My sister, Clara Prince is making a chair at West Dean College for her end of year project. I have been given the task to design a piece of fabric, to be upholstered to the chair. She wanted very feminine soft colours. We decided a cream and light pink would work well.
I have already been weaving away, however, the fabric isn’t exciting enough. I had originally let Clara decide what fabric she wanted, however, with her lack of knowledge in that area, the fabric didn’t look great. It was a good lesson and a useful practice. I learnt to input more. As now, I have do redo everything. It would have been better to discuss my concerns before, rather than continuing to weave and waste my time. Having also completed this we decided the boucle yarn was too distracting.
To consider when designing again.
EPCM need to be more compact 8/10 threads?
wider, full width of loom to account for shrinkage.
choose a pattern that is timeless.
choose yarn that allows you to view the pattern more easily.
I didn’t hear anything over Christmas, so emailed a month later on the 13/01/2025. Explaining I understood there was probably a backlog of emails over the Christmas period, I just wanted to ensure my email had been received.
They soon replied saying my email had been passed onto the MD and a couple of senior leaders. She said she couldn’t guarantee anything as she was unsure they were open to specific requests. But then the end of this week…..
I am thrilled! The fact Amanda McLaren has spent the time reading my email and like my ‘approach’ means the world!
I was feeling quite deflated this week with the amount of pressure I am putting on myself. It’s clearly paying off to some extent. Even if they decide they don’t want to work with me I am really proud that I have even gotten myself into a position where I can speak to the Operations Director, Rob Taylor.
Let’s not jinx anything, but was convinced I wasn’t going to be able do a placement at AW Hainsworth, or a mother mill because of how late I emailed.
11/03/2025
I had the interview today. It went very well. I HATE interviews, especially when they ask for you to talk a little bit about yourself. When I did, I tried to remain focused, using examples to back up my points and not ramble. However, I worry I rambled too much. They asked if I knew what area of the company I was interested in, I hadn’t thought too much about that, as I wanted to be flexible and open to things I hadn’t even thought about. However, after discussing my interests it seemed obvious I was interested in the manufacturing side of things. They said they would be more than happy to have me join them which was lovely. It won’t be counted as my time of my placement as they preferred the summer, and I was keen to continue with my current placements. Currently in the process of working out what dates work best. I felt very proud of myself. I am nervous but excited for this opportunity. I do believe this will be invaluable experience.
Over Christmas I have been preparing for the sessions starting in January at Westergate House. Using the Loom Lucy gave me I have be putting a warp on.
I have also been experimenting with the frame looms I purchased. Seeing what yarn works best etc.
I am so excited with potential of this loom. It needs some fixing up which shall be a great way for me to learn.
Then I was thinking of taking it to the care home for a period of time to allow people to hop on whenever they want. Then allowing us to continue working towards the collaborative art piece. This is also a wider toolmaker than I currently have so shall give flexibility when deciding the size of pieces etc.
Today was a very good day… it was confirmed that the care home would be delighted if I could teach some weaving workshops to all areas of the home. With the aim to create a large collaborative art piece to be displayed within the space.
Activities, Lee approached me in the morning at work and said how wonderful the idea would be.
Now I need to start collecting materials! Typical, I always see yams in charity shops etc. as soon as you need it… NOTHING!
Later when I was on my lunch break I received a call from one of the nurses saying that the manager would like me to join in on the residents meeting to explain what I shall be doing. I was really nervous, felt like I blanked out and said a load of waffle. Apparently I did get the point across well thank god!
I am super excited for this! This is just me all over, working with those living with dementia to try and better their quality of life while using textiles, weaving to do so.
29/01//2025
Tutorial with Lisa
Discussed SIPs, suggested I needed to think of a way to credit all of the people collaborating in the piece. I had assumed I was just going to write ‘Collaboration between all staff and residents at Westergate House’, however, after we this meeting I was made aware, not everyone was credited. I do have concerns listing everyone’s name. It will be very long as we have a lot of staff and residents. Could look too cluttered and also, how do we know who did what?
