Intuitive Threads - Tying Up Loose Ends

January 4, 2024

It seems almost unbelievable that the year of my Intuitive Threads project, funded by a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England, is coming to an end. This time last year I was overwhelmed to find out that my application had been successful. Although this project will officially end in January, I feel like I’m only really getting started with ideas I want to develop in my creative practice and with further research and investigation into ideas around the role of intuition in creativity.

I have to submit an evaluation on the project by the end of January. I started by going through my original budget and comparing it to my actual spending! Well it was a good way to start on the process of reflecting on what I’ve achieved, if I've met my original aims and where I want to go next. Perhaps it being the end of the year and the start of a new one is a good time for this kind of reflection anyway. When I thought about bringing this project to a close, the phrase ‘tying up loose ends’ came to me. This feels appropriate as it seems like it should be a weaving metaphor. I suppose I could also go with ‘tying up loose threads’.

One of those loose ends/threads was wanting to return to and explore in more depth the ideas presented in the article ‘Understanding Creative Intuition’, by Dr Theresa Hardman. I am really grateful to Ruth Leary, Associate Professor at the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies, University of Warwick for sending it to me. It's been the most relevant and concise take on creative intuition that I’ve read so far. Having said that, it's taken me a few readings to fully digest and process and I'm sure there's more layers still to unfold in my understanding. I've attempted here to lay out the main points and ideas I’ve taken from it.

The article starts by saying it draws on psychology and Eastern and Western philosophy and that intuition is not well understood. Four interrelated principles of creative intuition are presented. These are;

It involves a state of expanded consciousness
It is an open, fluid way of being
It focuses on the particular, rather than the general
It is an act of fusion or identification which occurs through emotion or empathy

Getting my new SAORI loom and weaving my first piece - Intuitive Threads

June 23, 2023

NEW LOOM

I collected my brand new SAORI WX60 weaving loom from Amanada of Beautiful Cloth Saori Studio from Napton on the 23rd May. Amanda had constructed the loom for me as it is shipped from Japan in separate parts. We had two hours together where Amanda showed how to attach the warp and the threading process and we set up the loom together. I was really glad to be shown how to do this as the process is noticeably different to what I know from warping conventional looms. The Saori looms are designed to be as easy to use as possible, but for me that also involves unlearning things. Then, with some assistance, the loom was folded up, secured, carried out to my car and buckled into the back seat and I drove it home. Struggled a bit to carry it into the house by myself, but what’s a few bruises for the sake of art? I was really pleased that it did fit where I hoped it would in the living/dining room.

I am fortunate enough to have a room in my house that I use as a studio, unfortunately it’s already full with a floor standing Harris sample loom. I keep thinking I should sell it and make space for the Saori loom, but I can’t quite bring myself to make the decision as of yet. There are advantages to working from home as an artist, but sometimes I would really like a studio space too. My weaving and artistic practice is now taking over three rooms in the house as well as some of the garage. Things just don’t flow and work quite as well as I’d like and sometimes I would like things to be in their right place and rooms used for their correct purpose. Having the loom in such a prominent place in the house makes me feel like I should always be weaving! Perhaps this is just about adapting to a change in my immediate environment. Having said all of that, I know I’m fortunate to have the space I have, so I will work on making it work.

One thing that is really different about Saori weaving, is the ready made warps, that come wound on a tube ready to use. I noticed this was usually a black cotton warp, although I believe other speciality warps are available. I didn’t realise it was a deliberate choice that plain warps would be black, in fact it seemed like a difficult colour to me, especially when I wanted to weave in white. Then I read this on the Saori website,

3rd SAORI Workshop - Intuitive Threads

April 26, 2023

I attended my 3rd SAORI weaving workshop on Friday 21st March with Amanda Edney of Beautiful Cloth SAORI Studio. This is part of my Intuitive Threads project exploring the nature of intuition in creativity through Saori and intuitive weaving methods. After attending two previous workshops, I was starting to feel more at home at the village hall at Napton, so when I arrived 10 minutes late, I apologised, made myself coffee and helped myself to biscuits. Part of my excuse for being late was I had to wait for the bin lorry to leave the narrow road to the village hall at Napton, the same thing happened the last time though so ideally I’d have been even earlier arriving. Anyway this actually turned out quite well as the three other people in the workshop were beginners taking their first Saori class, and it had given Amanda time to go through the introduction with them and get them set up to start weaving. After my coffee Amanda suggested I get together my yarns and wind bobbins to use before I started weaving. I chose bright coloured yarns this time, yellow, orange, pink, blue and green. This is quite a contrast to last time when I chose white and neutral colour yarns.

