SCHOOL OF THE WEEK

looming marvellous

On the weekend Ramona and I were lucky enough to attend Sydney Styling Superstar Megan Morten's Melbourne School Roadshow. To say that this was the fanciest workshop environment we've ever found ourselves in is probably one of the greatest understatements we've made to date on HML. 

Seriously people this was weekend workshops at another level - aside from all the linen and blooming peonies everywhere, we were delivered a DIY chocolate pavlova bar for morning tea  YES PEOPLE, SERIOUSLY... A DIY PAVLOVA BAR.

As part of our 'research' we'd decided to take a workshop in tapestry weaving with Melbourne's own Maryanne Moodie given that she's been all over the interwebs with her new take on wall weaving, and we are nothing if not children of 70's fibre craft.

Maryanne talked about her almost accidental discovery of weaving via a chance loom find during a school supply clean up (she's a former art teacher) around 8 months ago -  and how she's now built it into a burgeoning commission business via Instagram and social media. An increasingly common 'new school' craft career trajectory amongst new mothers and part time crafters. 

This particular workshop had been so popular they'd had to put an extra class on over the weekend, proving again that Melbourne is indeed the craft workshop capital of the world (well except for Portland but you all know we contend that Melbourne and Portland are actually interchangeable so...) What was super cool was the level of enthusiasm in the room from the participants - its always inspiring to see that you're not the only person in the room going ga-ga over gold lurex thread. As an old weave major it was interesting to look at the process of tapestry from a beginners perspective again, and to return to an incredibly simple loom to see what I could produce and for Ramona it was a chance to explore a new process (one she's had to listen to me banging on about for years) for the first time. So the workshop presented an interesting challenge to both of us for completely different reasons. 

As you all know lately we've been elbow deep in very different making materials and techniques (me Shibori and Ramona air dry clay) so it took us a while to get into the groove of yarn again, but groove again we did. Ramona pulled out some awesomely festive mexican coolness and I for some reason went down a very tonal blue green path. But we were both ok with what we were doing.

By yesterday we'd both finished off our original pieces and Ramona had taken it one step further by re-warping and trying out new experiments using a range of her favourite materials - string. 

These new pieces are particularly cool because instantly the work is recognisable as Ramona's, and we think trying new stuff and pushing yourself to find your 'signature style' within it is big part of what making is all about.  I'm still obsessed with basket making and dying but the workshop has reminded me to pull out the big loom again and see where my new fascinations will intersect. And you can't ask for more than that. BECK

Read more about The School or make a booking for a class here

Read more about Maryanne on The Design Files here