Students Work

I started teaching a new evening class last November and a number of my students learnt to weave with riged heddle looms.  This afternoon I had an email from one of them with an image if three lovely cushion covers she has woven.  She said, "I used my own textured hand spun, my Mum's left over scraps of plied home spun and some strands of colinette yarns. So 'dry clean only' . . . "

I'm sure you will agree how lovely they all are.

Three beautiful cushions designed and handwoven by Tyra Till

So What's Been Going On!

Well, there's been lots of changes here in the world of Alison Yule Textiles, one of the biggest being another house and studio move!

I now have a small studio in South Derbyshire, just north of the village of Suton-on-the-Hill were I've masses of inspiration on the door step, so I usually start the day with a walk along the lanes and now Spring as sprung and better weather is on the horizon I hope to venture across the fields before I settle down to work.

A colourful corner of the studio!

Teaching has also been featuring heavily and now have three, yes, three evening classes!  Spinning and Weaving on Mondays in Willington, Spinning and Weaving onWednesdays in Heage and Weaving on Thursdays in Leek, at the Foxlowe Arts Centre.

I'm starting to get bookings for 2014, too, which is really good, but the really, really exciting news is that I've been invited to step in and tutor Anne Fields course, Spinning Beyond the Basics at The National Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Summer School.  Sadly Anne is unable to travel from New Zealand and I was recommended by several people, so I will be joining Jane Deane, Amanda Hannaford and others in Carmarthen in August.

Another month gone by!

Oh, dear, another month has gone by and I've not managed to post, but things seem to be settling down now.

Woolfest went really well. The dyes seemed to be well received and sales were good, so lets hope that now they are beginning to be know that will increase. I was teaching a Learn to Weave course last week which also went very well. One student from Leicester went home on Friday afternoon and was so excited about her weaving she spent the evening finishing a set of place mats! We took the Japanese student sight seeing on Saturday up into the Peak District of Derbyshire, which included the tapestries of Haddon Hall, the Carnival at Bakewell and a visit to the market and antique shops of Ashbourne. On Sunday we took her to the local Lavender Patch and Staunton Harold Craft Centre, where she purchased some fabrics for her hand made bags, then on to Heathrow for her 12 hour flight home!

I now have three weeks to get my house and studio back into order before I go on holiday to Bulgaria. I can't wait to spend a week on the Black Sea Coast, really chilling out, before we drive to an Artists Retreat in the foot hills of the Rhodope Mountains. Silvia, our host, and her husband are artists, Silvia being a tapestry weaver and acrylic artist. Their lovely retreat consists of a small cottage set in a walled garden with an artists studio across the courtyard. The studio has a couple of tapestry frames, so I am trying to design a small tapestry that I should be able to complete in a week! Of course, I am sure I will be distracted by the lovely countryside which we are told is very suitable for walking.

Must go, lots to clean and that design to complete.

Not much to say really, but!

I've been quite busy really, so not had much time to post, I had intended to post at least once a week, but I'm afraid I haven't managed that!

I have been teaching on a Monday evening and had to prepare for that, as well as preparing for 5 days of teaching design to spinners for Skylark Holidays.

Add to that preparing to take my dyes to Woolfest at the end of the month and preparing for a weaving course for Skylark Holidays at the beginning of July, too! I wish you could add a couple of hours into your day when they were needed, sometimes 24 aren't enough!!

We had the proof of the book back from the publishers, last week. It really is going to be stunning. For those of you who don't know, my friend, Jane Deane, and I have written a book called "Creative Spinning" for Gaia, part of the Octopus Publishing group. We were asked way back at the end of last September if we could write an inspirational "coffee table" book and were given 6 weeks to produce 30 projects and 15,000 words. Well that was really a tall order so we asked for an extension and they gave us an extra 2 weeks! Needless to say we managed it and the book went off to the technical editor, who did a fantastic job because we were then told it had been sold to an American publisher and they wanted a "how to" section, but still only 15,000 words!

I have to say that the photographs are stunning and the illustrations are really clear. I just hope that it is well received, I can't tell you how stressful it is to have such a tight brief and deadline, my neck and shoulders are still suffering 7 months later!

By the way, the book is one of a series of 4; Creative Spinning, Creative Weaving, Creative Natural Dyeing and Creative Felting.

More soon.