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Broken //Makeshift 11 October-24 December

  • Writer: Liz O' Connell
    Liz O' Connell
  • 3 days ago
  • 4 min read

Sunny Bank Mills Farsley Leeds Collaboration with https://www.instagram.com/foxonthesley/reels/

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DAVID FOX & LIZ O'CONNELL

Hanging by a Thread

David Fox is a Weaver based at Red Lane Studios at Sunny Bank Mills. He currently creates 3D woven work based on local textile heritage, and is employed in textile education. He weaves on multiple looms, including a Dobby Loom from the 1950s, with an interest in structure and a range of  materials including paper. He graduated with the final BA Textile Design class at the University of Leeds – a course that is no longer running. Across the UK textile-based school and university courses are ceasing to exist, and the future is unsure.

Liz O’Connell is a contemporary craft maker exploring textile narratives. She is interested in heritage and craft processes to examine the fabric of who we are, using our psychological and physical links to objects creating glass pieces and ‘emotional fabric’. Liz Graduated in 2020 with an MA in Glass & Ceramics from The National Glass Centre, Sunderland – which is now under the threat of closure.

The pair met through Sunny Bank Mills Museum & Archive and now create collaborative works combining glass and weave.

Their shared interests have led to conversations about craft skills and making, and more in-depth research into Bradford College’s Textile Archive and Sunny Bank Mills Museum & Archive. Together they investigate heritage, craft processes and the joy, value and importance of making.

This emerging work is a collaboration of crafts that are under threat and facing an uncertain future, particularly, the funding and investment of textile and glass skills. Liz and David have created a series of pieces which combine glass and woven pieces relating to the technical skill and material history of weaving. David weaves 3D sculptural forms and Liz creates woven glass pieces and sculptures.

During their research trips to Bradford College & Sunny Bank Mills’ collections, David and Liz accessed detailed hand drawn notes and artifacts from a Warp Twister in the 1960s and a student at Bradford Technical College who studied weaving in the 1920s. The artists have explored both collections, drawing inspiration from the artefacts, skills and archive knowledge.

These works balance investigations with the psychological relationship between makers, and their tools and technical notes. The archives are a touchstone – they invite conversations about craft heritage and skills. They show our fascination with trade secrets in dusty books and time served mentors.

They touch on the current climate of financial pressure felt by makers and our unease about the erosion of heritage skills and potential loss of knowledge. The artists are aware of interpretations what of ‘craft skills’ mean and are creating pieces of technical exploration. Together, their work uses archival observations, explores the risk of craft careers and the joy of discovery and making.

Technical Unravel on a Beam

“This piece is based on Edgar Creek, a student from 1922-1926 at Bradford. His detailed workbooks are in the College’s Textile Archive. We have combined glass by trapping it in a 3D woven cloth. Glass has become a ‘back beam on a loom’ abstracting Edgar’s textile machinery diagrams, playing around with form and tension. The woven paper and cotton piece displays a peg plan from Edgar’s study of Pattern 1, which is a dissection of a small square of cloth. The glass bobbin was made on a lathe in Sunderland’s National Glass Centre, which is unfortunately under immediate threat of closure.”

Indigo Ghost

“This is a glass piece carefully constructed from woven glass threads, which have been kiln fired. This piece is based on research into the history of Indigo (at that time it was locally grown woad) in Knaresborough, which was a major site of linen and flax weaving upon the River Nidd. All that remains of the industry are the beautiful buildings and mills (now used as housing) and the local historians who diligently gather information to remind the community of its legacy.”

Intersection of the Wefts

“This woven cloth is on a glass bobbin, representing warp yarns on the beam of a loom. The 3D woven pleats are ingeniously based on Edgar Creek’s cross section diagram of a plain weave. It also explores our emotional tightness, our strength and robustness.”

A Mill Workers Tools

David and Liz were both drawn to a Warp Twister’s 1960’s era tools and tins from Sunny Bank Mills Museum & Archive. The tools were hooks and knives used for threading a loom. It was common for workers to create, pass down or purchase their own tools for the trade, as mills did not supply them. David has wrapped and dismantled loom parts to create new tools. Liz has recreated weaving tools with glass. Some are robust, others are objects of craft memory.

Tensioned Uncertainty

This glass/weave sculpture brings together the Twister’s Tools and Creek’s drawings of a Warp Dressing Machine diagram which features a threading hook. The diagram shows the process of the warp being put on the back beam, before taken to the loom.


 
 
 

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