into the exhibition space at the arts centre, which at the time wasn't being used. We got into pairs and spent the afternoon building a sculpture out of any materials available. Me and my partner decided to make the inspiration of our sculpture a piece of art in the grounds of Wysing. A beehive skyscraper. So we set to work making our interpretation of the skyscraper beehive. We ended up creating a strange but in certain ways artistic sculpture. 

When we had all finished our sculptures, we all talked about them and the inspiration behind them. Me and my partner decided to put a statement on the front of our sculpture. "Its art if it can't be explained" This comment sparked quite a debate. What are your thoughts, do you agree with this statement? If you have and opinion, feel free to leave a comment.

So that was my first experience day at Wysing, eventful, fantastic and truly brilliant. Bring on day 2

Meghan

Louise Stebbings Art Class

This post is all about the art class I attend with artist Louise Stebbings. (If the name sounds familiar its because she kindly answered the first part of my interview questions, post title Interview Questions Part II.) For two terms now I have been attending an arts class with her on a thursday afternoon.

The art class focuses on drawing and painting skills for beginners. When I started attending this class my knowledge of drawing skills was literally nil. I had always wanted to be able to draw but had never gotten round to learning. After one term working with Louise I had already started to improve and I was happy with where I was after one term. After a second term we had started to work more with paints, pastels and colours yet still improving drawing skills.

I am really enjoying working with Louise, something I want to go onto study at university is textile design and art and design is needed. Improving my drawing skills has really benefitted me now and in the future. I look forward to continuing working with Louise to create an even better portfolio for me to have to apply to uni in the future. The techniques I have learnt from Louise are endless, each week I come away with something else to improve with and she is constantly giving tips on how to improve a piece or how to effectively draw something to make it look right.

If any of you are interested in Louise's work the website address is http://www.skylarkstudios.co.uk/
On her website is some of her work and the opportunity to attend some of her art classes.

Thats all for now
Meghan

Stewarding at Kings Lynn Arts Centre

I wanted to tell you all about a volunteering opportunity I took part in recently at Kings Lynn (KL) Arts Centre. KL Arts Centre needed a group of people to take on the role of stewards during an exhibition they had on called Alla Moda. The exhibition is of italian ceramics from 1950's to 70's. I put myself forward for stewarding at this exhibition.

I was a steward in two slots in total. One on Friday 10th August at 4-5pm in the Red Barn and the other was on Saturday 11th August at 12-2pm in the Shakespeare Barn.

I really enjoyed stewarding at KL Arts Centre, it was an opportunity that I have never had before and I must say I thouroughly loved it. As I said the exhibition was of italian ceramics and, in between visitors, I managed to have a look around. Some of the ceramics were truly exquisite, the detail was amazing and the whole collection span over two exhibition spaces which gives you an idea of the scale of it.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any photos in the exhibition so I'm not able to show you some of the pieces. Whilst I was stewarding I was able to put my name down for a project the arts centre are doing for the second year running. Its called the Bigger Picture 2. It involves a group of artists from the area being handed a square of ply wood and a square of photo, the photo is a small part of a "bigger picture" which none of the artists know of. All the artists must copy their square of photo exactly and a revealing will be made with all the piece in place to reveal the bigger picture.

I am very much looking forward to taking part in this event and am very excited to see the finished product.
Meghan

Wingham Wool Work

I have exciting news, I went to wingham wool works at the weekend to purchase all the materials I need for my feltmaking workshop. If any of my fellow bloggers have ever visited wingham you will understand my excited nature. Wingham is the fibre nut's heaven, surrounded by fibre, equipment, books and other "fibrey" things. If any of you out there haven't been then you must make it your top priority to visit asap. The website address is http://www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/index.php

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. As I said earlier, the purpose of my trip was to purchase the equipment needed for my workshop, for the workshop I needed natural fleece, coloured fleece, blended fleece, needle felting needles and plain white merino. Whilst I was there I did, of course, look for myself and got some truly stunning blends with which I intend to spin with.

