St Martin-in-the-Fields is home to several commissions and permanent installations by contemporary artists. We also have an exciting programme of temporary exhibitions, as well as a group of artists and craftspeople from the St Martin’s community who show artwork and organise art projects on a temporary basis.
One of the initiatives from this group is a changing display of work by the group members. Each month a different member of the group will show an example of their work, so, if you are able, do return to see the changing display.
This month we have a selection of small baskets by Rae Gillott. Rae writes:
When our children were very young, friends and I began attending evening classes to keep our brains active. After a couple of false starts we ended up at a class learning how to re-cane chairs. When I had eventually completed all our chairs my tutor said ‘you’d better make a basket’. To be honest I was not keen. What I had glimpsed going on down the other end of the room did not look very interesting but there were several weeks of the term left and nothing else to do so I reluctantly started to make my first waste paper basket out of centre cane. From the start I was absolutely hooked and my life changed dramatically from then on.
I went on to study for the City & Guilds qualifications in basketry at the London School of Furniture being taught a wide range of techniques using many different materials by a fantastic group of experienced basketmakers. Then I joined The Basketmakers’ Association and was introduced, through their courses, to even more types of baskets, materials and techniques from the UK and overseas.
Basketmaking is a fascinating craft which, until the very recent invention and use of plastics, touched everyone’s life in one way or another, world-wide. Early peoples learnt to utilise whatever materials were to be found locally from wood and bark of large trees, through flexible stems like those of willow and rush found in the UK to grasses, roots, pine needles and countless other materials. Learning about the ingenious methods they found by which to make their materials flexible enough to use and the patterns and dyes they discovered is fascinating.
Eventually I came across Ply Split Braiding. This is not found widely around the world and is different from other weaving techniques I’ve come across in basketry in that the elements, the warp and weft, the stake and strand, are not taken in front and behind each other to form the structure, but are taken through. Soft materials, originally animal hair or plant materials, now cotton, wool etc., are twisted under tension to make cords, usually 3 or 4 ply, and then one cord is taken between the plies of another cord. In northern India this technique was used to make camel regalia but since research was carried out to understand the weaves, modern basketmakers and artists have started to form three dimensional objects using the technique. Ply Split Braiding has enabled me to indulge my love of colour and pattern.
I went on to study for the City & Guilds qualifications in basketry at the London School of Furniture being taught a wide range of techniques using many different materials by a fantastic group of experienced basketmakers. Then I joined The Basketmakers’ Association and was introduced, through their courses, to even more types of baskets, materials and techniques from the UK and overseas.
Basketmaking is a fascinating craft which, until the very recent invention and use of plastics, touched everyone’s life in one way or another, world-wide. Early peoples learnt to utilise whatever materials were to be found locally from wood and bark of large trees, through flexible stems like those of willow and rush found in the UK to grasses, roots, pine needles and countless other materials. Learning about the ingenious methods they found by which to make their materials flexible enough to use and the patterns and dyes they discovered is fascinating.
Eventually I came across Ply Split Braiding. This is not found widely around the world and is different from other weaving techniques I’ve come across in basketry in that the elements, the warp and weft, the stake and strand, are not taken in front and behind each other to form the structure, but are taken through. Soft materials, originally animal hair or plant materials, now cotton, wool etc., are twisted under tension to make cords, usually 3 or 4 ply, and then one cord is taken between the plies of another cord. In northern India this technique was used to make camel regalia but since research was carried out to understand the weaves, modern basketmakers and artists have started to form three dimensional objects using the technique. Ply Split Braiding has enabled me to indulge my love of colour and pattern.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment