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15-Nov-2022 10:13
My tapestry, Two Rivers (Stour and Avon) Meet the Tide, is in the exhibition, Waterline, at the Dover Gallery, Farfield Mill, until 23 December 2022.
In 2021, I successfully applied to be a part of the Waterline project. This was an online collaborative project led by Joan Baxter and supported by Irene Evison and Anna Wetherell of Nearly Wild Weaving
It was both a weaving project and a learning experience. 15 weavers, under Joan's mentorship, each designed and wove their own individual tapestry as one part of a composite tapestry which reflects the theme of the flow of a river. Each tapestry had a straight and level silvery gold line of a similar width, representing the surface and flow of the water. This was the most important shared element. When hung together side by side all of the waterlines are at the same level.
The other members of the Waterline group are: Yonat Michaelov; Angela Forte; Jenny Heard; Minna Rothman; Katrine West; Irene Evison; Janet Moore; Terry Gerrard; Anita Bruce; Kennita Tully; Veronique van Zeeland; Christine Rivers; Katariina Paakki; Anna Wetherell – and Joan Baxter.
Waterline fitted perfectly into my journey. It offered a unique opportunity to stop working alone for a while and share a new watery journey with other weavers across the globe. Using technology, we met online and shared our ideas, images and weaving throughout the project. Our weavings all had to work together to create something exceptional. Waterline allowed me to explore and experiment with my ideas, thinking of different ways to represent the meeting of the rivers and the tide. I learnt a huge amount from the other weavers, seeing how they developed and implemented their ideas. It was a truly creative and uplifting experience. It was a great privilege to work with Joan Baxter who was a motivating, inspirational and supportive mentor.
There is a video of the meet the maker day at Farfield Mill where you can see all the tapestries together and I talk about my design folder and tapestry. The video was created by Nita Bruce.
There is also an excellent publication showing how the collaborative project was done, along with wonderful images of all the finished tapestries and biographies of the weavers. This is available from the exhibition venue or from Nearly Wild Weaving.
Futures: Waterline will be on display at Farfield Mill until 23rd December 2022. It will then go on tour, due to be shown at Gairloch Museum, Scotland, in July and August 2023, then we are expecting it to travel across to the States and Canada before returning to Europe. Dates and venues to be confirmed.