STRIP WOVEN WALL HANGINGS
At West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham, Surrey, UK I began weaving with found materials and working in strips to create larger pieces. Although I was studying textiles, I had yet to understand how many different cultures used rags and worn out clothing to weave with. I was discovering this process through my own investigations and later learned of the rich Japanese tradition of Saki-Ori which continues to inspire me. Below are some of the strip woven banners and larger commissioned pieces using this technique of painting cloth and ripping it to recreate the pattern. My process illustrated below, a drawing, painted fabric, then the ripped strips and finally the weaving of the strips onto a fine cotton warp. Then all the strips are sewn together to form a larger piece.
