Gallery

Pontardawe Art and Craft Weekend

Members of the Guild had busy day demonstrating and getting members of the public to have a go. It looks great fun!

The Green Gathering

The Green Gathering at the Riverside Centre Pontardawe was amazingly well attended. There was lots of enthusiasm to learn spinning and weaving skills from young and old with some of us even doing some outreach work helping other stallholders to learn to spin !

Blaenhonddan Fun Day

The Guild had a lovely afternoon demonstrating spinning and weaving techniques. Lots of people had a go and here are just some of the photos.

Tapestry Exhibition

A tapestry by Tawe Guild member Anne Goddard was selected for the Swansea Open Exhibition 2024 at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. 

Anne attended an inspiring 3 day Tapestry Workshop organised by Tawe Guild with Tapestry Weaver Jane Brunning, learning a variety of tapestry weaving skills and design techniques. It is a slow yet mindful process, which allows for creative expression : exploring different forms, colour, and texture.The tapestry “Skyscape” was the result.

 

Weaving – Start to Finish

In February Tawe Guild gave a rigid heddle course at Craig y Nos Country Park.  This course was part of the programme run by The Big Skill and was accredited with Agored Cymru.

Participants started by creating warp ideas using wraps with three colours of woollen yarn.  Over four days they then learnt how to make a warp and dress the loom; weave a plaid design; develop their weaving inclusions and clasped weft; finished the work with fringing.  There was much to fit in but it was a great course and the finished weaving was excellent.

Starting to Weave

The Finished Weaving

 This is the group who took part in the recent rigid heddle workshop at the Dove Workshop, Banwen, weaving a festive table runner.  It was an enjoyable day and everyone produced a colourful finished fabric.

Summer School

In August a group of six guild members were lucky enough to travel up to Harper Adams University near Telford for the AGWSD biennial summer school. The school which lasts for a week is a chance to learn new skills, meet lots of new people and have fun.

Liz – Designing Yarns

Liz designed a lovely range of yarns inspired by images. The colours and textures are really inspiring.

Sal – Nuno Felting

Sal spent a very energetic week designing and creating a reversible using wool fibres and fabric. Lots of hard work went into the garments for everyone on the course.

Christine – Evolution of Felting

The course taught how to make 3D felt sculptures using a wire armature.  We started with the bone, learning basic techniques, and then ‘evolved’ during the week!  The caveman came next.  I decided on a wise professor whose first attempt at inventing the wheel, Plan A, was a failure.  

Next came a dog and then finally a person to interact with the dog.  I chose to base my pieces on the Medieval tapestry series: The Lady and the Unicorn.  Unfortunately, inflation has struck even here with vet’s bills and grooming costs going through the roof.  As a result, the Lady has had to use her own dog as a substitute tying a horn on his head and giving him a mane!

Christine’s work was amazing and even better, in the flesh. As a guild we can be partisan and say it was the best piece of work in her group.

Clare – Split Ply Braiding

Clare had to make her own 4ply cords which were then manipulated into various shapes using a gripped to assist in the construction. It is a time consuming process but one which she intends to carry on struggling with.

Anna- Words in Tapestry

Anna panicked a little when she realised that other course members were a little ahead in their preparation. She told herself to stay calm and there was her word! It is a beautiful piece of work and those who work tapestry will appreciate the great deal of work in this.

Sandra – Soft Basketry

Sandra took lots of grasses and leaves from her garden and spent the week creating many and varied baskets, coasters and even flowers! On her return some of the guild members also made flowers like Sam’s below.

Sam with the flower he made out of Phormium

We have welcomed many new members in the last year and together with lots of experienced ladies and gents we are thriving. Lots people drop in when they are available so this is just a snapshot of our most recent meeting.

Open Day

Recently we held an open day at Cwmgors Community Hall to show the work we do and to tell local people about the Guild and our future at Hwb y Gors. If you were unable to attend please have a look at the lovely display of work below and please contact the Guild if you are interested in joining us.

Although the last few years have been difficult for most groups this year has been a very buoyant one for the Guild and we have been delighted to welcome many new members. In addition the open day was attended by some really engaged and interested general public and prospective guild members. There was an opportunity to try your hand at weaving and spinning and a wide range of ages had a go.

Collography Workshop

Recently a group from the Guild attended a workshop in Swansea on Collography. Anne has kindly written a short piece for us:

“This collagraph print is based on a photo that Menna ( Lead Textile Artist)  took of a floor in the former Cwmgors primary school where parquet flooring used to be. I enjoyed doing it because the pattern was repetitive and geometric, but the textures were varied. We each made a ‘plate’ for printing using pieces of card, wallpaper, fabric, plastics : it was quite messy too with lot’s of gluing and inking involved !The print technique was effective, and it was interesting to see the results. It was also enjoyable doing this activity together in a group, sharing ideas, we had fun!”

Sue Harris used a postcard and some lace to make her printing block

Heather used an image of the old Cwmgors School and particularly liked the unusual shape of the roof.

Christine used a photo of the fireplace at the old Cwmgors School.

Liz simply enjoyed herself to create a random design!

Cyanotype Workshop

Recently a group from the Guild joined others for a cyanotype workshop at the Nuture Centre in Carmarthen.

The morning was spent creating cyanotype prints and the sunshine was useful for developing the images. As well as using objects such lace, leaves and buttons there was also the opportunity to develop images from photographs printed onto acetate.

During the afternoon the group learnt about toning images using natural products such as elderberries, star anise and avocado. Some of the colour changes were very noticeable with some being a more subtle brightening or darkening.

The day was enjoyable and enlightening, a nice opportunity to try a different process.

Tapestry Workshop

I have delayed putting up this post until some of us have had a chance to complete our tapestries. It can take some time!

Jane getting us started

In October Guild members had the opportunity to attend a 3 day tapestry workshop run by Jane Brunning. The experience in tapestry weaving across the group was very varied from absolute beginners to some members who have worked many tapestries and attended previous workshops run by Jane.

Paper cutting exercises

We then did more exercises, drawing on these first cut outs followed by cutting up and rearranging print. We could also make a small window and place this over our designs to isolate an area. All of these exercises were carried out very quickly and this was great as it is very easy to “overthink” your designs.

More Paper Cutting Exercises

When this first phase was completed we all had the opportunity to decide on our final designs. This varied from choosing the original cut outs, chopped up pictures or whole or parts of photographic images.

Setting up the frames, making cartoons to guide the work and adding objects

Setting up tapestry frames was next and here we learnt the Jane is a tough taskmaster! Everything had to be perfect and really that is the secret behind good tapestry weaving. Attention to detail during the working results in a better end result.

Early and practice pieces

The next two days were taken up working both practise and final pieces. It is amazing how little one can achieve in quite a long time! The work is slow and meticulous and Jane frequently showed us new stitches and methods we could use, outlining, wrapped stitches and inserting objects. It was great that both newbies and experienced tapestry makers had something to learn and we could get as involved in learning new processes as much or as little as we liked.

Works in Progress

4 months on many of the tapestries have been finished, some are still on the go and a couple of people have decided the tapestry is not for them. It was an amazing opportunity to learn how to do things properly and the first workshop that we had managed to have in person for nearly two years.

Some of the Finished or Almost Completed Pieces from Sandra, Anne, Anna and Clare

Other Recent Makes and Projects

Sue Hallah has been playing with dyeing yarns and making pretty punis!

Never Give Up!

Quite a long time ago, certainly before Covid, Sal and Sandra ran a dyeing workshop on sock blanks. Anna has finished her sock which are gorgeous. Some of our guild projects take longer than others but the results are certainly worth it!