I am pleased to report that wingham didn't fail yet again and I managed to get all the equipment I needed. This means that I am now fully ready for my workshop.


Meghan

Meeting Sarah-Jane

I wanted to tell you about a very interesting meeting I had with Sarah-Jane Harknett from the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. The second unit of my arts award requires me plan, deliver and review an arts project. The arts project must be a workshop, event or exhibition of some kind. I have decided to go with a workshop and my plan is for a feltmaking workshop.

Wysing Arts Centre put me in touch with Sarah-Jane and I went to meet with her to discuss my idea. Sarah-Jane was very interested in my idea and said she would like me to do the workshop at the museum. (Excited face)

Whilst I was there I made a pitch to her about my workshop and the plan for the day. After showing her a few examples of the work I was hoping the students would produce, Sarah-Jane took me to see the space I would be working in. The room was plenty spacious and I could easily teach up to eight students in there.

The whole meeting went very well and this means I can now start planning my workshop with the view of a date in mind. Sarah-Jane has posted on the museum's website my event so feel free to take a look, the address is http://maa.cam.ac.uk/home/index.php?a=15&b=Feltmaking+Workshop&c=21

Meghan

Reviewing the arts project

As you saw in my last post I felt that the feltmaking workshop I ran in Cambridge went well. It is now time for me to do an in depth review of how I think it went, how the students felt it went and what I would do differently.

Lets start with how I thought it went. Overall I am very pleased with how it went, I was pleased that everyone went away with a felted piece of wall art, which was my intention. I was also pleased that the whole day ran smoothly and no major incidents occured. I did feel however that my instructions towards the beginning of the workshop could have been clearer and I think the students agreed.

Now lets move onto how the students thought it went. As you know I asked all the students to fill out a feedback form I had prepared, here's what they had to say.

All the students at the start of the course expected to learn how to make felt and to come away with a piece of wall art. At the end of the day all the students said their expectations had been met. In answer to the question Were your expectations met? one student replied "Yes, I am looking forward to going home and making more felt items, really useful and fun!"

All of the students also agreed that there wasn't anything else they would have liked to learn in the day and all of them also agreed that the tutor was knowledgable about the subject. One student commented that they would have liked a little more time to complete her piece in the afternoon.

The final question on the form was, Do you have any further comments on how the course was run? Most of the students agreed that they would have liked an overview of the day at the start of the course and to have been given a better idea of the finished piece. "It would have been helpful to start with a quick overview of the process."

Finally lets move onto what I have learned and what I would change the next time I do a similiar course. For me the main thing that I can take away from this workshop was to be clearer with my instructions at the start of the course and make sure everyone understands the task in hand. To achieve this I plan to start with an introduction and then do an overview of the whole day and show examples of the finished piece at that point. I also think that in order to make everyone understand I should explain the finished size of the piece so people have and idea of what size to make the pattern.

At the start I felt I should have also explained a little about needle felting. Although this isn't until the aftenoon, it seems it would have been helpful for people to know what they were doing so as to choose a pattern with which to inspire their piece that they felt they could achieve with their level of ability.

A couple of little points for next time would be; grater the olive soap beforehand in order to save time; bring more towels as they get very wet very quickly and make very sure the fleece is fully wet before allowing them to start felting.

Thats all for now, having said all of this I am pleased with how it went but I am glad that I can come away with a few pointers for next time.
Speak soon
Meghan

Delivering the arts project

As some of you know I went into Cambridge on Saturday to run a feltmaking workshop at the Museum of Archeology and Anthropoly. This was of course for my gold arts award in order to complete my arts project. I am pleased to say that it went very well and I am really pleased with the results. As I have mentioned before, Sarah-Jane Harknett has been the one helping me along the way to completing my arts project. She has been a big help and brilliant support in letting me do this workshop at the museum. In the end I ran the workshop for seven people (including Sarah-Jane.) Lets start from the beginning shall we.

