MS, NW


I was asked by Grace to donate something to the Art Against Knives raffle at their external show, Mixed Special. They are such a lovely bunch that I wanted to make something new for them, and also have a chance to revisit the loom while working on other things has taken over somewhat.
 

(42 x 28 cm)

I posted a while back about a new thought in designing for weave, and this follows that thought: attempting to design for the loom, instead of bending drawings round to fit into its limitations. It also became a sort of re-inagural exercise in trying to build up a skill-set, re-learn and think in terms of warp and weft again. How to make the yarn move the way you imagine it. The move now I think is to look to finer, more subtle yarn, to give a different quality, and with a view to embroidery and/or application.



This is borne somewhat from the recent Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition show at the Barbican - so much more giving than the Berlin archive in weave terms, it was wonderful to see such seminal works up close, figure out how they might have been done. My favourite piece, a Stölzl, below. Attended too a wonderful talk by her daughter Monika Stadler, and was reminded of what an incredible woman she was. Weaves are a fragile things, and sometimes it feels like a fragmented history - the piece below I think Monika said was lost on a ship that sunk - but the few interested people here and there make weaving still very exciting for me.

Gunta Stölzl (1923)
Warp: mercerized cotton. Weft: wool, rayon and metal thread
183x112 cm

The illustration shows the mirror woven replica carried out by Helene Börner in 1925.