I’m continuing to play with some of the ideas and thoughts that are flowing in and from Jude Hill‘s class, Considering Weave. Mixing up cloth and wool and thread. Mixing up tapestry and rag weaving and twill. Not being precious. Not worrying about ‘wasting’ time or materials. Just following the intention of the moment and watching what happens.
This summer I’m taking part in a class with Jude Hill – Spirit Cloth – considering weave and its relationship to stitch. I’ve never done a class with Jude before but I’ve long loved her ‘what if’ approach and it’s stimulating to be part of a curious, experimental community for a few months. We’re currently exploring weaving into cloth, a kind of intentional darning. I did a little darning last summer while I was travelling backwards and forward to Wales (where Alan was walking), inspired by the work of Hilary Hollingworth, and by the Big Mend group on Flickr.
Where I wove across a hole (as opposed to laying the warp as long stitches across the surface) I found it hard to stabilise the edges – now, watching and listening to Jude with her respectful mastery of cloth, I have learned how to do that, and gained new inspiration to try again.
Out of those experiments came this piece, ‘Island Patterns’, worked on handmade felt, without cutting. There is more of a distinction between the background and the weaving than if you fill a hole with weave. Less integration. More floating. I love weaving at this tiny scale.
Last night. thinking ‘what if’, I wove some little windows into the work I currently have on the loom.
And this morning I filled them with cloth.
I like the change of texture and scale. Looking forward to exploring this further and seeing where it goes.
