In case you are wondering where quaquaversal comes from, it's a Latin word that describes moving in multiple directions and getting pretty excited about it. It fits so perfectly with our visiting international tutor this Summer, who happens to be a calligrapher. For the calligraphers amongst you, it's also a gorgeous play on words, as Versals are a particular type of lettering.

Our intrepid traveller in this case is Gemma Black who has travelled over 17,000km from Tasmania to the UK for the start of her current European tour. And would you believe it – the first thing she found when she arrived at Ardington was the Ordnance Survey Benchmark carved on the outside of our building. Travelling and exploring are in her genes. It’s no accident that twice as many Australians as US citizens hold passports.  Travel goes with the territory so to speak. And we are going to  take a whistle-stop tour of Gemma’s latest six week trip to Europe, which begins at our very own Ardington School of Crafts.

Here Gemma concentrates on a three day workshop entitled ‘Retro Deco’. Using drawn letters and inspiration from the Art Deco period, students created a number of pieces which involved making single large letter designs, or stacking words from appropriate period quotes, into a column and then giving them the Deco design treatment. Mackintosh roses were blooming in abundance, painted in monochrome, multi-colour, ink, watercolour and even pearlescent Finetech paints. As the days flew by, the techniques and design ideas flourished.  I was lucky enough to get a place on this workshop and I now have enough inspiration to last me a lifetime.

Do you know your warp from your weft?
 
There’s an easy way to remember which is which.  Weft goes Left to Right, so that means the Warp is the one that runs vertically through the fabric, and generally needs to be stronger because it gets stretched onto the loom.  Our expert weaver, Angela Pawlyn, talks through how she got started in weaving and what influences her work.
 
Angela got started when she and her mum went to the lake district after her father died. Her mum started to study weaving, spinning and natural dyeing, and Angela has since taken on all of her mum’s equipment and is now a prolific weaver.  She has done some work with Martin Weatherhead, a full-time designer craftsman in Pembrokeshire who teaches weaving.  His methods of threading up the loom are the ways which Angela has adopted.