Materialising weaving: embedding a narrative of construction time within experimental woven textiles

Abstract

This paper responds to the theme of processes, and poses the question: what methods and tools of design could be utilised in order to connect the user to textile making processes, in particular, the time involved in hand weaving? I share insights that I have gained from my creative practice and postgraduate research and draw on diverse literature, including the work of Bauhaus designer and weaver Anni Albers. I reflect on how by attempting to capture my own processes in cloth aesthetically, the weaving act is revealed as a sometimes-flawed marker of time. The potential outcome of this research is the development of a framework for textile designers and weavers that privileges cloth as a conduit for temporal connections between maker and user. I posit that amplifying traces of time through the design of textiles may connect the eventual user/wearer to the ‘pulse’ of (a) weaving.