Jerusalem and Share

We were at Salt's Mill yesterday, primarily to see the Cloth and Memory 2 exhibition. The weather was beautiful and there was an excellent craft fair in the Victoria Hall with many first class exhibitors and a family fun day in the park and on the canal.

   

   

   

We had a curated tour of the exhibition by Professor Lesley Millar, who was extremely knowledgable on the background of the 23 exhibits.

                        

                                 

                                                         

There is a lovely bookshop at Salt's Mill, I was tempted by two cookery books,Jerusalem and Share both filled with scrummy looking recipes and wonderful photo's. 

                                                                              

    

        

        

Last Day in the Classroom

Today was our last day in the classroom, choosing yarns for warps and working on sketchbooks. There was feedback from a presentation we had to make in July for Contextual Studies and then in the afternoon Harvard Referencing. In the evening six of us went to the Kashmir Restaurant which is close to college for dinner, the food and service is lovely. Tomorrow we're off to Salts Mill to see the Cloth and Memory exhibition and visiting the Craft Market in the afternoon, loosely called market research. No photo's from today but I've added one from yesterday which is inside the Wool Exchange in Bradford which is now Waterstones

                                        

     

Colour Museum, Bradford

The Colour Musseum is not normally open to the public being only normally open to school groups which is a great shame. There are exhibits that can only be described as being of world wide importance as there are early examples of Perkin's experimentation including yarn samples and his microscope. The museum shows the transition from natural dyes to the synthetic but because it is mainly geared towards children has much on light and seeing. Between the Bradford Textile Archive and the Colour museum is the nucleii of an amazing experience for textile enthusiasts. Below are a couple of photo's from the museum and a couple from Centenery Square which is the area of civic space in front of the town hall. Centenery Square is a a wonderful area, one moment it's filled with water and there are children paddling and fountains and coloured lights the next it's bone dry with people scurrying across it on the way to work. It works so well and is such a focus for the area.

                                                                           

      

Another Day In Bradford

I'm currently  in Bradford as part of a 6 day Summer/Autumn school. We had a marvelous day at the Textile Archive studying old weaving sample books to look for inspiration for our current project, which in my case is verdigris. This is my mood board, which is supposed to do exactly what it says in the title

                                 

Bradford is a wonderful city, vibrant and warm, though I'm saddened by the closure of so many mills and factories which as a weaver I'm naturally fascinated by. On my travels I've spotted these beauties

                                                                                                     

Which I couldn't resist photographing, the top one is a door to what I think was a worsted spinners factory and the lower one is from a warehouse.

My Very First Blog

I'm a mature student studying weaving at Bradford College, the course is the HNC in Constructed Textiles. I've wanted to blog for some time but as with so many things time and circumstances have contrived against me. I'm on the second year of a two year course and I hope you'll join me on my voyage to the final presentation piece.

I have two projects to complete between now and July so will be very busy planning and designing and finally weaving, with a final show in June 2014.

My other interests are natural dyeing, spinning and all things crafty. I hope to blog about the things I do and make, though I am the worlds worst for finishing things.

I hope you enjoy following

The photo shows the entrance to the Lister Building, where we are all studying