The day began with a short introduction and a little about what we were going to achieve in the day. I then asked all the students to complete the first part of a feedback form I had prepared, in order to get a small idea of what people were expecting out of the day. With paper work out of the way it was time to give all the students twenty minutes to explore the museum with the aim of finding a piece with which to inspire their own felted piece. This could have been a pattern, colour combination or shape. Students then sketched their design for what they would like their piece to look like. Below are just a few examples of the sketches the students came up with.

After all this was done it was time to make a start on felting. The students all layed out their bubble wrap and I explained how to correctly lay out the fleece by pulling small bits off and laying them in a horizontal direction. This then followed another layer of white fleece layed in a vertical direction, followed finally by the first step repeated. The students had then got their three layers of fleece, so I went off to make a soap solution made from grated olive soap.

When everyone's fleece was completely wet I demonstrated how to roll your fleece package up tightly and start vigourously rolling the package putting pressure on it all the time. After 5-10 minutes the students unrolled their package and rotated the felt 90 degrees clockwise and repeated the same procedure. This was repeated four times until, when the felt is pinched in the middle, fibres don't lift up.

The students hard at work

It was very important at this point to stress that all the soap must be thoroughly rinsed out of the felt otherwise the soap, over time, will eat away at the felt. The felt must then be wrung as dry as possible. Lunch time!!

Ready for stage two

After lunch the students felt was dry enough to needle felt into so we got to work. Everyone was given a barbed needle felting needle and I explained that you must never use someone elses needle. With health and safety out of the way I demonstrated how to needle felt a small amount of fleece into the wet felt and explained a few techniques that can be used to create certain effects. Below are a couple of the students hard at work creating their pattern.

The remaining of the afternoon went fairly quickly with everyone trying to recreate their original design and all of them successfully doing so. At the end of the afternoon everyone had a brilliant piece of felted wall art, all of which looked like their original design. The afternoon ended with me taking a photo of everyone individually holding their piece in front of their original inspiration and then asking them to fill in the rest of the feedback forms.

Overall I am happy with how the day went, I can definitely pick up some pointers for whenever I do this course again, but I am pleased.
Sorry for the lengthy post, I had a lot to say.
Speak soon
Meghan

How exhibitions have influenced my work

I felt it was time to look back on some of the exhibitions I have visited and think about how what I have seen may influence my work in the future. For start I wanted to talk about the Gabriel Dawe Exhibition I posted about earlier this year. Just to remind you of his style of work there is a photo for you below.

The individual threads installed individually

What I loved most about his work was the colours and how with the volume of threads he had, it played with the light in incredible ways.

Just to show you how the light works

Something I wanted to try after seeing this exhibition was playing with colours and patterns to create different effects. A project I am currently in the middle of is a pair of fire cushions, my aim is to attempt to play with the colours of fire in order for them to blend and create a fire look. I haven't yet warped my loom with it so I shall do a blog post in the future as to how they went and give you some pictures.

Looking at other exhibitions, a basketry exhibition I went to last year was truly amazing. The actual basketry exhibition wasn't particularly inspiring but downstairs I came across gold. 5 original Peter Collingwood pieces, I had never seen any of his work before so to see it was amazing. He cleverly used to use a reed for a loom and cut it into pieces, then at certain points in the weaving he would cross the reed bits over one an other to make stunning pieces. If you wish to find out more on Peter Collingwood then put his name into a search engine and photos of his work will definitely be there.

Seeing Peter Collingwood's work made me want to give his style of work a go. Although I haven't got round to it yet I intend to in the near future, just as soon as I work out how to tackle it. I'll keep you updated on that.

Meghan

Paralympics

Some of you may be confused by the title of this post and asking yourself what the paralympics has to do with my gold arts award. Well, I shall now put you out of your misery. I recently visited the National Centre for Craft and Design (previously known as the hub). While I was there I had a look at the current exhibition.  The main gallery space is currently occupied by a brilliant collection inspired by the up coming paralympics. The exhibition entailed showing how we have progressed over the ages in assisting disabled people lead normal lives.

