Textiles

This is a selection of textile works that I had images of on my computer, and which were webready. After I've finished posting these images, I'll start with some more in-depth looks at various series of work.

The first 3 works here are more of the artistic dead ends that I've written about in the past. The first is a plain weave mainly of linen, but with a supplementary weft of human hair.


This is one of about 3 or 4 works that I've made with GladWrap (actually a generic cling film). I twisted the film into a rope-like yarn, then wove a plain-weave textile. I like the white shininess that results, but I couldn't find enough conceptual concerns to make it artistic enough!


This work is probably one of the most "traditional" textile pieces that I've made. I made it when I first studied double weave techniques (so the reverse side is a black grid on a white field), and it's made from wool. I've almost never used just wool, or any other standard yarns (silk, cotton, even acrylic, etc). It feels too crafty for me and not arty enough. Not that there's anything wrong with making craft, it's just not what I want to do with my practice.


This is one of a series of 8 works collectively called Some People. When I started using socks for weaving at the beginning of my Master's degree, I was making a large and time-consuming installation, and needed to work on something a little different to keep me fresh! The series was included in the Dislocation show at Kudos Gallery in 2005. All the works in this series (I'll present the rest at some point in the future) are made from black and white socks. This was partly in response to the number of socks of those colours that I had collected, and knew I wouldn't be able to incorporate into the I Am Because We Are installation, but also because of the stark contrast betwen the 2 colours that would make bold patterns. This work is a plain weave, but half of the works in this series were also double-weave textiles. The title is from the title of a song from the musical Gypsy. I had been incorporating the names of the donors into the sock weavings, but not with this series, so the meaning is that these are just "some people" rather than named individuals (as well as including the meaning from the song, that some people are made for a boring, conventional life, but not everyone, and not me!). (See also this post for more info)

The following works, also made from socks, are from the aforementioned I Am Because We Are series. They were the first works that I made in that series, and were photographed by Julia Charles for an article by Amanda King, ‘For the Love of… Socks?’ in COFA Magazine, Issue 12, Summer 2004. Unfortunately the article was accompanied by a photo of me that was the least flattering photo of me ever to make it to print!



These white panels eventually were sewn together to become the kimono part of the installation (also seen in this post).