2024 - What's on:
Weaving the Groud -
Weaving and Poetry
18th December 2024
6.30-9pm GMT
A very special one-off evening of seasonal Saori weaving with artist, writer and maker, Louise Amelia Phelps and Saori weaver Nicola Builder.
We will come together near the Winter Solstice and the turning of the year to create our very own special textiles pieces to keep our gathered treasures throughout the year.
You can weave a wall hanging or table runner, a wrapping or alter cloth. Whatever you choose it can be your place of grounding for the year to come, a cloth to hold perhaps a stone, a feather, something beautiful, a found poem or words for nourishment. All materials are included but you are very welcome to bring along anything with meaning that you’d like to incorporate into your weaving too; yarns, threads, ribbons, scraps of cloth, threads, twigs or paper and more...
We will be a small group of 5 participants sharing warming drinks, gentle guidance and inspiration. There will be the opportunity to work in silence or in conversation with others. Please do get in touch if you have any questions or would like any information about this event before booking. SAORI is a form of weaving from Japan that encourages improvisation and free expression. With no pattern or rules to follow, Saori enables you to weave quite freely; simply enjoying each moment as it comes. In Saori, we weave with our heart as well as our hands. This session is suitable for complete beginners as well as more experienced weavers and is an opportunity for you to enjoy a few hours exploring a world of texture and colour and creating your own unique Saori woven piece. Saori enables everyone to enjoy the rhythm and creativity of weaving.
The basic skills are fun and easy to learn and most people are able to start creating their own unique textiles within minutes. A prepared loom will be waiting for you, along with a wealth of colourful weaving yarns. We'll teach you to use the loom and introduce Saori patterning techniques. The time is then yours to relax into the weaving experience.
The finished length of your weaving will depend on the complexity of the weave, but there'll be enough time for everyone to create a piece around 2ft long, perhaps more. No experience needed. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult. We provide hot drinks (we'll have something warming and spiced along with tea, coffee, herbal teas and plant milk). Please let me know if you have any allergies or dietary requirements.
Footwear - you'll be operating the loom pedals with your feet so it's best to wear comfortable, flexible shoes. Alternatively, many people find it's most comfortable to weave with just socks or slippers on. Small group (maximum 5 participants).
Indelible Evenings
Tuesday 19th November 2024
7-8.30pm GMT
Travelling Hearthwards
In winter, you could say that we are more limited by the frost, flood and freeze, but our wings do not have to be clipped. Within the sound of driving rain is an invitation to travel on different terrain.
Louise will read poetry and prose from her work around this. For her, the quality of inspiration has a seasonal tide that changes throughout the year. The adjustment from the summer months can be bumpy. It can spark our attitudes and issues around weather, cast extra light on our wants and needs as we push against the limitations we perceive. The drive we have, and the roots of it, are personally challenged. That is our own work to smooth out, for sure, but there is always a seat at the hearth, and if you don’t have one you can build one, and if you can’t build one outside to hold you, you can build one within yourself, fashioned from the threads of ether, dust and dew. The hearth point can be a nourisher, an anchor of light, with underestimated strength.
Becoming the Garden - Plant Colours
Saturday 18th May 2024 2-5pm
At The Roundhouse, Hawkwood College, Stroud.
2023 workshops
Becoming the Garden - Autumn
Saturday 11th November 2023, 1-5pm, £25, Matara, GL5 1QY
'Becoming the Garden'
Friday 18th August 2023 1-5pm
Matara Centre, GL8 8YA, 25 GBP
This was a great afternoon. Adapting to the forecast of 2 weeks worth of rain in 24 hours, the colour walk moved inside and added extra beauty to the space. Pots were filled from the greenery around us and time spent while they heated was full of conversation.
The next one will be on Saturday 11th November.
The Edge of the Vessel Saturday 12th November 2022
What a wonderful day. Creating and exploring the origins of colour and fibre, Here are a few pictures of the day.
Who is this for? This is for all people interested in art, natural dyeing, plant colours and how creativity can forge active bonds with where we live. It is not instructional as such but a poetic exploration of the processes involved allowing you to expand your ideas and approach ‘materials’ in a new way. There will be some hands on work and moments for personal reflection and discovery.
This workshop stems from my Sacred Land Walking training, Art therapy training, Ceremonial journey through the seasonal celebrations of the year through the Ancient Wheel of Wisdom since 1998 and a lifetime of Arts Practice following the moments of making that arise between surface, materials and maker.
You are invited to the experience. This workshop is part of my ongoing work ‘Bonds, Braids and Belonging’ .
Saturday 12th November 12-4pm, 40GBP
At Matara Centre, Kingscote, Gloucestershire, GL8 8YA.
Register your interest early for this one!
hello@louiseameliaphelps.com
Past Events
June and July 2022
'We Weave' At the Red Hearth
Gentle Introductions to weaving for beginners. Learn the basic steps of this ancient activity, using a simple project: materials provided, or bring your own yarn, no experience necessary.
The metaphors of weaving have a strong resonance for ourselves and the world around us and there will be opportunity to explore this creatively.
"Weaving is a metaphor for wave/particle duality" #katieglusica .
July 2022
Intuitive Painting workshop for those who relate to ADHD
I offer art workshops and one to one guidance in my technique, in working with what emerges through the meeting of worlds: water, colour and imagination. This is a technique I have worked with since 2004. I gave a workshop as part of the 'Reflections of Me' exhibition for those who relate to ADHD. A technique useful if you do not have the 'right' materials or have any idea what to do.
Bonds, Braids and Belonging - November 2021
The Iron Heart
The ‘Bonds, Braids and Belonging’ workshops came about through my experiences creating fibres and dyes, Sacred Land Walking and Art Therapy trainings. These workshops are about the extending our awareness of the materials that we use in a way that invites poetic reverie to animate our materials and ignite a reverence for life.
Creating this workshop changed me. This drew on the summers learnings and took things down to the earth and below at Autumn. How different things look from here!
Bonds, Braids and Belonging - June 2021
I was invited to do a workshop as part of the Red Hearth Gathering last year, and boom! 'Bonds, Braids and Belonging' was born. This was a great afternoon around a fire, working slowly, to create colour on fibres together.
Each one is rooted in the seasonal moment, the life of the earth and sky we are a part of and not apart from. In September we will look at the formation and growth of colour in the dye plants that create it.
2020-present
Spin-In's - Fibre Interest gatherings
Drop in gatherings for fibre interested folk. Bring a spindle, a wheel, a loom and enjoy the beautiful rooms and palm house of Matara. This year I will have some dye plants for sale, proceeds going towards ...growing more dyeplants! Relax, chat and share the fibre wisdom! There will be opportunity to do some plant dyeing too. This is a fiver.
