Here’s a little glimpse into my studio, a sort of ‘behind the scenes’ look at my working process...
Morwenna Garrick is a Textile Design graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee, and later lectured there in woven textiles. On returning home to Shetland she was keen to develop her own creativity further and so established ‘Morwenna Garrick Textile Design’ in 2014. Here she gives us an insight into her work at her Sandness studio.
Morwenna's beautiful textiles can be seen at Bonhoga Gallery until Sunday 9 September.
I usually begin by gathering photos and imagery of various patterns, colours and textures that inspire me. Sometimes I don’t have to look much further than my doorstep. I like to add these to my sketchbook, which is really more of a technical log book for me full of yarn wraps, warp calculations and numbers, random thoughts and design ideas.
Once I have decided what I want to weave, I use my warping mill to create a warp (the vertical threads on the loom), which then has to transferred onto the loom and threaded up. This can be quite a time consuming process but is also a great opportunity to just switch off from the world, put on some good tunes and do a lot of thinking, as well as trying to avoid making a mistake as having to rethread half of the warp is slightly frustrating when you have hundreds of threads.
I also do a lot of my designing on the loom as this is where the colour and yarn really come to life and form a piece of fabric. I am lucky enough to own a 32 shaft electronic loom where the possibilities to explore patterns are endless – It would certainly take more than a lifetime! Although the loom is electronic, I still have to manually do the actual weaving part...if only there was a button to push!
One of the most satisfying parts of weaving has to be taking that woven piece of fabric off the loom and forming it into a product. But even more satisfying is having someone appreciate and admire what you have made and feel the need to have it for themselves...or give as a gift to someone special
The image above is of one of my 100% pure Shetland wool throws – ‘Raspberry jam’.
