textiles – KDD & Co

Chevreul’s simultaneous contrast

The innovative yarn dyer who changed the world of colour

All dressed in yellow

how our attitudes to colour are bound up with the stories we tell ourselves

Monk’s Belt Hat

Hand-knitting and hand-weaving speak eloquently to one another in the beautiful work of Janet Bowen

sock of the week no.7

what might a pair of seventeenth-century stockings say about the body that once wore them?

Mariam Syed

By: Kate Davies Designs May 30, 2021May 30, 2021

bluestockings, People MAKE Glasgow, textiles, weavingbluestocking club, bluestockings, feminism, Islamic art, Mariam Syed, People MAKE Glasgow, Scottish weaving, textiles, weaving, women9 Comments

Introducing talented Scottish-Pakistani weaver, Mariam Syed

mend

We celebrate the new edition of Wheesht with this essay exploring the creative work of mending and Celia Pym’s inspiring practice

make / mend: Collingwood-Norris

Kate talks to Flora Collingwood-Norris about mending, Scottish islands, and how colour makes you feel

wax and water

By: Kate Davies Designs November 17, 2020November 17, 2020

walkingcanvas, clothing, gear, landscape, outdoors, rain, textiles, trakke, walking, waxed canvas, weather36 Comments

Simply because of where we live, this year has, I think, not been tough as it has proved for so many other people. I feel enormously grateful to be able to just step outside and go for a walk in wonderful rural scenery directly from our front door. And for me personally, the importance of…

a chat with Misa Hay

There is no getting away from the fact that, whatever business you are in, this year has been a very weird one. Having to change the nature and direction of what you are doing – often very rapidly – is never an easy thing, and this year there have been so many of those changes.…

Float in the wind, flicker in the breeze

By: Michelle May 13, 2020May 13, 2020

art, design, feminism, History, textiles, womenAnn Macbeth, banners, design, feminism, History, making, Mary Lowndes, suffrage, textiles, women's history16 Comments

Hello! It’s Michelle here. Today I’d like to share some words and images about suffrage spectacle and visual identity, a topic that recently came back to my mind through Kate’s writing in her Wheesht essay ‘Elevate’ on Ann Macbeth’s collaborative suffrage quilt. Anne Macbeth’s suffrage quilt as a suffrage banner. © Museum of London The…

cherry cheer

By: Kate Davies Designs April 24, 2020

colour, creativity, design, knitting, textilescheer, cheery, cherry, colour, knitting, red, textiles11 Comments

Good morning, and happy Friday, everyone. Thanks so much for your comments on yesterday’s post. I’d especially like to thank Vivienne Richmond, who kindly shared the booklet that accompanies the exhibition she curated about the darning and needlework collections of Whitelands College. Like many samplers, those in Vivienne’s exhibition originate in the classroom – eighteenth-…

mending inspiration

By: Kate Davies Designs April 23, 2020April 23, 2020

darning, makingcollection, darning, darning sampler, mending, Museum, Rijksmuseum, stoplap, stoppen, textiles38 Comments

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from grading a cardigan (a task that makes my eyes spin round) and spent a happy hour (as I often do) poking about the Rijksmuseum – which is one of those wonderful institutions who have digitised and made publicly available large portions of their collection. If you have an…