Category: Textiles

  • Shae Bishop – ceramic cowboy

    Shae Bishop is a ceramic artist who uses his discipline to create distinctive costumes. Based in Virginia in the USA, the artist works with clay to make portraits through clothing. His pieces cross-over between tiles and textile, making the wearer both invincible and vulnerable. Check out more of the artist’s work here and read an…

  • A working loom

    This week the loom in the studio is finally weaving! Over the past few months we (a friend who is an expert in all things to do with looms and me) have been working to get this loom running. It was used by a designer from Gisborne who kindly donated it to the studio and,…

  • Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

    Zeitz MoCAA is carved out of old grain silos on the quayside of Cape Town’s docks and features the contemporary art of Africa. One Must Be Seated is a multi-disciplinary show by Ghanaian-American artist Rita Mawuena Benissan of her Ghanaian culture. Reimagining the royal umbrella and stool that represent Akan chieftaincy through tapestry, video, photography…

  • The official studio opening

    The studio is opening in Greymouth/ Māwhera on the 31st October. The event will be celebrated at the Regent Theatre from six pm where there will be drinks and snacks. The studio itself will be open from 5:30 pm and there will be some singing and a short welcoming speech. Space is limiting the numbers…

  • Reader contributions

    There are four textile-related exhibitions on in Chicago in the USA at the moment. Jacqueline Surdell is showing at Secrist | Beach, Kiah Celeste at Document, Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, and the Art Institute of Chicago has On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival on show until March next year.

  • Bulawayo

    A trip to Bulawayo in September 2025

  • Sónia Aniceto

    The work of Sónia Aniceto, a Portuguese artist who trained in painting and tapestry, took a turn when she worked in an opera house on sets. The experience of working on a large scale with textiles at La Monnaie in Belgium encouraged the artist to explore mixing thread and paint. The result… delicate, beautiful, unsettling…

  • The Philosophy of Clothes

    A new book from Kate Moran in a Cambridge University Press series looks at clothing from both personal and philosophical angles. Clothes carry meaning as well as being practical. We choose what to wear for meetings, parties, conversations… they make us feel good, attractive, or defend our bodily space. In this book, the author, herself…

  • Textile Curator

    The world of contemporary textile art practice is the subject of the Textile Curator website. Helen Adams has set out to teach the world about textile art and artists in blog posts, an artist directory and resources through the site. It is a British-based website with an international outlook and it may be useful to…

  • Why do clothes shrink?

    We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling upon opening the washing machine door to find shrunken outfits. Clothes shrink in the wash because of the fibres they are made from. But what is it that actually happens, and can something be done about it? Here is an article about just that. Good luck!