What a great day was had at the Textiles Symposium Day at Stroud Festival a few weekend ago; loads of stimulation and new ideas to take home. With so much to take in, a full day of lectures and many speakers, including those below, one thing stood out loudly – what a strange and curious […]
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Feeling blue? The bright work of Jenny Ford opposite might just revive you. This relates to a question asked by a student yesterday, – why is so much contemporary textile art colourless and drab? Why is it assumed the better you get, the more neutral your work will become? Note they were referring to textile […]
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Some time has passed since my travels around the country last month, which coincidentally, made me look at Textiles from both sides of the fence, and here I’m reflecting on those experiences. First stop, Barnsley for the OCA Textile Tutors Development Day, very stimulating and helpful plus lovely to meet not only other tutors, but […]
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Seasoned quilters or embroiderers among you will probably already have a long list of shows and events hard wired into your brain as not to be missed. For the rest, here are a few details ahead of time, so hopefully you can plan a trip or two well in advance. There’s nothing quite like these […]
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I have to let you into a little secret, I love making Moodboards and could work on them all day – although of course in the “real world” this is not possible. Still, in lieu of this I often see some fantastic ones produced by OCA students which really lift my day, so I’m sharing […]
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My mind has been on folds and structure of late as a result of several strange juxtapositions in life. Visiting the Lost in Lace exhibition in Birmingham was a sentinel experience, as for many. Michael Brennand-Wood, one of the exhibitors is a master at bringing disparate streams of thought together – music, lace structures, war, male […]
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One of the things which students often struggle with is finding that personal theme with real meaning. Katie Taylor has tried out several themes over two courses at level 1. For her latest assignment 5, she chose to go with the theme of fat after finding some stunning photos of fat cells. For her, as […]
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Several times lately, I’ve been asked for help by students really struggling with the weaving section of Textiles 1. Apologies to those tutors and students who are weavers, but this is an area which causes a lot of headaches for many. I think in all fairness, some of this is probably down to preconceived ideas […]
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Quite recently, one of my students (you’ll know who you are!) was talking about the work of Tracey Ermin, how she admired her ability to put so much of herself into it, to be totally honest. This, she agreed, is what really constitutes the art in textile art, the work says something, expressing the soul […]
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