ALISON MORTON Residency at Ruthin Craft Centre
12 – 26 March 2022 - Ruthin Craft Centre
In 2018 I applied for a grant by the Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers. ”The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers has been in existence since 1990 and aims to be a valuable resource for both young and experienced weavers. The Trustees want to ensure that the grants that are made enable individual weavers to maintain a high standard of work, and through this, to promote weaving as an art form.“ I was successful in my application and have kept in touch with the trust since.
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Alison Morton, a trustee of the Theo Moorman Trust. ”Before she died Alison, a renowned weaver specialising in fine linen, was in conversation with Ruthin Craft Centre about a solo show there. In her memory this show will go ahead, albeit curated in a slightly different way. It will open 15 January – 3 April 2022. The Trust are working in partnership with Ruthin Craft Centre on the show, and will be selecting two weavers for a two week residency there. The residency will be in the main gallery space, where Alison's two looms will be set up, offering the weavers the opportunity to demonstrate to visitors the intricacies of hand weaving, and to experience working on these types of looms.”
When I heard about the residency, I knew this was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass by. I was in need of some space to try new ideas and focus on my practice, but more than anything I admired Alison greatly and the opportunity to study her lifetimes work would be unvaluable. It was the perfect time for me to apply. After umming and ahhing over my application and finally submitting, life seems to take over and for a short while I’d forgotten about the residency. However an email inviting me for an interview sure got my blood pressure going. Following my interview I was delighted to hear that I’d been offered the two week residency at Ruthin Craft Centre as part of the Alison Morton exhibition.
The weeks leading up to my residency at Ruthin Craft Centre had been a busy period in my day-to-day life. Working from my studio in Splott, Cardiff, I was weaving a series of hand-woven blankets for the ‘National Eisteddfod- Art Pavilion/ Y Lle Celf’ open exhibition; I was in early talks for an exciting project here in Cardiff; and my lecturing commitments at Carmarthen School of Art were full on.
Therefore, my preparation for the residency had been limited! I’d managed to do some reading into linen and ordered bright singles (yarn) in orange, navy and turquoise thinking I’d be working with a lively colour palette. Not much planning on paper, however my mind had been thinking and pondering since my interview in January.
I had met Alison twice. I came across her work in 2008 whilst studying at Manchester Metropolitan and was so excited to read about a hand-weaver, making functional pieces that were to be used in everyday life. I was enamoured by the way she was making a living as a hand-weaver here in the UK and in Ludlow. As a first year textile student I was eager to hear more. I made my way to her studio in Ludlow and immediately thought ‘this is what I want to do’. I loved the intimacy of her house, the fact that the looms were part of her everyday life; cooker, chair, loom, table, bed etc. Everything was there, in one space.
Once I arrived in Ruthin, the first day was full of excitement and slight anticipation. I hadn’t seen the exhibition prior to my residency and spent most of Saturday looking at Alison’s collection in the gallery space. Taking a more in depth look at the selvedges, feeling the weight of the fabric, seeing how it draped I started to notice which structures I was drawn to and questioned myself why?
I was instantly drawn to three towels that seemed to be woven using the double cloth structure. The bold blocks of natural linen warp and weft gave a dense area of colour, sitting next to contrasting creams. From a distance the solid blocks of colours were striking. As I inspected the towels, I was fascinated by the way it was woven using double twill.
For my personal practice I often weave double cloth, as I love the way you can play with contrasting blocks and colour, how you can play with the viewers eye that one side of the cloth is saying one thing and the other side saying something different. I made note of the double twill towels and knew I get back to them later.
I had previous experience of weaving on a George Wood loom, whilst studying at Manchester Metropolitan between 2006-2009. As soon as I saw the loom in the gallery space, all the good weaving memories came flooding back and as soon as I started to weave, the whole motion became familiar again. It’s hard to describe how weaving on the George Wood feels, but the loom has the perfect weight. From a distance the heavy frame can seem daunting but I’m always amazed that the finest of silks, single linens or even fine wool can been woven to create a delicate cloth.
One area I was interested to explore, was combing wool with linen. I have been working with wool for a number of years; weaving a variety of qualities in a variety of structures. I enjoy the flexibility it has as well as the texture it brings to cloth and how it can change from loom state to finished fabric.
