Weaving at Lyme Park
March 2024
I was working on a self-initiated brief during my second year of University and had produced a body of work inspired by the interiors of Lyme Park, as well as being largely influenced by the ‘Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design’ exhibition at The Ashmolean in Oxford, as I had visited both over the Christmas break in 2023. I had also been taking inspiration from the imagery within Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s The Lady Of Shalott.
I showed the Youth Curators how to do some basic ‘extra weft’ weaving as a way of creating shapes within woven samples and the results were very successful! We used some DIY frame looms and the Youth Curators tried out lots of different shapes and colour combinations. We chatted about the historical importance of weaving and textiles in our local areas (Stockport/Cheshire).
I had returned to Lyme Park to take photos of my woven sample around the house when some volunteers noticed what I was doing and suggested I should share the photos with the visitor engagement team- which I did. It just so happened that their Youth Curators- a group of 15-18 year olds from the local area- were doing some work about the woven tapestries in the house which needed restoring and wanted to do some weaving themselves.
