Before and After – raw material and finished product

Posted on 21/03/201421/03/2014 by Alastair

There is a range of wood grown and used at Coeden Fach Woodland.

Here you can see the different stages of material and product with the wood growing, cut and layer in stacks ready for use and then the final product in the form of chairs.

Not all the material in the chairs is the same wood as is evident from the the different colours. My favourite is definitely the dogwood chair with its beautiful range of reds, greens, browns and yellows.

This week’s featured StillWalks video is from the south west of Scotland. This medium resolution full length version will be here all week and will then revert to the sample.

The video above is in 480p quality. You can use the Donate button below to pay however much you want and receive a high quality (720HD) download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Coastal Walk – Spring” which features part of the Galloway coastline in Scotland. Click the image above to watch the video. DVD Collections are also available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Natural and Man-Made Thorns

Posted on 28/02/201428/02/2014 by Alastair

Bramble thorns and barbed wire – both are effective means of protection!

Barbed wire has been both a feature and a theme in my work as an artist for many years now. The idea to try including barbs within the weave of my tapestries came from my need to represent something of the tension I felt whilst listening to the peace talks in Northern Ireland back in the late 1990s. Having grown up in Belfast during the 60s and 70s, it seemed to me to be the perfect material to represent conflict as my memory is of there being so much of it around at the time.

The first people to see the first tapestries I wove that incorporated barbed wire, did not think of it as representing conflict except in terms of texture – the soft wool of the weft and the hard sharpness of the barbs. They were living in the local rural community of SE Wales and only thought of barbed wire as a material for use in farming.

Metaphor or not, for me the barbs still represent conflict and although that theme in my work has broadened over the years, it is still a fact that the hard, sharp material of spikes, either man-made or natural, are there to protect one thing against another where there is a conflict of interests.

I have included a photo of one of my earlier tapestries from this thematic period – if you would like to see more examples of my work, please visit Design Fibre ICT at www.acmd.co.uk

Tenses 4 – photograph by David Wibberly

More examples of my tapestry weaving can be seen at www.acmd.co.uk

What a Lot of Wattle – Fencing at Llys Nini

Posted on 26/02/201426/02/2014 by Alastair

Wattle fences are becoming common at Llys Nini Animal Centre.

One of the many woodland jobs carried out as part of Llys Nini Animal Centre woodland management is the building of wattle fences. The woodland is managed by Phil Morgan and it is he, along with an extensive team of adult volunteers and visiting school children, who create these wonderful pieces of weaving in the natural environment.

This abandoned section of wattle fencing I came across in one of the fields next to the woods, gave me some great subject matter for my photography. I love its unwinding form and apparent keenness to get back to the earth.

Fibre Connections – Metal and Weaving

Posted on 14/11/201314/11/2013 by Alastair

Continuing with my textural link to StillWalks, these and other mini woven tapestries are available on my new Etsy Shop, ACMDesign – each one is unique. I have described them as “tapestry notes”, and in doing so, I was thinking back to when I started using wire in my work as an artist.

One of the first tapestries I wove that included barbed wire can be seen here. It and another are also on the Etsy shop. However, barbed wire is not the starting point for my work with wire and my interest in metal.

I originally started working with wire in a similar way to which I am now doing with these mini tapestries – as design notes. I think of them in the same way as I think of drawing in a sketch book, and as I work on them, I develop my feel for the wire and find out how it interacts with the soft fibre of the warp and weft. More on this tomorrow.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “After the Tide” which is from the marshes on the Loughor Estuary, South wales. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Fibre Connections

Posted on 13/11/201313/11/2013 by Alastair

When I started out developing StillWalks, I had already realised that the photography I was doing was informed by my other life as an artist and tapestry weaver. So when I mention my new Etsy shop, ACMDesign, for my tapestry weaving, it is not without reason.

The main reason of course, is to try and sell the tapestries, but I am also going to take the opportunity this week, to explain a little about what goes into them.

Starting at the end – today’s photos show you how I am presenting the mini tapestries which I am calling “tapestry notes” – double mounted in a box frame. The weaving measures approximately 5 cms or 2 inches square(ish) and the frame is 25 cms square.

The tapestry hanging above the box framed piece is one I bought from the Wissa Wassef School of Tapestry in Cairo.

Another Side to StillWalks

Posted on 10/11/201310/11/2013 by Alastair

Many of the photos I take for StillWalks videos are influenced by my interest and enjoyment of texture. I am sure this comes from the fact that I am also a tapestry weaver.

My most recent tapestries are small in scale and produced as “tapestry notes” and can be seen on my new Etsy shop, ACMDesign. Each one is unique and presented in a box frame and at £38 / $60, make fantastic Christmas presents 😉

Some of my other tapestries incorporating barbed wire are also available at the Etsy shop.

Madder Than Ever – Dyeing to See Red

Posted on 14/08/201314/08/2013 by Alastair

One of the many other workshops apart from my tapestry weaving at the AGWSD Summer School in Trinity St David’s, Carmarthen last week was wool dyeing.

The two red photos here are wool dyed in madder and the remnants of the dye bucket. I love the colour!

Weaving, Wine and Wonderful Food

Posted on 12/08/201312/08/2013 by Alastair

Weaving – I had a great week last week with a bunch of wonderful women taking my tapestry weaving course as part of the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. Samplers were completed if not all the designed tapestries but we were able to go into detail about all the different aspects of controlling the tension in weft and warp and I hope that you will benefit from this in all your future weaving.

One of the highlights for me was when they gave me a present of two brass tipped African and Brazilian hard wood bobbins – they were so generous and I am very, very grateful 🙂

Wine and wonderful food – the catering at the summer school was good and I have no complaints but now I am home again and we are doing our own cooking. Having worked on equestrian photography all day Sunday with the help of my daughter and her boyfriend, today was my first “free” day (sort of). Tonight Julie made a fantastic Pilau Rice with which I stuffed red and green peppers (capsicums) along with chestnut mushrooms, spring onions and feta cheese. I pretty much followed this recipe and it was absolutely delicious and washed down with a very nice Portuguese red wine.

So thanks everyone for an excellent and enjoyable week and especially for those lovely bobbins.

Tag Archives: weaving