Mapping the Future

joyce

tfsw — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:50:10 +0000

Notes in stitched textile on rusted barbed wired dyed cloth strips on the travels of joyce who stitched throughout her life. The strips tell of her travels 7,600 miles in an Austin Princess in the early 1950s with 3 children under 4years old from N. Devonshire to Somalia – driving all the way – to meet up with her husband. Constrained by convention, bound by habit (the devils rope), yet loved stitch in all its forms and fascinated by words, words and language. Loved stories and tales, made dresses from old silk parachutes and yet loved new technology.

More Pompoms

tfsw — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:53:19 +0000

Family fun making pompoms with young Stuart pleased with his efforts in the garden!

a little glimpse to tempt you to the show….

tfsw — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:54:47 +0000

A few photos of work in progress showing the exhibition taking shape today.
Tell all your friends to come and see this exciting show.

Mapping the Future Exhibition starts tomorrow

tfsw — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:38:54 +0000

The Exhibition is finally here after all the hard work that the participants have put in to make this event a great success.
All are welcome to come and join us at The Brewhouse in Taunton on the first day of the exhibition. The preview is from 5.30 -8pm on Thursday 23rd February 2012.
Catalogues and handouts of all the textile works are available to see and buy.
See you there!

The Colour Walk Finally Got Made

tfsw — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:46:34 +0000

The ideas had been floating around in my head for too long – it was a challenge to get it out on paper to start with . The list just grew of its own accord – colour memories from places I had lived and worked in. Then the greater challenge appeared – how to translate these colours through the medium of wool fibres into a cohesive piece of work.

the heap of possible colours of prefelts

dry fibres - wool and silk - before felting

section of prefelts spread over the floor

Once sections were put together the piece was almost 9 m long. It did shrink a bit in the felting process. Then instead of having it as a roll it became a concertina’d piece, much to my surprise. There are more photos going on my blog.

Colour Walk on the wall.

“Pompom tree”

tfsw — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:32:50 +0000

Whilst some of the team were setting up the exhibition at The Brewhouse in Taunton with curators, Sue Prichard, from the V&A and Tim Martin, curator at The Brewhouse, others were decorating the tree outside as a welcome to visitors.

Alison began organising a pompom trail from the railway station to the Brewhouse so that visitors can easily find their way to the exhibition, which is beginning to look so good.

So we all look forward to welcoming everyone to the preview tomorrow evening on the 23rd February between 5.30 – 8pm.

Mapworks

tfsw — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:34:56 +0000

The pieces I have submitted for this exhibition – Mapping the future, where are you now?, reflect my ideas relating to maps and mapping from the perspective of a practitioner working with the medium of textiles. In these ‘mapworks’ the textile quite literally becomes the backdrop for the work with old fabric backed Ordnance survey and Bartholomew’s maps becoming a canvas to imprint.

The working methodology involves retrieving, then retracing cartographic information in the map, using a sewing machine as a drawing tool, to stitch over routes. Guiding the needle across the space of the map might involve hovering then dropping the needle to stitch areas – other times, dragging and pushing the needle towards the hardest reaching areas at the centre of the map. As a consequence this creates a range of tensions in the stitch quality that mimic the tension involved in negotiating the space of the map. In addition to this, thread becomes trapped between stitches or trails off the surface of the map creating qualities that might not have been perceived from the onset but which add another dimension or characteristic to the work.

These pieces are intended to be seen in reverse, dismantling or more appropriately unpicking some of the intentions of the original map. For instance, rather then orient, the ‘map’ might disorient the user or viewer. Its purpose or function is subverted so that it literally materialises as a stitched impression of the original map.

Shellie Holden

Global World Wide Mapping

tfsw — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:49:35 +0000

Amazing how the world wide web works!

Have a look at this blog from Canada – we have a mention!!! Now that is Mapping the Future: where are you now’ !!!

http://fibrequarterly.blogspot.com/

Mapping the Weave

tfsw — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:15:03 +0000

My idea for mapping the weave of a fabric began with some sampling of overcasting pattern tucking on organdie and then progressed to the linen fabric I wanted to use. Fortunately in France last summer I acquired an old linen tea cloth so I have set off ‘ mapping’ its weave. More complicated than I first thought, mainly because I can only just see the single threads of the warp and weft.

Pompom Post

tfsw — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:41:24 +0000

Don’t worry, you still have time!

Pompoms needed, as we are stretching the Trail of the Pompoms from the Railway Station to the Brewhouse. Any shape or size accepted!

Recent developments include something exciting planned for the main plane tree outside the Brewhouse -watch this space…