Inspired by Haeckel: eight samples

We’re now in the last term of the two-year City Lit Creative Basketry course and working on our pieces for our final assessment. These will form the basis of an exhibition at City Lit in July (like our degree show). Each student has to make five works: eight samples, a piece from soft materials, a […]

Fantastical Botanical at Morley Gallery

Exciting news: my bindweed spiral Unbound, which I made for last year’s Prism Textiles exhibition, is to get another outing. I’m very honoured to be asked, as an alumnus of Morley College, to include this piece, along with a couple of baskets, in the forthcoming Fantastical Botanical exhibition at Morley Gallery, 21 April – 4 […]

Untold: Prism Textiles exhibition now on

Untold, the latest Prism Textiles exhibition, is now open at the Art Pavilion in Mile End, east London. I installed “Brittle”, my woven bones, last Monday, laying out the bones on a piece of black acrylic that reflects the bones very effectively. The private view on Wednesday evening went very well, with an opening speech […]

Triaxial weaving and mad weave

For the past couple of weeks at City Lit we have been working on triaxial weaving. Unlike conventional weaving, which uses two axes at right angles to each other (warp and weft), this uses three axes, at 60º to each other – hence the name triaxial. It is also known as hexagonal weaving, but as […]

Brittle – update on work for Prism Textiles exhibition

Well, the Prism Textiles exhibition Untold is less than a month away and I’m still working on “Brittle”, my osteoporosis-inspired pieces. Taking it to the wire as usual! I have made progress, though, you will be pleased to hear. I had a load of oxtail bones that I originally thought I would try to add […]

Paper yarn and bones

I’m working a lot with paper yarn at the moment. It’s one of my favourite materials, very strong and grippy, with enough body to hold sculptural forms. The down side is that it can be quite unforgiving, with a tendency to kink and twist. But sometimes the twist can be channelled to create extra movement […]

Basketry: Rhythm, Renewal & Reinvention

This wonderful exhibition at Ruthin Craft Centre in north Wales, curated by Gregory Parsons, is the second basketry show they’ve had in the past couple of years. Apparently the first one was immensely popular. So here’s hoping that the image of basketry is on the up – about time! The exhibition certainly showcases the extraordinary […]

Tea and Textiles with HGA

I’m very honoured to have been invited to discuss my work as part of the “Tea and Textiles” programme run by the Handweavers Guild of America. The HGA describes the programme thus: “Each week HGA will host a conversation with some of the most respected fiber artists in the field today. In our 45-minute discussion […]

Exhibition in pictures (and video)

The Prism Textiles exhibition “In Search of Possibilities” is now over, and very successful it was too, with lots of really positive feedback about the work and the venue. If you didn’t manage to visit, here are a few pictures to give you a flavour – plus an interesting video of my bindweed piece by […]

Rebound: hanging the bindweed

I managed to finish weaving the last of the 50 bindweed pods a couple of weeks ago. Then I had to start thinking about how to suspend them. My original idea was to use a metal grid, which would be robust enough not to bend. But my friend Magdalen suggested that it would be better […]