THE WEAVE SHED - Key Persons
Angie Parker has a worldwide reputation for weaving krokbragd, and her passion for this technique shines through in her work. Her expertly-executed rugs, wall hangings, furnishings and artworks are known for their joyful colour combinations, as well as their exquisite finishing. In addition to exhibiting and selling her work, she regularly teaches and is a passionate advocate for running a profitable craft business, and the sustainability of craft practices for the contemporary maker.
Colin graduated from Middlesex University in Fine Art in 1995. His early work included slow-motion video projections and digital photography, and his practice has since evolved to include writing, music criticism and web-based media. He has written about improvised, experimental and electronic music for The Wire, Jazzwise, Grooves, Signal to Noise and e/i , and online for the BBC, milkfactory, Perfect Sound Forever, Absorb and All About Jazz. He co-founded Hard Format, an online archive that celebrates cd, cassette and record design in the face of digital distribution. He has also developed a large body of digitally post-processed photography that represents a concerted attempt to wrest the magical from the everyday. A broad range of Colin ™s activities are documented on www.eleventhvolume.com. He is Web Manager for Central Saint Martins and works as a freelance web consultant/designer/writer. He can be contacted via eleventhvolume (at) gmail.com.
Eleanor Pritchard assisted in setting up the website. She designs and produces dobby woven fabrics. Techniques such as double-cloths and colour and weave effects are used to achieve gently patterned fabrics, with a palette which draws on mid century English painting - soft chalky colours with unexpected accents.
Eleanor is particularly interested in traditional British fabrics and textile crafts such as Welsh double-cloths and tweeds, and much of her work is a reinterpretation of these traditions for a contemporary context. She produces an annual mill-woven blanket collection, which is sold throughout the world. UK outlets include Margaret Howell, Liberty and Fortnum & Mason.
In addition to her mill-woven range, Eleanor has also undertaken a wide range of commission-based projects. Recent projects have included a large-scale stitch and paper installation for museumaker at Orleans House; a collaborative paper and light installation for Canary Wharf; hand-woven vestment fabrics for Ely Cathedral; atrium screens for the National Trust Central Office, and woven lengths for Christian Lacroix Couture.
Alongside her own practice, Eleanor was also an associate lecturer in weave on the BA Textiles course at Central Saint Martins.
Line Nilsen who will be showing a range of handwoven artworks - contemporary crafted paintings with strong ties to traditional textile making. Continuing on from past work, she is exploring hand cut floats and textured surfaces in her recent body of work. Building on ikat dye techniques, Line has developed her own way of achieving a softer brush stroke effect in her work. Her pieces are hand dyed and painted in multiple stages to get the desired look. All her weaves are made on a 16-shaft mechanical dobby loom. Line is using her love of craft and materials to connect the viewer to her native Norway.
Philippa is an international woven textile researcher and designer/artist/curator with a portfolio practice, and was the Woven Textile Pathway Leader (0.6) at Central Saint Martins, UAL for 22 years until May 2023 . She was a lead researcher with the Textile Futures Research Centre. She graduated from Goldsmiths' College, University of London and gained her MA at the Royal College of Art, and was awarded the prestigious Worshipful Company of Weavers Silver Medal in 2014.
For the past 3 years she has been a sustainability Academic Mentor for SMEs sponsored by BFTT, including Tibor, Dash and Miller and Kirsty McDougall
Her main textile practice lies in sustainable and digital woven jacquard; known for her textiles which explore 2D - 3D self folding/assembly concepts where the textiles self form as they come off the loom and have innovative 3D surface effects. These are exhibited internationally in galleries and also used within industry. She is a known digital power industrial loom ‘disrupter', pushing the boundaries of the technology as well as researching and exploring innovative warp, yarn and weave structure use and their interaction. These woven textiles have continued to be developed since 1994 - date. Philippa works closely with Gainsborough Weaving Company, where as a trained power loom operator she is able to weave the fabrics personally at the mill.
From April 2022 - Jan 2023 she co curated, and was also a resident of The Experimental Weave Lab with Elizabeth Ashdown. The Experimental Weave Lab was The City of London first nine month contemporary weaving season, the Lab was a residency programme with both full time and one month residencies where designers/artisit had the space to develop their own work experimentally and culminated in an exhibition of all works produced throughout the season. Each resident received a stipend to enable them to progress their work. The programme also included outreach work in Tower Hamlets/City of London young people and was part of London Craft Week and London open house festival.
Additionally Brock works as a researcher and to commission, this includes one off experimental works and has included being selected as one of the researchers on The Nobel Textile Project, working with a science Nobel Laureate in a textile public communication sci/art project , developed sustainable woven jacquard denim concepts for the VF corporation, sustainability summit, worked with many yarn companies developing concept samples for trade fair stands. She was also a lead member of the Textile support committee for the St. Pauls Cathedral design and replacement vestment project, to produce over a 100 new garments and knowledge exchange lead
The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers is a small Trust that aims to support individual weavers through biennial grants.
Visual artist Theo Rooden (The Netherlands, 1969) loves to take advantage of weaving techniques to build his geometric abstract compositions. In many of his works he challenges the flatness of the fabric with optical effects.
Whitchurch Silk Mill is looking for a Trainee Weaver who is keen to learn about making silk on their Victorian machinery. As a working museum, they need someone with a practical hands-on approach with a genuine interest in heritage and weaving silk on tappet and dobby looms. During this one-year training post the trainee will learn how to wind, warp and weave and work in this working museum in the heart of the Hampshire countryside.