I had already decided before the workshop that I wanted to try the techniques Amanda had shown me at the last weaving day. These were Sakiori, weaving with yarns made from strips of fabric, and extra threads in the warp to add colour and interest. Before the workshop I had gone through my collection of fabrics at home and put together a collection of materials to bring with me. Perhaps most people don’t have a large box of assorted fabrics and materials hidden in a cupboard, but it turns out that I do, even if I’d forgotten about it for a long time. Most of the material came from my grandmother, after she died in 2006, I inherited most of her fabric collection. She had been a dress maker who made wedding and bridesmaid dresses as well as clothes for herself and the family in her younger years. When I was a young child, she would make coordinating outfits for me and my younger brother and sister. Some of these fabrics brought back memories of clothes she had made and times in my childhood. I found a brightly coloured graffiti style design that she had made my younger brother a pair of Bermuda shorts in, I seem to remember this being quite the thing in 1980s fashion. I’ve always quite liked the bright luminous neon colours of this fabric so I decided to use it in my weaving.

2nd SAORI Workshop - Intuitive Threads

March 30, 2023

SAORI WORKSHOP WITH BEAUTIFUL CLOTH SAORI STUDIO - 24TH MARCH

Continuing my exploration into SAORI weaving, intuition and creativity, I attended my second SAORI workshop with Amanda Edney of Beautiful Cloth SAORI Studio last Friday. I was surprised when I arrived at Napton village Hall to find that I was the only workshop participant for the day. I was really fortunate to have one-to-one teaching and an opportunity to talk, as well as continue to experiment with ideas and techniques, whilst Amanda worked on a weaving project of her own.

I took a collection of bits and pieces with me from home including ribbons, bits of lace and old bobbins of yarns from previous projects. My work recently has a theme of combining highlights of colour with a neutral or white base. I wanted to experiment with using white and neutral colour yarns and include colour with inserts of ribbons and threads. I’ve also had lace pinned on my notice board for a while so I wanted to try this out as well. This piece was a progression from last time, using techniques from last time and learning some new ones.

1st Saori Workshop - Intuitive Threads

March 16, 2023

SAORI WORKSHOP WITH BEAUTIFUL CLOTH SAORI STUDIO - 11TH MARCH

I attended my first Saori Weaving workshop with Amanda Edney from Beautiful Cloth Saori Studio on Saturday. There were only 4 of us in the class so it was almost like having individual tuition. It was the first time any of us had tried Saori so we were all beginners.

The day was about having a go at using the looms, learning and trying out techniques and having a piece of weaving to take away at the end of the day. Amanda shared more about the background to Saori and her own journey to finding Saori and training at the headquarters in Japan. She talked about the process of becoming an authorised studio and how this relates to relationship building in Japanese culture. Amanda also shared with us her collection of Saori pattern books for making garments out of Saori woven cloth. This is something I hadn’t thought about before but it might be an area I choose to explore later.

What I noticed about Saori is although there may be ‘no rules’, there are definitely guidelines for the process and right ways to do things. Some of these being slightly different from the ways I have always done them as a weaver, so in a way I was having to unlearn ‘bad habits’. This includes weaving the start and end of warp yarns into the middle of the cloth so they make a tidy edge and winding yarn onto a bobbin in a cross formation; I never knew that was the best way to do it.

The Saori looms are different from any loom I’ve used before so there are things to learn about the way they work. They are something of a revelation because they are designed around the weaver to be easy to use. Notable differences are a built-in

Saori Research - Intuitive Threads

March 8, 2023

Intuitive Threads - an exploration of the nature and role of intuition in the creative process through Saori and intuitive approaches to weaving.

Soari weaving is the core element of my Intuitive Threads research and development project. In my first blog post for this project, I wanted to look at and collate some information about what Saori weaving is and to identify aspects that interest me about its approach and ethos. This is a starting point for me to gather information on the broader context of Saori before getting started on experiencing it practically through the workshops I will be attending with Amanda Edney at Beautiful Cloth Saori Studio.

WHAT IS SAORI WEAVING?

Saori is a type of weaving that originated in Japan in the 1960s. It was founded by Miaso Jo and developed further by her son Kenzo Jo. The story is that Miaso Jo was weaving an Obi (belt) and noticed a flaw in the weaving. She liked the design that it made but discovered it would be considered as flawed by manufacturers who will only accept a ‘perfect’ cloth.