Design for Weave

Building upon nearly 20 years of experience as a professional weaver and lecturer, working at the highest level in the craft, design, art and education arenas, Laura has distilled this breadth of expertise into an inspiring self-directed online course, ‘Design for Weave’.

The course is designed for those with existing weave knowledge but without a formal qualification in this field, and want to build their design understanding and confidence. Laura has broken down the key ingredients of great weave design into accessible chapters covering the design fundamentals. Richly visual and delivered in straightforward language, you will feel inspired and energised as you watch short films on the subject of mood boards, colour, texture and pattern.  This is underpinned by being introduced to The Design Process for Weavers, writing a personal brief and how to evaluate a project. There is also a bonus chapter that takes you through some examples of how to approach translating design ideas into weave structures on 8, 16 or 24 shafts (as appropriate). These are available to be downloaded as PDF documents or .wif files which should be able to be opened on most weave programmes for you to then experiment with.

Mindful that many feel intimidated by the very question of how to design, each topic is discussed with clarity with the aim to be accessible as possible. You are encouraged to think in an intuitive, expansive, open-minded way to enable you to have a fresh approach to generating unique ideas. The suggested design exercises are the very same approaches Laura takes to her design work. They are inspiring, lots of fun and can be easily done by all with straightforward art materials. After working through all the creative exercises, you will finish this course feeling inspired, enthused and informed, and with lots of design possibilities ready to be translated into weave designs to take to the loom.

The online workshop is delivered via Thinkific, a very intuitive and well-designed hosting platform for online learning. There are short films accompanying each chapter which you can rewind and watch time and time again. All pdf teaching materials are downloadable.

Alongside the teaching material, there is the option to ask questions and post images via the ‘Discussions’ option on the Thinkific teaching platform alongside each chapter. Laura will monitor for posts regularly and aims to answer any questions within 48hours.

Cost per person: £125 for the online workshop

If you feel like you would benefit from one-to-one online mentoring to accompany this workshop, please contact Laura to discuss. This could be a single session at the end of the workshop to discuss your design ideas to be translated into cloth, or it could be a series of sessions to review each chapter. These one-hour sessions cost £75 each and are conducted via Zoom. These sessions are recorded so you can watch them back.

Groups: Laura has successfully delivered this workshop with accompanying Zoom discussion sessions to several weave groups during 2020 and 2021. Please get in touch to discuss a bespoke programme of group delivery for up to 20 participants at one time.   

 Testimonials

As a professional weaver doing this online workshop with Laura, I found her materials really clear and easy to follow without being too simplistic or too complex - a difficult balance to achieve - and her presentation style easy to listen to and informative. She included a technique that was new to me and pushed me gently out of my comfort zone in some area. The Facebook group page was invaluable for support and encouragement and is ideal both for group learning and for individuals undertaking their own study. The pace is steady, easily digestible but with enough content for the participant to feel that they really have learnt a lot. I shall be recommending this course to my weaving students of all abilities. 

Stacey Harvey-Brown, The Loom Room France

“I would like to thank you again for all your hard work, generosity and your inspirational teaching.  Working through the creation of the moodboard, and then the development through the yarn wraps, the painting exercises, drawing exercises, pattern and texture exercises focused the mind and suddenly the ideas were flowing and it was this flow of ideas that was the missing link.  I couldn’t believe it when I realised I had had a breakthrough.  All those years of struggling and it took four weeks of your inspirational teaching to connect it all up. Thank you.”

Jean Mabon, 2021

Notes

This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience. Please be aware, there is no ‘teaching you how to weave’ element to this workshop – it’s very much focused on the design skills and creative decisions to make before you plan a warp.

Intellectual Property Statement

Laura Thomas asserts her intellectual property rights of the Design for Weave online workshop. This material is for the sole use of the individual purchaser, and not to be shared or published elsewhere.

FAQs

How long will I have access to the learning material?

You will have access to the learning materials for 12 months.

Are there weaving tasks? Do I need a loom to do this course?

