The use of cartoons - or not

One thing I was especially interested in with the Morley College class was the use of cartoons.  Some had cartoons behind their work and were following them quite closely but the majority were using small images to guide them.  These tended to be more textural or abstract pieces but not always.
The weaving was done in the way I am more used to, upright and from the front.

Using a cartoon, the larger cartoon seems to be different from the original, smaller image.

Small image as inspiration

Another small image, note that it is not in the same orientation as the weaving.

I found a reference on a blog to a William Jefferies' workshop and not using a cartoon at first. I find that I prefer to be organic in my weaving and am not that keen on cartoons behind the work.  However, I am not an experienced weaver so don't think that I will make any rash decisions about use of cartoons at this stage.

Morley College class with William Jefferies

As I said in the last post, we visited Morley College where William Jefferies was teaching a class that meets weekly.  They were not working towards a paper qualification but towards a show later in the year.

The people in the class were very friendly and open about their work and allowed us to take photos of works in progress.

Grafitti weaving using plastic bags

Plastic bags cut into strips, waiting to be woven.

I was especially interested in this textured work.

Beautiful Colours

Parlance commented on my blog about the beautiful colours we saw when visiting the dyer and I am inspired to post some more pictures from a different visit - to a yarn shop for weavers in London, The Handweavers Studio and Gallery.
It was not just wool that was available but synthetic and silk yarns, cottons and, of course, tapestry tools.
We visited the shop after a wonderful visit to Morley College where William Jefferies was teaching an adult education class that meets weekly.

The shop had some work by William and his students on show, you can just see a few at the ends of some of the shelves.