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