Emotional Fabric

This months Weaving Voices sparkled in the Bobbin Room on Saturday when it was a privilege to welcome glass artist Liz O’Connell talking about her practice, and her latest pieces of work ‘Emotional Fabric’, inspired by research in the Archive.

After researching her parent’s experiences working in textile mills and also looking at wider weaving narratives and processes, Liz has created glass textiles pieces using glass threads, experimenting with the themes of domestic work and invisible labour.
Exploring both the selvedge pieces in the Archive, and the free stitching in Archive fabric samples, carried out by Ivy Barron,  has inspired – ‘Emotional Fabric’.

These thematic pieces reference our various psychological connections to thread, such as: fixing and mending, the state of ‘losing one’s thread’, and being ‘threadbare’. Using the fragility of the glass threads to create pieces that reference processes such as selvedge , the glass is fused and formed in glass kilns along with the use of a flame torch.

Through her practice she is exploring processes and the heritage ; people and their lives, our experiences and in turn the viewer and wider community.

Liz brought examples of her work and her tools for everyone to handle and after the talk everyone was free to wander and explore the Archive where Liz found her inspiration and see for themselves how much it has to offer proving our original point that it’s not just old stuff!

If you would like to attend some of the other ‘Weaving Voices’ events be sure to visit the Collection at Eventbrite here where you can book tickets.  At present we have events confirmed until March 2023, with more to be added soon.  So whether you want to find out how the Archive has influenced digital media artists, how it applies to our view of textile sustainability, how paper conservators have worked or the inspiration for ceramics watch this space!

Liz’s work also features in the current Gallery exhibition ‘Woven Stories’ until the end of December 2023.

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