Monthly Guild Meeting – Open Day

Juliette Syme on June 23, 2023

Free Entry

Would you like to learn more about fibre spinning, plant dyeing, weaving or tapestry and just want to give it a try before embarking on a new skillset?  We would love you to come along so our Guild members can show you their work and what is entailed in their crafts.  The Centre is  only a short walk from Clapham Junction station.

In addition we are holding two paid for workshops which give a more in depth knowledge into both plant dyeing and tapestry weaving ,which can be booked through Eventbrite

Natural Dye Taster Workshop

£15.00 pp  4 places available

If you are interested in a more hands on experience with natural dyes you can join our Natural Dye taster workshop. In this workshop you will learn how to extract dye from plant material, experience how different fibres take up dye and see the difference in colour when a mordant is used.   All materials and dyes are supplied.

This can be booked through Eventbrite

Tapestry Workshop

2.00 – 4.00 pm

£15.00 pp 10 places available

Try your hand at Tapestry Weaving.  Looms and materials are supplied which you can take home to either finish your creative art or start another one with your new skills.  You can learn how to create shapes and play with colour and textures with a variety of fibres.

This can be booked through Eventbrite.

This is now fully booked

Monthly Guild Meeting: Robbie LaFleur on Norwegian Tapestry: Research On and Off the Loom

Juliette Syme on June 23, 2023

robbie lafleur 2robbie LaFleur1QR Code Robbie Lafleur

Robbie LaFleur has been following a thread of Scandinavian textile research ever since attending weaving school in Fagernes, Norway, in In this lecture she will discuss traditional Norwegian tapestry, known as billedvev, or ”picture weaving”, which enjoyed a golden age in Norway from approximately 1600-1750. Learn what typifies Norwegian tapestry, and how it continued to influence Norwegian weavers in the 1900s and up to today.

LaFleur was a fellow with the American Scandinavian Foundation in 2019 and traveled to Stavanger, Norway, to study the open warp wool transparency technique of Frida Hansen (1855-1931). The famous Art Nouveau tapestry weaver began her career during the National Romantic era, working to revive traditional weaving techniques and using historical motifs and symbols. Hansen’s personal style evolved, with international Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and Japanese influences. in addition to her monumental art tapestries, Frida Hansen developed a technique of open warp wool transparencies, used primarily as portieres, or door hangings.

Join Robbie LaFleur to learn about Norwegian weaving and and her particular passion for the art of Frida Hansen.

Monthly Guild Meeting – Bidisha Malik on Mira Behn and Khadi

Juliette Syme on June 23, 2023

Bidisha Mallik

Bidisha  will introduce to you Madeleine Slade (1892-1982), better known in India as Mira Behn, the most famous European associate of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who was also a progressive environmental thinker, a fact the world knows less about. She formulated perhaps the first environmentalist agenda in India, highlighting the social and ecological constraints to development and unlimited economic growth.

Mira Behn’s lessons in Gandhian thinking began not in the soil of India but in England, where she learned carding, spinning, and weaving at the Kensington Weavers of London. In India, Mira Behn went on to become a key figure in Gandhi’s Constructive Program for village economic self-reliance: she helped develop and expand Gandhi’s idea of khadi (Indian homespun cloth) through her choice and advocacy of clothes and aesthetics that transcended colonial, gender, class, and elitist bias and her tireless work to improve the methods of spinning, carding, and weaving for village self-determination during India’s independence movement.