the posts have been absent for a couple of months, partly due to nothing much happening, and thankfully also due to many things happening. i have been fortunate enough to acquire a beautiful loom, pictured on the left. made by louet, a dutch company, it is a four-shaft table loom with fibre heddles and a fantastically constructed beater mechanism. being new to this you could probably show me the most basic of equipment and i'd think it was rocket science. but that aside it opens up a great deal more for me in terms of construction and pattern with which to experiment.another development has been finding a temporary studio space in east london. this huge step forward, however mildly inappropriate for a maker only just beginning to understand the very basics of her craft, means i can come back to my practice of weaving and writing with a clearer head and with a more open sense of what it is i'd like to achieve.
i left this blog with reflections on the process for my last piece of weaving. it was a total experiment - but the kind of experiment i do...which means it had at it's core a certain element of control, of just enough restraint to be inventive but composed. i've never been an artist that can totally cut loose - filling pages with colours and textures that don't cohere to see how they might, maybe be made to - but rather one that has composition constantly in mind. the whole has to function, the parts to be brought fully together, or as together as an experiment will allow.
written in July 2008
