Category: Art

  • Textile Talk

    Every Wednesday a presentation or panel discussion is held by SAQA, Studio Art Quilt Associates in the USA. If you have an hour to spare and want to get a fix, head on over to the website and browse more than 250 Textile Talks using the online index. Fascinating and intriguing, not to mention lots…

  • Glass… as a textile?

    Glass, that most contradictory of materials, has been used as a textile. Mid-century design in Europe and America took advantage of glass fibre and its unique qualities. The fabrics made from glass fibres are shiny and slippery, echoing the trend then for clean lines and crisp looks in fashion and interiors. A pair of fibreglass…

  • Origami Ballet

    Origami Ballet is just that: a dance piece inspired by the art of folding paper. The project, created by Agnes Obel who wrote the music, and choreographed by Makiko Aoyama, Robert Howat, and Takeshi Matsumoto, was premiered in Scotland in 2024. The video below is, according to the source of it, generated by AI from…

  • Lucca Biennale Cartasia

    The town of Lucca in Italy is home to a unique art biennale that focuses on paper. In the 14th Century Lucca started to produce parchment paper and in the 16th Century the first mill was founded there to produce paper at scale. After the Second World War the town prospered and it is still…

  • New books

    As well as the newest Context, number 47, the Costume and Textile Aotearoa New Zealand publication, a book about Scandinavian knitwear and and Kishies and Cuddies, the basketry of Shetland have been added to the library. Context is, as usual, filled with fascinating articles, collection insights and reviews, including Mayan weaving, string bags in Southern…

  • Moving the collection

    The textile collection is now in its new home. Originally, the collection, which is made up of costumes, fashion and textiles from around the world, was stored upstairs from the studio. The room in which it was kept was once the secretary’s room, just outside the general manager’s office, as was the norm back in…

  • Into the Pinke

    Howareyoufeeling.studio co-created a beautiful and thought-provoking performance with 50 Ladakhi students for sā Ladakh in 2024. Sā Ladakh is a biennial land art showing and festival that focuses on ecology and community. It takes place in the Disko Valley in Ladakh, India and in August of 2024 the studio performed this high altitude piece. Metaphorically…

  • Creative journeys

    Creative journeys

    I am looking at the possibility of running small-group tours in Te Waipounamu/ The South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. While in Shetland I created textile tours during which I took people around the islands to places of historical and textile interest. Along the way we explored scenery and the amazing places of the archipelago.…

  • Jamdani: the Art of Weaving

    Jamdani is a type of muslin that comes from Bangladesh where it is painstakingly hand-woven. These intricate patterned fabrics are made with a supplementary weft (an additional thread that is woven across the background cloth). The result is a highly decorative cloth that is sold at Jamdani Haat – a market where the cloth is…

  • Textiles: The Art of Mankind

    The Fashion and Textiles Museum in London’s Bermondsey is currently playing host to what looks like a rather wonderful showcase. Textiles are carriers and conveyors of histories, meaning and identity. This exhibition, on until 7th September, shows some of the ingenuity that goes into the making of them. According to the website for the museum,…