Saturday 17th May Burrastow House
Exploring new ideas - inputs, interactions
 


CG: At breakfast with Gordon (Burnett), Frankie (Geesin) and Heather (Delday). Frankie suggests the idea of ‘cut outs’ – the negative shape of a jumper through which all kinds of imagery can be framed.

The first session is Frankie Geesin showing examples of and demonstrating new fibres and metallising processes. This is very exciting, especially the fabric that can be ‘played’! Do different stitches create different sounds? Everyone sees some possibilities. Frankie is so modest and generous even though she has worked with some of the world’s best. She is a real catalyst and everyone is inspired.

SB: This is a good session and Frankie inspires people but I am conscious we don’t have the materials (or similar) to follow up people’s enthusiasm to be able to work with the industrial materials that Frankie has discovered. I can think about how to get round this for future developments when we see if anyone is seriously interested. Some serious research on interactive textiles with the knitters and lace makers could well be done here in future, perhaps in collaboration with an industry partner already engaged in the technical aspects of this kind of research.

 
Session Talking about possible ideas to explore
 


CG: Other ideas emerge concerning seams, joining things, seamless-ness, stretching, flexibility, non-functional knitting. Most of us have only very tentative ideas and do not much to say at this point.

SB: People are getting used to the idea of not doing what they know how to do, but being deprived of knitting needles (deliberate) is too much for Hazel (Hughson) who goes to get some for her experiments. I like the range of tentative ideas emerging and feel OK about the discomfort for some about the lack of a didactic structure at this stage. I wonder if I should have said more, however, at the beginning, about how uncomfortable the lack of ‘instruction’ can be for some people.

 
Carole's informal discussions with knitters
 


CG: Margaret (Hamilton), who owns the knitwear shop, ‘Fibres’, in Lerwick, and Hazel Hughson, who is the indigenous crafts officer for Shetland, rarely have the opportunity to meet. They live relatively close to each other but have different work ⁄ life routines. The Lab has reinforced their working relationships. They comment that the Lab is an opportunity to take valuable time to think and experiment – rare because of their business/employment and dispersed locations.

Mary (Thomson) is really enjoying the Lab! She talks about being creative, and about failures being valuable. She talks about some people as being ‘mayflies’ who just skate safely over the surface of things. She’s interested in ‘diving in’, in “breaking through the tensile surface of life”.

SB: Although everyone is uncertain of what direction they will take they are all ‘game’ for what this is about and begin experimenting with the materials we have. Ideas are beginning to shape groups and affinities between people are beginning to happen.

 
Heather's informal discussions
 


Heather Delday (HD):
I spoke with Norma who is very knowledgeable technically i.e. explains and sketches how knitting machines work and how it might be possible to do ‘blisters’ (similar to pockets). She strikes me as a quiet person.

 
Activity Session
 


HD: Everyone is making, capturing, collaborating. Everyone just gets stuck in! Possible collaborations are forming between Gordon, Mary (T), Margaret and Steph; between myself and Susan, and between Hazel and Carole.

Using Frankie’s idea of ‘jumper’ frame, a space the shape of a jumper cut out in a piece of card, we make a series of texture studies. We try two different cut outs and take lots of images around and about Burrastow and the Lab activities.

 
Luggage labels as Evaluation tool
 


CG: Heather has a great idea of eliciting some key feedback. She asks everyone to write on a luggage label each day about something significant. We will attach these to Heather’s blanket – by the end of the week we should have an 'evaluation sheet (or blanket)'!

 
Sharing practice session
 


CG: Christine's (Arnold) work connects in some interesting ways with the knitters e.g. Hazel and her work on the history of Shetland textiles.

SB: People’s tensions and uncertainties are subsumed by activities now.

 
Quote of the day
 


" breaking through the tensile surface of life".

click here to go to the following day