Inspiration Fix: Wool House

Being a knitter, I am naturally a big fan of wool. Proper wool-wool. Not cheapy acrylic yarn. But I hadn't really heard about The Campaign For Wool until I heard about the Wool House Event at Somerset House. Wool House was the biggest ever celebration of wool and I'm so glad I got to visit.

This rug was beautiful. Weaving is amazing.

Weaving is a relatively new discovery of mine, that I am absolutely fascinated by, so looking at the variety of looms at work in the exhibition was fascinating. A total highlight for me.

These swatches by Anna Wilkinson - author of Learn to Knit, Love to Knit - and a newfound inspiration to me, are so beautiful. They were possibly my favourite exhibit on show. I love colour work.

It may sound silly, but I'm so grateful they didn't have anything for sale, or I'd have spent an absolute fortune! For more information about Wool House, The Campaign For Wool and some gorgeous photographs check out their site here.

Weaving: My new favourite past-time

Weaving has been on my to-do list for a while now and seeing as I had a spare afternoon this week, I set about making a very basic homemade loom, so I could give it a try.

You may not be aware of my embarrassingly large yarn collection, but it does come in handy for projects like this. I stitched the result into a purse, and I'm really pleased with it. It's such a good feeling to create a fabric strand by strand.

Schoolwork: Collage Project

This was the final project under the Power Of 3 brief - and I can't pretend I'm not glad it's over - the number 3 is not my favourite theme upon which to base work. Collage however, has probably been my favourite of three rotations. I chose to look at the idea of 3 Meals A Day and created little 'food characters' which I intended to animate. However, we have an enormous deadline looming (it's tomorrow! Argh! But I'm nearly done - yay!) and that took priority for me, so I had very little time to spend on this project. 
So instead of animating the characters, I photographed them in my kitchen. I'm pleased with the outcomes, and the crit (which was yesterday) went better than I expected. I'm definitely going to develop this idea over the Easter Break - if it ever arrives!

Drawings: People Looking At Maps

These are two of my favourite drawings / collages from this term's self directed work - in an effort to capture the atmosphere at the V&A, I sat for a while in front of one of the large maps in the foyer, drawing people who approached it on sheets of tracing paper, that I later overlaid onto sheets torn from the map of the museum. This is an idea I rather like, simple and effective. I think I'm definitely going to try similar approaches with different locations and tourist attractions.