No, there are no weaving tasks. This is all about the design process, exploring how to generate ideas, explore colour palettes, create a moodboard etc. There are some suggested approaches to translating some exemplar ideas into weave structures but its totally up to you whether you decide to do similar.

Do I need any special drawing or craft equipment or materials?

You can find a suggested materials list here. There isn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary listed, and of course, you can add to this by choosing to work with your favourite media if you wish.

I can’t draw…. Is this workshop for me?

Yes! I’m VERY aware that a fear of drawing inhibits many from having the confidence to fully explore their creativity. The creative tasks in this workshop are easy to get stuck into and will build your confidence in mark-making and using colourful media in a weave design context. You’re not going to be distracted by any drawing anxiety – you will be encouraged to make marks and use colour and paint fluidly, instinctively and intuitively in a way that you can take across into weaving. I also wanted participants to be able to ‘just get going’ with these design development exercises rather than thinking they need to fill a sketchbook of drawings beforehand.  I’m quite sure you’ll enjoy the process!

I’m currently a student on a Diploma or BA Textiles course – should I do your online workshop?

If you’re a current weave student in college or university, you shouldn’t need to do this workshop – you really should be being taught the design skills I cover in this workshop!

Can I buy this workshop and share the access with my friend / weaving group?

No – access to this online workshop is just to the individual who made the purchase. Please respect the considerable time, energy and personal insight that went into putting together this workshop.

I also run weave design workshops. Can I use your teaching materials to share with my students or base my workshops on?

Thank you for asking, but respectfully, the answer is no! Please respect my intellectual property rights. Nearly 20 years of professional experience has been distilled into this online workshop, which took a huge amount of time and effort to produce. Please find your own personal way of delivering your teaching – we all have valuable perspectives and approaches so knowingly copying others is doing yourself a disservice.

Please note that any infringement of my intellectual property rights for commercial gain will be pursued.

How long will the course take?

A wise tutor of mine, once told me that I’d ‘get out of it what I put into it’, and that has always stayed with me! This online workshop could be done over 2 weeks if it has your 100% sole attention, but if not, maybe a month or two. The course structure was originally designed for a weekend workshop, but I’ve gone into much greater depth than a 2-day weekend workshop could possibly cover. Give each chapter the depth of enquiry it deserves – follow your intuition and be as experimental as possible – the more you do, the more knowledge you’ll gain and the more design opportunities you’ll have to carry forwards. 

I’m deaf / hard of hearing. Do the films have captions?

Yes, please select the closed captions (CC) option at the bottom of the screen when you watch the videos.

Why choose to do this online course with me? 

Well, hopefully my website and CV speaks for itself. I have a huge breadth and depth of professional experience, building upon a first class BA degree from the University of Central England (now called Birmingham City University), an MA from the Royal College of Art, a Weave Design Fellowship (Ann Sutton Foundation) and a Visiting Research Fellowship (Weave Design for Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology, University of Wales Newport). 

I have 20 years experience of teaching weaving at degree level. I have been a BA Textiles and Professional Skills specialist lecturer at Carmarthen School of Art since 2004, and was Co-Course Director for 4 years. Alongside this permanent position, I have been a visiting tutor / guest speaker at Goldsmiths, Brighton, Nottingham Trent, Hereford, Falmouth, Swansea, University of Creative Arts, and Tokyo Zokei University in Japan. I have also delivered lectures and workshops to many Weavers Guilds, community groups, schools, galleries, museums across the UK, as well as one-to-one private tutoring in my studio. 

I pride myself on having a high level of design and technical expertise which I can clearly articulate and communicate regardless of learning style. But perhaps what I enjoy even more is the rather trickier subject of design development and helping learners to find their unique visual language and personal approach to woven textiles. I am generous with my knowledge and relish seeing my learners flourish. I look forward to supporting you in taking your design skills to a higher level.

Thanks

This online course was conceived and compiled in response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Laura is hugely grateful to have received Covid Stability Funding from the National Lottery / Arts Council of Wales to help make this online course. Grateful thanks also to R&A Collaborations for their wonderful film editing skills (and extreme patience!)  

To read this information in Welsh, please click here…