The exhibition started with showing you some of the very first wheelchairs created which then lead onto the first artificial limbs. Going round the room you were taken through the ages and show how far we've come. This exhibition has of course come at the perfect time with the paralympics weeks away, the exhibition started with a message from the artist who incorporated the paralympics into his message and to show how inspiring the disabled can be.

Nearing the end of the exhibition you were introduced to the first aerodynamic wheelchair, specifically designed for athletes who still wish to compete in their sport even with a lost limb. I found the whole exhibition inspirational and to see how far we've come with disabled technology was brilliant. This tied in very well with me personally as I have recently been lucky enough to get tickets for the paralympics, and I really can't wait to go. I will post when I have been and tell you all about it.

Thats all for now
Meghan

Campaign for wool

The time has come for me to start on another section of my gold arts award. To complete this section I must form a view of an issue/something going on in the arts world. I have chosen to focus my attention on the Campaign for Wool. For those of you who don't know, the campaign for wool is a charity organisation which was started by HRH the Prince of Wales. HRH is now the patron of the campaign and has given it his full backing.
For those of you who would like to know more about the campaign go to this address http://www.campaignforwool.org/the-campaign/
I first came across the campaign for wool on the Online Guild for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, this was back in 2010, two years after the campaign was set up. All of the research which helped me form my view of the campaign came from the campaign's website (listed above.)

So as I was saying, I have decided to tell the world of my opinion on the campaign for wool as a whole. In this post I intend to present to you my entire view on the campaign for wool. If any of you have an opinion you would like to share or would just like to send me a comment, please feel free to either comment on my blog or contact me on twitter @meggiesdesign

Campaign for wool

I personally think that the campaign for wool is truly brilliant. HRH the Prince of Wales has picked a brilliant cause to back and with his help the campaign can really move forward. I truly love how they are choosing to advertise their campaign, including the brilliant wool week. The way that the campaign got so many people and brands involved in wool week was inspirational, the sheep parading down Saville Row and Selfridges exhibiting yellow sheep outside their store; brilliant! They have also recently included students from universities across the country in their campaign by commissioning them to come up with a design for a wool sweater, then teamed them up with the country’s leading brands. I think this is, not only a great way to advertise the campaign, but also appeal to the students to give them an opportunity to work with top brands such as John Lewis.

There is of course the obvious aim of this campaign which is to increase the price farmers get for wool. One big battle they still have on their hands is to make all farmers everywhere aware of the correct price for their fleece. Once this is achieved then the wool board will have no choice but to pay this price. I am, of course, fully behind this cause and will back it 100 percent.

However, there is one thing which I see as an issue, potentially a big one in the future. Where do we stop. We do of course want a fair price for farmers but we do have the danger of pricing wool out of the market for average citizens. We must remember that we are in a recession and the last thing we want is to make woollen products unavailable to everyone. As an example, carpet manufacturers are already starting to make their carpets 80 percent wool 20 percent synthetic fibres as apposed to the 100 percent wool they used to be. This is simply to keep their prices the same as before to make the carpets more affordable. No one can blame them for that.

I would just like to stress again that I am fully behind this campaign but I do believe that the campaign needs to stop at a certain point before wool becomes stupid prices. If wool is priced out of the market then manufacturers of woollen products will stop purchasing as much wool, the wool board will stop purchasing as much wool, and then the farmers have no where the sell their wool. Wool is a truly brilliant product, its natural, its eco, its sustainable and it can be used in almost everything. In a time such as this when we are not only in a recession, but global warming is now more prevalent than ever, surely this is the time to be using the most sustainable and eco products possible.

To sum up my views I will say again that the campaign for wool has my full support, and no one can argue that the fact that farmers making a loss on their fleece is wrong. However, my view also poses the threat of going to far and pricing it out of the market. I think the campaign is a wonderful thing and they should all keep working hard and keep aiming to achieve their goal. I just think they should stop before the price becomes ridiculous and wool is no longer available to the wider audience. They aren’t there yet by any stretch, but now is not the time to make other products, especially something like wool, become too expensive for people to afford.

