I continue my lifelong commitment to textiles, seeking to balance research with developing my own personal work, alongside the rewards of teaching & lecturing freelance throughout the UK.

For some years now I have been developing braid techniques & structures, both oblique interlacing on the takadai, & ply-split braids, to create sculptural forms.

Inspired by Catherine Martin in 1984, &, later, Rodrick Owen & Makiko Tada, I have studied all five Japanese braiding devices, the marudai (round stool), the kakudai (square), ayatakedai, takadai, of which I have 3, & karakumidai. Each uses weighted bobbins & multiple strands of silk to produce distinct braids. Having become familiar with each, & learned the traditional techniques, my training as an embroiderer has encouraged me to explore & exploit structures & the use of different fibres. The properties of a high twist linen worked alongside a lustrous silk has opened several doors for me.

‘Textures & Edges for Takadai Braids’, self-published in Autumn 2005, is a practical A5 landscape book, taking the readers systematically though a series of tactile textured single braids made on the takadai. In addition there is information about 12 different edges, opening the doors for the readers to design their own personal range of oblique interlaced braids.

I accept commissions & teach kumihimo as well as a variety of embroidery courses.

The sole supplier of the 4 hook Apollo Cord Winder, send SAE for leaflet.

Click the links below

A gallery of my takadai braids can be seen on:
www.weavershand.com

To purchase a takadai and other equipment see:

www.careycompany.com

www.weavershand.com

LIGHTEN OUR DARKNESS

This piece was fired by the concept of
a) the creation of light & darkness, the first day, in Genesis,
b) the ever changing time for Fajar, at the moment of dawn,
c) the changing length of day & night during the four seasons in our country.

I echo the rhythm of seven days for each season, using 60 bobbins for each braid, exchanging the layers after 30 moves seven times, there are 24 strands of silk on the bobbins.

Excited by the placing of a white thread placed next to a black to establish the time for Fajar, that is, when they appear the same, I have separated the braids by a single white & black silk thread.

My thoughts also turn to black & white in relation to right & wrong; truth & error; honesty & deceit; belief & doubt; also moral & political matters facing us in our lives & world today. So many claim the truth, it seems others conceal it: the complexity deepens.
September 2003