Rule Breaking Weaving @ The Devon Weavers Workshop

I've just returned from delivering another wonderful 3 day workshop at the Devon Weavers Workshop in Totnes.  Entitled 'Rule Breaking Weaving', participants were encouraged to consider the 'rules' of weaving, and then set about exploring ways of breaking them.  Discontinuous weft, distorted warp and weft, differential warp tensions, and loops, tufts and knots with unusual yarns were all experimented with.  We also spent some time on the final afternoon exploring finishing techniques such as devore, melting, burning and foiling to excellent effect.  The resulting samples were incredibly inspiring and give the participants much food for thought for future integration into their work. The weavers all deserve enormous praise for being incredibly bold in their experimentation, ESPECIALLY when I asked them to prepare warps in qualities new to them such as ultra fine lurex, monofilament, acrylic and polyester.  Wonderful things happen when you're outside of your comfort zone and happy to 'see what happens'.

 

some new photo's to share with you.......

Some new photo's..... Firstly from the Fibre Art Wales 'Ffibr' exhibition at Llantarnam Grange, Cwmbran earlier this year:

'Better than Grey' exhibition at the Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, 21^st January – 7^th March 2009, photos by Douglas Atfield:

And lastly, some new pictures by Pinegate Photogrpahy in Cardiff:

'Optic Twist' at Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery

Have recently been sent this picture of my latest work 'Optic Twist' which was specially commissioned by Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery for their exhibition 'Better than Grey: a serious consideration of colour'. This was the largest sculpture I have made to date measuring 45x24x12cm. Encapsulated in the acrylic is a hand woven leno fabric in cotton and nylon monofilament. The vivid highly contrasting stripes of colour, combined with the leno twists are designed to create dramatic optical effects and afterimages. Below is a detail of the fabric before it was cast: