Threads of Feeling

In 2010 The Foundling Hospital Museum in Bloomsbury, London put on an exhibition called "Threads of Feeling - 18th Century Textile Tokens left with Abandoned Babies". You can see more about it HERE on a slide show.

When babies were left at the foundling hospital the only things identifying them were tiny scraps of fabric. Although the babies were given new names and were not told of their previous history, mothers were encouraged to leave a token with the baby so that, should they ever be able to return to claim their children, they would have something that would identify them. 

The Foundling Hospital Museum is a moving place to visit - the thought that, out of all the abandoned babies only a few were ever reclaimed, is heart rending. Also, almost two thirds of babies taken in died - not through neglect but because the infant mortality rate in London was so high. 

I have woven a copy of a piece of cloth that was pinned to a baby boy who was left at the Foundling Hospital. He would have been under 2 months old (the hospital was so overwhelmed with babies that it could only take 20 children a month - under the age of 2 months) and, if he had survived, he would have been sent off to a wet nurse in the country straight away.  At age five he would have returned to the hospital to be educated and then apprenticed at 10. (Sadly, he died soon after he was taken in).

Threads of Feeling woven sample

If you are visiting London please put The Foundling Hospital Museum on your itinerary of places to visit. 

Jo X

Weaving for the soul

My first sample

I have taken up tapestry weaving.
Whilst on holiday I visited Woolfest at Cockermouth and re-ignited my love of all things textile. When I studied textie design (many years ago) I did a short course on handweaving at The Handweavers Studio  in Walthamstow and I absolutely loved it. But printmaking dominated my studies and I abandoned constructed textiles in favour of surface decoration.
I am amazed at how much I remember from that short course as I embark on the first of a series of samples I am going to make in order to practice and re-learn the techniques of tapestry weaving.  This first sample shows plain weave, a soumak, blending colours, pick and pick, stripes and curves.  I can already see that the warp is bulking out at the sides (!) because I am not puling the weft firmly around the end warps. (This is because I am trying to avoid pulling the weft too tight and distorting the warp)

I have a very long way to go before I am a confident weaver - I am waiting for the lovely weaver Chrissie Freeth to start teaching so that I can become an improver rather than a beginner - but it is such a therapeutic activity.  I shall be keeping a weaving diary here on my blog so that I can chart my progress. 

Jo X

Pick and Mix

Exhibition at Bradford College

Early in December I was invited to take part in the forthcoming Pick and Mix exhibition at Bradford College Dye House Gallery (13th January until 18th February 2015)
Bradford College holds a huge archive of textile samples dating back to the glory days when West Yorkshire was the centre of excellence in the textiles industry. Many of these samples date back as far at the 18th century and it is a great wealth of resource for anyone studying, or has an interest in textiles.

Sketchbook pages 

The exhibition will showcase the work of Yorkshire based artists, makers and designers in response to the archive.  I chose two textile samples from The Americas collection because, as I am from a textile background, I am very interested in mid century design.  Now they are finished and have been shipped off to Bradford College, I will get to see them in situ at the preview on Tuesday 13th January and I am really keen to see what everyone else's work will be like.

"1952" large platter 

"1956" curved fruit dish

If you are in the Bradford area pop into The Dye House Gallery, it really is a wonderful exhibition space. The Dye House Gallery is open from Monday to Friday, 11am until 4pm; with a special Saturday opening on 7th February 2015, from 10am until 4 pm

Blog Hop

I have been invited to take part in a Blog Hop by the lovely and creative Becky Moore who makes the most beautiful embroidered velvet bags (see her work HERE) 

Becky Moore Hand Bags

The Hop requires me to answer four questions about my work and then nominate another designer maker to carry the Hop on. 

What am I working on?

This time of the year I am busy making replacements of stock sold, mostly Christmas decorations and Scandi birds, but I have also been invited to make a piece of glass for an exhibition at Bradford College. The exhibition, Pick and Mix, will showcase work by designer-makers in response to the textile archive at the College. This is a great opportunity for me to move away from my current style of work as I am constrained by the fabric samples I have chosen.  

1952, ready to be fired

I have chosen two pieces from the Americas Collection, 1952 and 1956, which are both prints on cotton in limited colours and I have been working through two ideas. ! have been playing with repeat patterns and geometric structures for one piece and trying to create more organic shapes with negative space for the second.  Both finished pieces will be slumped into dish forms  - because I like my glass to have a practical application.  
Working with colour is a vital part of my work and the structured piece will be in opal glass, the colours are reminiscent of the 1950s and will imitate the flat, dense orange and black of the fabric sample.  The second piece will be made from amber, clear and charcoal glass - all transparent - to give that piece the organic feel that I am after. 
No pressure but these pieces have to be finished before the end of the month! 

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I originally studied textile design and worked as an illustrator, therefore my designs for glass are influenced by surface pattern and colour.  There is more to designing for glass than just cutting a square of opal glass and slumping it in the kiln. I cut each piece meticulously and grind all the edges before the glass goes into the kiln and I pay great attention to detail. Over the years I have experimented and practised the craft of kiln fired glass until I now know exactly what to expect when I open the kiln up at the end of firing (apart from the odd slippage - very annoying).

Spun Sugar Fruit Dish 

Many designs simply won't work in glass - they become too "clunky" or "amateurish" -  so what looks good on paper doesn't necessarily translate to the finished product.  I used to make jewellery using dichroic glass but I gave this up because my designs looked too much like everyone else's.  However, I have recently had a rethink about dichroic glass (metal oxides coated onto glass that reflect and refract light to give a jewel-like quality) and, in 2015, I will be designing and experimenting to produce a limited edition range of earrings, brooches and pendants. 

Why do I do what I do?

My Dad was a potter and he  encouraged my sisters and I to be creative.  I always said that textiles was my life but, when I was bought a fused glass decoration, I thought "I wonder if I can do that"? Glass is just another surface for me to decorate with pattern and colour yet, as a medium, it is also quite limiting. Glass is also a slow process which is surprising that I love it because I am not a patient person.  However, like textiles, glass is very tactile and attractive to touch.  This is the appeal for me. 


I have a mass of influences that translate into glass - I love retro design, Scandinavian folk design, patchwork quilts and Indian embroidery. All have appeared in some form in my work over the past 15 years and I'm certain I will discover new influences in the future.  

How does my process work? 

It's very simple - I take sheets of glass and fuse them to make - glass :) 
Kiln formed glass is stacked onto the kiln shelf, starting from the bottom and adding more pieces, and then fused at high temperatures (up to 840c) until it turns from a super-cooled liquid into nearer its natural state (liquid).  I add more glass during a second firing if necessary and can fuse some pieces up to three times before I slump them into moulds.   
My spun sugar bowls give the appearance of glass that has been dribbled in liquid form across a bowl shape but, in reality, they are made from strips of glass that are laid in a grid across the kiln shelf.  Each firing gives the negative space a more rounded edge until they look like holes in the structure.  

Honeycomb Fruit dish

Glass loves heat but only when heated and cooled slowly as it expands at a rate of 0.00090 mm per second. Any faster and it will crack with thermal shock. It needs time to rest at a holding temperature both whilst being heated and cooled therefore accurate kiln temperature timings are vital to the process. Badly annealed glass will fracture - either immediately once exposed to room temperature or anything up to six months after.  Thank goodness for the digital timer!

So here is my nominee for the Blog Hop, talented textile designer Anne Crowther from Daisy Florence Design.  Please visit her blog because her work is super.