Well as I've already mentioned I trained in textile design and specialised in woven textiles.
While a student at falmouth I was taught both hand loom weaving and digital Jacquard weaving.
Jacquard weaving was difficult to master at first but the more I did, the more I loved it.
It's very different to hand weaving on dobby peg floor looms or mechanical dobby looms.
The program we used at falmouth was called '
Scottweave' it's quite like photoshop in ways, you scan a drawing or an image of what you would like to weave, then you select weave patterns, picks and the
aim is that you design on the computer how you would like your fabric to look.
Using a floppy disc the design was saved to the disc and then inserted into this large piece of equipment called a Jacquard loom.
A warp would usually already be assembled onto this on a large roller at the back and then you would select your own weft threads to form the fabric... I used wool and silk.
Next, (and we had to wear earphones for this as the loom is rather noisy!), you insert the disc into the machine and then it's a case of pressing a button and it weaves for you. Simple!
Examples of similar looms can be found in large weaving mills and close to home in places such as Cushendale Woollen Mills and Avoca Handweavers.
By using these types of looms work is completed alot quicker as in as little as a few minutes to an hour where by hand weaving by hand, takes depending on size of warp, set up etc.... about a week?! That's the difference.
Jacquard looms are mostly used for Industry, large textile companies that would produce for example Bed linen or Upholstery fabrics etc.
I designed some light weight silk and wool and silk and cotton fabrics using the Jacquard.
Below, is a chair that I upholstered and created the fabric for using the Jacquard loom.
It's a shell repeat pattern and it is 100% silk in the weft and a very fine cotton (warp), it sits now in my studio as I won't sell it although I've had offers.
My own loom, which I bought a few years ago is a hand loom but my dream loom would be, a Louet Megado Floor loom which is what I used in college. (Will keep saving!)
I did kindly receive the lend of a counter march floor loom from a weaver and friend in dingle, on loan for 6 months in 2010, that came with a very confusing instruction booklet! Parts of it was Danish but I did manage to piece it together.
I had used a similar loom to this when I was a student at Grennan Mill where funnily enough where I first learnt to weave!
My tutor was a lady called Lorna Donlon and she was a really good teacher, thanks to her I got the basis of weaving and two years later developed myself further when I was taught again how to weave while I was doing my Diploma at GMIT.
Looms can be expensive though and you need to shop around.
I love Silk, it's my favourite yarn to use, expensive but the quality and sheen it gives is beautiful.
I also love to use wool, worsted wool.
Other yarns of mine that I've sourced include New Zealand wools and Irish yarns to such as wool and tweed wools.
I do find it a lot easier to source yarns and materials outside of Ireland, although I can source some things here and I feel that it's becoming easier but slowly.
All my work is hand done, all work is designed and made by me.
I started a business in the middle of a recession..... some people think I'm crazy they will never mention it to me, but I can tell. Especially if your involved anyway in the art world.
Luckily for me I have good support from my family, without them I would not have got this far.
Below are a few example of woven fabrics that I created on a hand loom and some Jacquard samples also. Can you spot the difference?
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