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Hand Weaving
HANDWEAVING covers a wide range of textile making. Its raw material is fibre and humans have always developed fibres to meet fundamental needs from the most mundane to the most sublime. From the earliest times the development of the handloom evolved on the simplest of principles. A simple interlacement of opposing threads becoming, in skilled hands, the means of producing works of the most magical and inspiring nature touching every aspect of human interactions. Yet it was this simple principle that led to its easy mechanization and virtual annihilation in the first years of the industrial revolution.
In the West handweaving has suffered particularly from this loss of understanding of its history and traditions, and weavers rediscovering and exploring ideas within a traditional framework can still be sidelined by contemporary arts theory [an exception is the field of tapestry weaving which associates with painting and so the fine arts], with such loose labels as functional/ domestic.
Handweaving is about creative expression through fibre and interlacement, about the interplay of structural and surface texture with pattern and colour....and like all crafts, it is also about a different appreciation of time.
The process of developing a vocabulary of skills as a basis for innovative work takes time; it takes time too for the user to feel in touch with, to appreciate and become sensitive to good craftwork. In todays increasingly difficult economic climate the opportunities to show and to see good craftworks, especially weaving which can be difficult to display well, are shrinking.
In New Zealand handweaving is mostly taught through guilds. For beginning weavers the rediscovery of the infinite wealth of old skills is fascinating and completion of the simplest piece of weaving is very satisfying.
Handweavers today carry the potential to put us all back in touch with this ancient human resource - by reinterpreting and extending traditional boundaries for contemporary use and making pieces that can reconnect maker and user with the richness in the world around us now.
Brigit Howitt
Weaver
September 1998
Weaving
The two greatest influences in New Zealand weaving are the environment and the wool and flax fibres readily available. The Maori settlers utilised the Phornium tenax (New Zealand flax) to make garments, baskets and other functional objects as well as decorations and embellishments on these articles. After a decline in the first half of the 20th Century Maori Weaving is now in the middle of a renaissance. Many young people are now learning traditional weaving and some are using those skills to express ideas in their new work.
During the 19th Century Europeans brought with them spinning and weaving skills and the sheep which produced the wool. These skills were maintained for personal needs with occasional small businesses established at this time. The spinning activity and wheel manufacture were spurred on by women working for the World War II effort.
In the late 1960's and 70's the worldwide interest in fibre contributed to a grass roots development. Many people learnt spinning and weaving at night classes and many national exhibitions, festivals, guilds and spinning groups formed at this time. The inclusion of crafts being taught at polytechnics has helped to broaden the field of knowledge.
All these things have influenced the work produced by both hobbyists and professional craft artists who have used this discipline as a means of expression. Being in the South Pacific arena has created unique work both for personal use and in public art weaving.
Yvonne Sloan and Ian Spalding
Weavers
September 1998
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