Saturday 23 & Sunday 24 July 2022, The Art of Hand-Weaving with Nila House

10:00 - 13:00 BST (British Summer Time)

Hosted on Zoom by Nila House

NILA is a non-profit dedicated to honouring, preserving and promoting India’s vast landscape of natural dye and handloom traditions. Through its wide range of platforms and projects, Nila serves as a beacon of excellence, inspiring members of the global crafts and design community to move towards new levels of accountability and social responsibility through craft preservation, circular design and regenerative practices.

NILA HOUSE in Jaipur is public-facing space of Nila’s work across India. Created as an environment for a holistic experience of culture, rare craft processes and knowledge-sharing, Nila House has become a much-loved atmosphere, welcoming visitors from all over the world.

Outline of the workshop
Hand-weaving is at the core of Nila’s work to celebrate and support sustainable craft systems and Indian craft traditions. Weaving by hand is a skill that is both soul-nourishing and practical. With a basic guide to the fundamentals and dedicated practice, these skills that can be mastered and promise to bring value to your creative expression.

The two-part workshop has been designed by Nila as a comprehensive introduction to the craft of weaving with in-depth and step-wise guidance to set-up and work with your frame loom. Day one you will be introduced to the craft of hand weaving. You will set up your light, portable frame loom using your very own hand-spun cotton yarn for the warp. On day two, the session will guide you through the basic weave techniques, which can then be used in combinations to create your own expressive tapestries.

The workshop will be recorded and made available to you after the workshop.

Level of experience
This workshop is open to all levels of experience and creativity. The workshop has been designed to introduce hand weaving to beginners but is also perfect for those looking for answers to questions that will help grow their practice. The Nila team will share their research and experience working with hand-spun, handwoven textiles practices in India, to inspire and open up the wonderful world of these grounding and expressive crafts to you.

Materials
A materials pack will be sent to participants in advance of the workshop containing:

For your frame loom

• Side beams
• Top support beams
• Bottom support beams
• Stand support beams
• Warp beam
• Winged nuts and screws

Weaving apparatus

• Wooden shuttle
• Beater
• Tapestry needle
• Yarn- warp and weft (cotton and linen)

Caution: The kit contains small and sharp-edged tools which must be used carefully. Keep out of the reach of children.

Please note: material packs are shipped on an insured, trackable delivery service. Any customs duties, delays, lost or undeliverable packs are the responsibility of the customer. Once a material packs leaves the workshop tutors' hands with a tracking number, the seller has no further obligation to the buyer.

Workshop cancellation policy
All places reserved on workshops are non-refundable.

If you require additional information about this workshop please contact Catherine Harris, events@selvedge.org.