mapping the weave

Bathed in spring sunshine and overlooking the city, pictured here are some of the looms that I and a couple of volunteers recently set up recently in the YMCA garden in Darlington. Inspired by a loom created for Stave Hill Ecological Park, these are part of part of an ongoing project, started a few months ago, which I’ve contributed to and written about in a number of previous posts on his blog.

The looms were installed to allow visitor to the garden to weave with natural materials and create tapestries illustrating their responses to the site and findings within it. My interest when choosing where to place these was to complement the fedges recently created in the garden as part of the same project (see flying fedges post) and also have them interact with the site as 'interruptions' or ‘punctuation marks’, drawing the visitors' gaze over the city skyline.

chemically treated japanese knotweed on site

Since installing the looms, Sally Reckert who runs the project has been experimenting with various recipes to create coloured bio plastics that can be used to coat plant material and be used as wefts. Some of these have already been woven into the warps and I am due to go back to Darlington next month to add to this, working with community groups, so expect more pictures to come.

weaving with the left over weed

flying fedges (round the fruit tree and back again)

The project referred to in the previous post involves creating meandering fedges across the steep slopes of the site at the Darlington YMCA, one of the ideas I suggested to Sally Reckert after at meeting her at The Festival of Thrift last year.

The current plan is to work with a number of community groups to create the fedges out of materials collected on site, as well as other local green areas. Once completed the fedges will make the garden more accessible, provide resting points, create new pathways and offer residents and visitors new sightlines over the city. We used various types of wood as well as green willow with view of it growing and  providing more foliage and material to weave into the fedge over time.

Looking at these images now I realise how much this project drew inspiration from previous work such as  Panoramic Pathways at Nottingham Castle and Museum and Art Gallery, as well as an installation I'm currently working on at Stave Hill Ecological Park, using pollarded willow around black coppiced blackthorn shrubs. I'll upload images of this last installation in my next post, meanwhile here are few that will take you on a journey around the site at the YMCA.

on fedges and efficiency

getting ready...

I have decided on one resolution only for 2015, that is be more efficient. As far as writing on this blog however and with almost three months now since the last post, it’s maybe fair to say sticking to this resolution has proved to be a total disaster!

getting steady...

This is not for lack of business though or things to write about. Recent projects combined with lecturing simultaneously on three courses at UAL has got in the way of keeping weeklyweaves up to date. So, writing this now and preparing the next few posts, I'm remedying this while working hard at making this process more efficient.

go...

Casting my mind back over the last few weeks, periodically working outdoors at Stave Hill Ecological Park and a project at the YMCA in Darlington has been the greatest source of inspiration, not least for the people I have met when working at both sites.

and repeat...

This includes Dave Bent, a volunteer gardener who assisted me building fedges with a group from Just the Job, using ash stakes and other wood collected from for the site at the YMCA. I was really taken by Dave’s efficient way of making a fedge using laurel.  Here’s a few images illustrating how he does it. Dave discovered this method by chance while working on the site, and an efficient and economical one it is too. Thanks Dave, I hope you don't mind me taking a leaf out of your book in the future!

job done!