My first few samples were using the linen warp, but introducing ‘Cambrian Mountain Wool’ in the weft. Some samples were purely wool weft with varying thicknesses, others were wool/linen pick and pick. I was working with a simple colour pallet of the neutral linens and natural wools, with a hint of colour with the black and red linen.
As I was weaving through the linen warp, I felt I needed to add some colour into the warp, to see how this would affect the work. I simply tied in a single red linen yarn approximately 1.5” from the right-hand side. This simple line was effective in the remaining samples, adding a unique hint to simple structures.
I was struck by Alison’s clever use of selvedges. They varied in width, depending on the work, but always seemed to frame the pieces. In my own practice I had not used selvedges in many of my pieces, but as time was passing, I decided to re-thread the warp, giving me a 10 end selvedge on either side, and bringing the EPI from 30 down to 24. I decided to stay with the straight draft, but as I reduced the EPI my warp grew to 12.5” wide.
From this partially new warp I decided to play around with the double twill structure. Weaving pick and pick with linen/wool, meant the linen weft would sit on face of the cloth in one pick and second pick of wool would sit at the back of the cloth. As I was weaving such a dense cloth, I was constantly aware of how heavy to beat each pick, not sure how much the linen would move or expand once washed. As for the selvedges, they were weaving exactly as I hoped, keeping the width of the cloth, but also adding a calm and subtle border.
The more I was weaving, the linen warp was starting to show it’s tricky qualities. Some warp ends started to break on the left-hand side, and within a few picks I has lost all 10 ends from the selvedge.
I’m still pondering what happened on that Saturday morning (grrrrrr!) Had the gallery been warm and the air dry? Had I been catching warp ends with my shuttle, or was I very unlucky and the warp ends just happened to break? I was getting close to the end of the warp, so decided to preserver the with a wool sample of the double twill structure.
As I had reached the end of the warp, I was eager to start finishing the cloth. After reading some of Alison’s notes on finishing I had a better idea of what I needed to do. As previously stated, I had never woven with linen so the finishing process was all new to me. I was amazed to read that Alison would boil the linen for up to hour, followed by a process of beetling. A process of bashing/beating the cloth with a mallet or heavy object to bring out the lustre and shine of the linen. I wanted to play around with finishing each sample in a different way. As many of the samples contained wool, I was interested to see what would happen when I needed to boil the cloth. Partly thinking the wool would want to felt, but the linen might hold its ground?
Whilst completing the double twill structures, I was pondering how you could design a warp that would have elements of double cloth from a single warp. I wanted to design a single warp that had block of colour, or even warp stripes that would be seen on the face of the cloth but not on the back. After some late-night sketching and some calculations, I designed a warp where the face of the cloth had a regular black pinstripe, and the back of the cloth had a central red stripe. Changing the threading slightly to allow the central stripe to work separately meant I had a block draft. I was excited with the idea, but also excited to be using Alison’s warping mill as well as threading the George Wood loom.
My final few samples were the accumulation of my design thoughts. Using a blend of my previous experience of weaving wool, with the new (to me) linen yarn, and my new found fondness of the double twill structure. I’m thrilled with the possibilities of combing wool and linen and what they could bring to a cloth. As well as the wool softening the overall weight, I’m also intrigued by the matt-ness of the wool in contrast to the lustre of the linen, and how these could sit next to each other. Each piece reacted slightly differently when I finished them, however the overall reaction is that the wool has softened the linen and even though some pieces were left in very hot water for a long time, no pieces had felted. I was delighted how my warp design achieved what I was thinking, but I believe there’s much more mileage in this design idea and the possibilities are endless.
It goes without saying that I was delighted with my design journey over the two weeks. Arriving with no specific targets worked for me, and delving into Alison’s collection allowed my ideas to grow organically. Her way of documenting and recording her lifetimes work is an inspiration and something I’ve taken with me into my own practice. I feel like I stayed true to my design ethic but took some of Alison’s sophisticated form and methods and came up with something new and exciting! I could not have hoped for a greater outcome.
Talking to a variety of people on a daily basis was equally as enjoyable as weaving in Ruthin’s unique gallery space. Seeing people’s reaction when they understood the dobby loom gave me great satisfaction, nearly as much as weaving itself.
My greatest gratitude goes to the Theo Moorman Trust for this opportunity that will stay with me for years to come.