Another comment I made, was data protection… would everyone want their name on the wall?
03/01/2025
I decided to ask An Sutton and Rebecca who also works at Gallery 57. They both have slot of experience in terms of crediting and presenting your work. At first they agreed with me, saying a comment at the bottom of the woven piece would be enough as it’s within the care home and isn’t going to be sold etc.
I explained from my tutorial what my tutor had reminded me. They suggested creating a graph of the final piece and putting a number within the graph and then listing each persons name. They said, continue with the short credit including everyone at Westergate House… but then add, ask as reception for a list names of the people that collaborated within this project.
They agreed writing everyone’s names under the work would look cluttered and unprofessional.
Notes from DPS session on SIPs
These workshops have been doing really well. I have these images either posted on facebook by Westergate House, or images taken by me of the set up. I have found that sometimes people become confused with the idea of twisting the headle so have now warped two of the looms without this. Then people that have a better understanding of it can use it. In the beginning I found it quite difficult to explain it as residents would forget. I have decided that the most important thing is that people feel as though they can be playful and have a go. Some people in the house would worry too much about getting it wrong.
I also found that when completing sessions in the house members were less enthusiastic about completing the sessions. I preffered working in Memory lane as everyone was up for trying something new.
I have also been thinking about framing the pieces. I quite like the idea of a simple frame with 10x10cm squares to showcase each woven piece. I have taken an image of some of the pieces together and think it looks a bit messy joining them all. I really want it to look really proffesional.
Another issue I have found is having 4 people at the sessions is sometimes a bit overwhelming. Depending on how adventerous the residents are some just wait until you are sat next to them to carry on. To have that extra bit of reasurrance. It’s been useful having carers and activities sometimes sitting there also as an extra pair of hands. I had thought 4 people was very managable, so have been a little surprised by this.
I just keep getting lucky! Some family friends were on an evening walk, when they found an Antique Ashford Spinning Wheel on the side of the road ready for bin collection the next day.
They called me up asking if it was of use to me… of course! I have tried spinning some yarn briefly before, it was an area I wanted to explore.
Once it was home we discovered the flyer, bobbins and leather was missing. I started looking online for other parts, however, the flyer alone was nearly £100 which I couldn’t afford to spend.
I popped a note through the door of the house it was outside of thanking them and asked if they had any other weaving or spinning bits they were going to get rid of.
I received a message soon after:
I then decided to post on the Hampshire Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers asking if anyone had a spare.
Two ladies replied and were very helpful. They were selling one for £4! They suggested I came to the next meeting to collect it.
I had heard from multiple people that the Guild was quite unfriendly however, I went in with a smile on my face and asked loads of questions and found that everyone was more than happy to help. They suggested I come back again as they sell lots of spinning and weaving equipment for a very good price.
I feel really proud of myself for reaching and putting myself out there. A few months I probably wouldn’t have had the confidence to. It’s so nice to think I have another network of people that know all about weaving and spinning.
More updates soon, I just need to get the last bits!
This year I was eager to become better at the set up of a loom. I wanted to build my confidence so that when I return to third year I shall be able to set up looms quicker and be more optimistic in what I create.
Early summer I began looking on Facebook marketplace everyday. Finally, a loom is uploaded and within budget!
A man semi local to me was selling a 8 shaft Harris loom with a warping board for £150.00. It was getting a lot of attention, so he told me it was first come first serve. After I finished my 12 hour shift I drove an hour to collect it.
I was so excited!!
When I arrived Rodger showed me how to put it together and explained the few parts I had to source such as the bolts to hold it together.
On the weekend I worked out how to put it back together. I was nervous to start planning the set up, as I have only done it 3 times with a lot of help from the tutors at university.
But, I did it! I created a very simple set up with wool. I have already made a Christmas present for a family member.
It’s nice to be able to weave whatever I want, without having a huge meaning and planning the colours etc for days on end. I have been enjoying the freedom that weaving can offer.