I apologise for such a long post, I hope some of you found it interesting. Thats all for now friends, speak soon.
Meghan

Interview Questions Part III

As you have probably seen from the title the time has come for interview questions part III.
If the people reading this are avid readers of my blog you will have read parts I and II of the interview questions. Part III of these questions have been kindly answered by weaver and incredibly talented seamstress Lesley Willcock. Here's what she had to say.

What would you call yourself?

A weaver who makes garments

When did you first realise your passion for weaving and how did you discover it originally?

When I sat behind a loom at my first weaving lesson I thought this is where I want to be.

How did you start off working straight out of college, and then what changed (if any) to make you self employed?

I went into retailing and started as a graduate trainee. Redundancy made me reassess my future and this was when I became self employed.

Was weaving something you always wanted to do, or was it found through another medium?

I didn’t really know hand weaving was an option until I went back to college at 35, when I did a City and Guilds course in Fashion. People take textiles for granted; they just see a piece of fabric and don’t appreciate what that has gone into it. I started to understand the opportunities and wanted to produce garments from hand woven fabrics.

Where do you take your inspiration from?

Everywhere; nature, other textiles & weaving, anything can inspire me.

What qualifications have you gained and have they been useful?

City and guilds in fashion enabled me to make a career in dressmaking.

I haven't any formal weaving qualifications but from the beginning I have done many weaving courses and learnt from other weavers.

What have you learned from being in business, that qualifications did not include?

Tenacity; perseverance; working at something you want to learn, having a goal and ensuring nothing will get in your way.

Do you take part in any exhibitions and if so where and why – what do you gain from doing so; if not is there a reason you don’t take part?

Local exhibitions as well as international exhibitions; I currently have a piece of work being exhibited in California which will then be exhibited for six weeks in Washington.

Do you attend any form of an artists group and if so which and again what do you gain from attendance?

Complex weavers; a current piece called the flame jacket, is on the front page of complex weavers website as well as in their journal. Running on from this piece, I had a commission for the same flame jacket but in blue, I called it the gas flame jacket.

For someone starting out in a career in arts, what advice would you give?

As I discovered there are many different routes & I certainly didn’t take a direct path.

You may find you’re on the wrong path, so don’t be afraid to reassess & change direction. Take all opportunities which present themselves - don't close your mind to any avenue of learning - you can always learn, you can learn something from everything. Aim high & don’t settle for second best!

 What future plans do you have for yourself and your work?

To carry on learning & to continue experimenting with different weave structures & garments. It is also now time for me to reach out to a wider audience

One of Lesley's pieces called the flame jacket, it is currently being displayed on the front page of complex weavers website.

The website address is http://complex-weavers.org/

 Thats all for now, something I learnt from Lesley was that, aiming high is always the best way to start. Also don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something, what's the worst that can happen?

Speak soon

Meghan

Planning the arts project

I am nearing the end of unit one of my gold arts award and unit two involves the arts project. This entails me planning, doing and reviewing an arts project which must be some sort of workshop or event to teach your skill to the world. I have decided to do a one day workshop in feltmaking.  My aim of this workshop is to successfully teach feltmaking to a group of students and give them enough knowledge for them to go away knowing exactly how feltmaking is done. I am aiming for the outcome to be, the students enjoyed the day, they went away with all the knowledge they need and that their expectations were met. In order for me to take the most out of the day I have come up with a feedback form. I will ask the students to complete the first half at the start of the morning, asking them what they hope to achieve out of the day. The second half I will then ask them to complete at the end of the day asking whether their expectations have been met. Below is a timetable of how the day will pan out.

The morning explained

1.       Introduce myself and explain the purpose of the day.  Hand out a form for people to complete on what they would like to achieve during the day as a learning outcome. Your pieces, when finished, will be exhibited at this museum as a display of an ancient craft, all of which have been inspired by pieces currently in the museum.

