Angie Parker - Colour and Weave

This month we had a lecture from Angie (of Angie Parker Textiles) on Colour and Weave.

I have to say a massive well done to Angie - we had a huge technology failure and she managed to deliver a brilliant talk without any slides (which also had her prompts on).

Angie is a rug weaver who comes from a creative family (her mum knits, makes clothes etc)  and her art teacher encouraged Angie in her flair for textiles.  She was taught by the master weaver Susan Foster and in her first show won an award for new designers.  For quite a few years after graduation Angie worked in costume design in order to earn a living.

Here you can see a few of Angies samples - they were so soft to the touch and just beautiful. I dont know how anyone could bear to use them as rugs.

 Angie has lived in India for a while and you can see how much the colours inspired her. She told us that they "get under your skin" (quite literally then there is a festival!)

 These are some of the small sample pieces  - she often does scaled back pieces to try out ideas from  her sketchbook. Angie stressed the importance of having a sketchbook - she will never run out of ideas as there is always more to go back to. 

These smaller pieces are often made up of all sorts of threads not often used in weaving - some had glitter running through them but I am not sure you can see it on the photos.

 This is a sample inspired by Kaffe Fassett made in 1992. She took on board his motto - "if you dont know what colour to add, add another 6"

A lot of the yarns in this rug are made from PET - the plastic that comes from recycled bottles. These rugs are contracted from someone else as Angie doesnt have the specialist equipment needed to make them.  In taking the decision to make such a huge investment Angie asked herself "what is the worst that can happen?" Often it helps you put big decisions into perspective.

This book cover is made from a printed fabric copy of one of Angies weavings. It was so good it looked like a woven piece.  Angie uses collaborations to keep her creative energy going and thought our Branch was a wonderful way to allow us to share ideas, techniques and encouragement.

If you want to see more of Angies work the pictures she was going to show are on her Instagram account. 
Instagram account : angieparkertextiles   Look out for the socks!