Note that some tutors are offering SHORT courses (these have an S prefix). Short courses cover half the time of the conventional summer school course - the LONG (L... prefix) course. The COMBINED courses (C prefix) are a third style of course design with two distinct parts. This allows students to leave/start mid-week or follow the whole course. This means that we have 25 different course options available across 17 'classes'. The content of these are briefly explained below. (Scroll further down to see the link to the brochure and other archive information).
A FLEECE A DAY [L01] Amanda Hannaford Learn about fibre preparation and spinning of specific fleece types. Students will discover how to create beautiful and usable yarns from any fleece they may acquire. You can learn more and see some photos of raw and spun Manx fleece here.
CREATIVE FELT MAKING: WEAR IT OR HANG IT [C02] Patricia Greaves This course provides an ‘adventure with fibres and fabrics’, combining colour, texture and layering to produce felted fabrics for decorative purposes or garments. Please view the brochure for a description of how the two parts of this course work together. Patricia talks about the joy of felt and her influences here.
DESIGN FOR THE TERRIFIED [L03] Alison Daykin Offers help to ‘painting and drawing challenged’ weavers, spinners, dyers, or other textile practitioners in understanding Design and using this in their chosen medium. Alison offers three posts with advice on how to prepare for design. What is Design? Preparing to Design, and Design Development.
EXPERIMENTS WITH KNITTING [S04A and S04B] Alison Ellen During two short courses you will explore different aspects of 3D knitting: from the effects of diagonal or bias knitting to creating shapes without seams. Both open up new design opportunities in your knitting. In her blog post Alison reveals more about the possibilities.
LACE WEAVING [L05] Anne Dixon
This class explores Huck and Bronson lace, examining differences and similarities and also possibilities for manipulating and rule-breaking to weave curved block patterning. Some examples and some extra information appears in this blog post.
PLY SPLIT BRAIDING IN TWO AND THREE DIMENSIONS [C06] Julie Hedges
This course draws on Julie’s development of this technique for textile jewellery, 3D vessels and sculptures and also relates ply-splitting to traditional Indian work. More about this technique in this blog post by Julie.
WAX-RESIST ON SILK [S07] Isabella Whitworth
Offering two identical short courses teaching basic dye theory, steam-fixed synthetic dyes and wax-resist on silk. The focus of each course is on making scarves. You can find out more and see examples in this post by Isabella.
RIGID HEDDLE WEAVING [S08A and S08B] Dawn Willey
Get more from your rigid heddle loom! Two short courses explore lacy and textured weaves or honeycomb, blocks, twill and woven inlays. Study individually or combine. The brochure provides fuller information on which and how to choose. In her blog post Dawn introduces her Rigid Heddle weaving course and discusses why she finds it so fulfilling.
SHIBORI TECHIQUES: MANIPULATE, WEAVE AND DYE [C09] Cia Bosanquet
Offers experience of fabric manipulation, weaving and dyeing techniques including, knotting, clamping, wrapping and weft and warp shibori on the loom. Please refer to the brochure for further explanation of how this course is structured. Examples and explanation of Cia's approach to shibori are provided in this blog post.
COCOONS TO CLOTH [L10] Jane Deane
This course covers the potential of every kind of silk fibre and how to prepare and spin them. Jane will cover silk use from raising silkworms to final spun fibre. Jane's blog post talks about how and why she fell in love with silk (and moths and caterpillars).
SOFT BASKETRY TECHNIQUES [S11A and S11B] Averil Otiv
Use materials ranging from hand dyed paper to day lilies to create 3D forms using bias plaiting, coiling, torchon lace technique, knotting and twining. Find out more about Averil's approach and how to prepare for this course.
SPIN TO KNIT [L12] Carol and Pete Leonard
A course to improve your understanding and practice, including fibre choice and preparation, drafting, plying on wheel or spindle, choice of stitch pattern and multicolour work. In the first of two blog posts from these tutors Pete offers insight into his own experience of knitting with handspun yarn.
SPIN & BLEND ALPACA: LACEWEIGHT TO ART YARN [S13] Lyn Scott
Identical short courses cover preparing alpaca fleece and blending this with other fibres to spin fun and functional yarns from fine laceweights to bold art yarns.
WEAVING PATTERNED BANDS [C14] Susan J Foulkes
Using the double-slotted heddle and backstrap, an infinite variety of patterns can be produced on narrow bands. In this course you will explore the Baltic heritage of this craft. Link to background information and a video clip by Susan.
WEFT IKAT [L15] Martin Weatherhead
Examine the pattern effects of ikat dyed weft, using block and shift patterns and for really ambitious (masochistic) students the challenging picture style. Martin explains how and why he is interested in ikat in his blog post.
WOVEN TAPESTRY [S16A and S16B] Louise Martin
Offers a short course in eccentric weaving (where weft rarely runs at right angles to the warp, creating organic and lively surfaces), followed by one on Coptic tapestry. In her blog post the tutor offers examples and insights into both parts of her week, two distinctively different courses.
THE DYER’S RECIPE BOOK [S17] Debbie Tomkies
Two short courses which help you to evaluate how different fibres dye,
develop recipes for specific and repeatable colours and explore the use of colour theory. Debbie's explanation of her courses includes colourful examples made by previous students.
ARCHIVE
Please take time to read through the brochure. We have designed this to make it easier to compare courses and find which ones will suit you best. The image below shows you how the course pages are laid out. |
| Click image to expand |
Click button above or this link to view or download the brochure.
You can use the 'zoom in' (magnifier +) tool to increase the text size. To book courses use the online or email/print form on the Booking page
You can use the 'zoom in' (magnifier +) tool to increase the text size. To book courses use the online or email/print form on the Booking page
Both the brochure and booking form are packed with useful information. The brochure contains advice about choosing what to study as well as information about each of the tutors and their courses. Tutors have also prepared blog posts about the thinking behind their courses (published from June-September 2014). These can be found on the homepage or via links in the list of courses, tutors and codes below.
Please check back on this blog regularly, or subscribe to email updates, to access this extra information on courses, events and planning.
Note that some tutors are offering SHORT courses (these have an S prefix). Short courses cover half the time of the conventional summer school course - the LONG (L... prefix) course. The COMBINED courses (C prefix) are a third style of course design with two distinct parts. This allows students to leave/start mid-week or follow the whole course. These options are best explained through some examples, so see the Programme page to learn more about course choice or refer to the detailed descriptions of courses in the brochure.
