Loom of Doom . . . .

My poor old loom is feeling very sorry for himself at the moment.  His home-made computer has conked out on me and consequently so has my summer production timetable.  To quash my feelings of impending loom doom I've been busying myself with funding applications to help me buy a new one.  All fingers and toes are crossed the bid gets approved so I can order a spanking new AVL from the USA with super duper features like 24 shafts and a sectional warper.

However that won't arrive until December, so I better reserve one set of crossed fingers that the RCA technician who built the old computer comes back from his holidays very soon, as he is quite possible the only man who knows how to fix it!

If you are a circuit board genius, please get in touch if you think you may be able to help.  Or alternatively if you have a 16 shaft floor loom I can borrow I'd be very grateful for your help.  At least all my paper work will be up to date and I have some time to start designing the Millbank & Foot tweed!

Twenty Twenty, Much Wenlock . . .

Last week I dropped off some stock at the lovely Twenty Twenty Gallery in Much Wenlock, Shropshire.  Mary Elliott took over the gallery in 2004 and has since developed Twenty Twenty as a premier destination for rural art and craft in the West Midlands.  More recently her furniture designer husband Hugh has taken on development of Twenty Twenty's online business as well as exhibiting some of his own products in the gallery.  The gallery has regular exhibitions throughout the year and there is a permanent selection of jewellery, ceramics, glass, furniture, sculpture, painting and prints by some of the best British artists and makers. Twenty Twenty is currently showing an exhibition of contemporary art medals which has been curated by Ron Dutton.

And to add to their display they now have the Millbank & Foot 'Wenlock' scarf in their window.  Well worth a visit!

Selvedge magazine . . .

Millbank & Foot almost but didn't quite get a mention in the July/August copy of Selvedge magazine.  We entered the magazines 'Celebrate 2012' scarf competition with our 'Wenlock' design.  Unfortunately we didn't make it into the top three but they did write this:

"Scarves have been used to mark historic moments for decades and your 'Celebrate 2012' competition entries showed us why.  Although our three winners chose to commemorate the years biggest events, some of you chose to record local occasions including the Wenlock Games in Shropshire event and 'Flora Day' in Helston, Cornwall.  We had a wonderful response from our talented readers and would like to thank everyone who entered."

Shrewsbury Open Studios

This weekend  we opened the doors of The Creative Studio to the public as part of Shrewsbury Open Studios. Over the course of the weekend we had around 150 visitors which was absolutely fantastic! If you missed it this weekend, fear not! We will be open again this coming weekend ( 14th & 15th July ) between 11am-5pm. Take a look at the two new collections of scarves, hot off the loom. Also exhibiting in The Creative Studio is Footprint photography, R&A Collaborations, Millbank & Foot, Matt Sewell and Jacqui Dodds. Kate Millbank and Jacqui Dodds will be on hand to answer any questions you might have. 

Fund 101 . . .

Votes have now reopened on Fund 101.  Please help support Kate and I (Millbank & Foot) gain £500 to get our sustainable tweed project off the ground.  Follow the link and cast your vote, it only takes a couple of minutes . . .

http://www.enterprisenation.com/funding-applications/helen-foot-design/

Thank you x

Wenlock scarf . . .

Last week Kate and I finished designing the first Millbank & Foot scarf which is inspired by the Wenlock Olympics.  We sent it off to the printers and it arrived back on Friday.  It was Kate's birthday, so a lovely present and just in time before giving birth! We now have a new team member at Millbank & Foot, baby Harris (he's been referred to as the 'tweed' baby from the start) arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning.  Congratulations to Kate and Dave! here are a few images of the scarf (baby pictures in a future post!) . . .

ALLOTMENT . . .

I'm pleased to announce that I will be curating PLOT 9 of MAC Birmingham's Allotment exhibition.  The show contains 10 'plots' which are being curated by artists and organisations from across the West Midlands.  There is even a shed to run workshops from! I will be using the space to showcase some of my favourite Shropshire artist and designers.  PLOT 9 will include work by R&A Collaborations, Hayley Robinson, Sophie Copage, Christophe Dillinger, Ella Ruth Cowperthwaite, Beth Fletcher, Pam Newall, Richard Foot,  Julie Hedges, Millbank & Foot, and a few others.

You can follow the project here: http://10plots.tumblr.com/ and on twitter @10plots

Lino Printing .....

Millbank and Foot are currently designing a digitally printed scarf for a competition. To go alongside drawn elements of the design we experimented with lino cutting to create textures based on studies of sports equipment. We had a lot of fun playing and making these designs and hope to do some more soon.....

Here are some pictures of the work that we produced

Lino printing

Our first design

Fund101 . . .

I currently need 500 votes to secure £500 of funding so that I can buy yarn. Its for Millbank & Foot's new sustainable tweed project. Kate and I would be really grateful if you could vote for us and help to spread the word. Its really easy and takes 2 minutes, just follow the link below:

http://www.enterprisenation.com/funding-applications/helen-foot-design/