2.       Ashort tour round the museum for inspiration for their felt piece. Try and find a favourite piece with which to inspire your piece. Explain how felmaking is an old craft to link in with the museum. Felt is the oldest textile known to man. Stories suggest that felt was first discovered when a man was walking through a desert a long time ago. His shoes were starting to rub so he grabbed a handful of fleece from his sheep he was carrying and stuffed it under his foot to give him padding. Due to the constant friction the fleece was under coupled with the heat and the sweat, the fleece became a solid piece of fabric known as felt. Felt is now used in all walks of life, particularly in Central Asia, where is it used for everything from hats to carpets. Caps of thick, solid felt from the early bronze age, are preserved at the National Museum of Copenhagen, and date back some three and a half thousand years.

3.       Purpose of the day is to make a piece of wet felt in the morning, which will take approx. 2 hours including setting up.  Then to use barbed needles to needlefelt into the piece made in the afternoon to produce a piece of art/picture.  Show a piece of art and a wall hanging  made from wet felt.  At this stage give a break down of how the morning will be done.  Summary of each part is in brackets.

a.        Explain what happens to make wet felt

b.      Sketch design for piece.  (Sketch piece)

c.       Choose colours of fleece to be used in 3 layers.  Middle layer will be white, then bottom and top will end up being different colours. This gives the option of using whichever side you like the best when it turns out (it is not an exact science). If you don’t want two different sides, use the same in the first and third layer.  (Choose colours)

d.      Demonstrate how the fleece is inter layered in different directions for each layer, to maximise bonding.  (Maximise bonding)

e.      Then demonstrate how the wet felt is made. (Demonstration)

f.        Finally get going making the background piece. (Making session)

4.       Explain the process of feltmaking in principle, in that fibres are wet and rubbed together whereby they bond and make a fabric.  As wool is mostly air, when they bond, the air is pushed out, so that the overall piece of felt is much smaller than the original fleece used.

5.       I will produce some books for people to look at for possible ideas for what to make, and they spend 15 minutes sketching what they would like to achieve.  Whilst people are doing this, prepare the hot soap solution.  

            

6.       Demonstration of how wet felt is made.

7.                  7-     Students prepare their fleece for wetting, then get started.

8.                       8-  After the wet felt is made it is rinsed well to remove all soap, and dried on a towel, as thoroughly as                           possible.

       The Afternoon explained

1.       Explain the afternoon.  Using the sketch that was created earlier in the day, choose fleece colours to use the morning piece of fabric, to needle felt into.

2.       Demonstrate how this is done.  Explain how fragile the needles are, and that the barbing at the end of the needle is pushing and pulling fibres through back and forth, to “embellish” and  the top layer of dry felt into the under layer.  The needles are extremely sharp, and must be treated with care.  Explain how each person must not use any one elses, and they will take home the needle.  This is health and safety.

3.       Again show the picture to show the different things that can be done.  How small bits of fleece are better added at a time rather than a huge amount, which is more difficult to barb together.  However, it is more precise than wet felting, because you can place the fleece exactly where you want.

4.       Show how, if a mistake is made, the fleece can be removed.  Then allow people to start needle felting their pictures.  During this period, continue demonstrating techniques for others to take a break and look at, and walking round helping people achieve what they wanted to at the start of the course.  Talk about colour blending and how different colours react to being put together.  At this stage, it is about one to one help in ensuring students are using the needles properly and are progressing with their piece of work.  Talk about how these techniques can be used to produce other types of work.

To finish, ask people to complete the last part of the form, as to whether their expectations have been met, and how they would have like things done differently if applicable.  Collect all forms together.

My budget for my arts project is £60, this must cover all the fleece I need, needle felting needles, olive soap and sponges. I have also made and equipment list so I know exactly what to take on the day. 

Sponges

Needles

Natural fleece

Colour fleece

Blend fleece

Towels

Olive soap

Jug

Shetland locks

Feedback forms

How to wet felt sheet

My plan

Dishes for fleece

Grater

Pens

Camera

Wall hanging

Needle felted picture

Paper

Pencils

Small carders

Quite a lengthy post today folks.

Speak soon 

Meghan