Michael Longford on Interest in Weaving

Michael Longford on Interest in Weaving

Jung-Ah Kim

Michael Longford

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So I'm a new member to the guild. And I've only been a member for six months. And I joined in part because of an interest in weaving and textiles that was spawned, in fact, by my mother, who's been a weaver and a spinner, a quilter, a knitter all of her life. And recently, I came into possession of one of her floor looms. And I have wanted to learn how to use that and integrate some of that into my own creative practice. My mother had a tapestry loom as well as a floor loom that she purchased in the 1970s. So and then she soon started spinning after that, spinning fibers that she could use in her weaving. So in part, those are things that I remember being in her studio and remember being around while she was busy making. I also have a very clear memory, you know, the family took a trip to Europe in the 1970s, we took a camper van and I have a very clear memory of visiting a museum and mason where there was a huge textiles exhibition on and all of us going to that, of course, because of my mother's interest and being struck by the different kinds of expression that were there in the museum from the different weavers and, and artists who were presenting their work everything from what I'd call a more traditional or kinds of weaving to sort of large scale freeform sculptures that were sometimes hanging on the wall, sometimes out on the floor. So that's something that's stayed with me as I've grown up. And then of course, my mother was also a knitter. So I've benefited from sweaters that she's knitted over the years, and most recently, she's turned to quilting. So she's busy, quilting bedspreads, quilting wallhangings. And everyone in the family has benefited immensely from that. And so while I haven't taken up textile arts in the past, it's certainly something that I've been interested in. And recently when my mother was looking just to sort of make more space in her studio for her quilting and other activities, she was selling her looms. And, you know, I said to mom, at one point that I think I'd like to have one of those looms and to try weaving. In part, I have a background as a graphic designer and a sculptor. So they're very tactile nature of textiles, the tactile nature of weaving appeals to me. I also see it as a kind of meditative or contemplative activity as your is the sort of building the textile through the loom. And as a graphic designer, certainly the graphic quality of weaving everything from the patterns, the way in which the patterns are sort of represented on grids through to the final textiles and the different weaving patterns, all sort of remind me and make me sort of think of graphic arts as well as textiles and the connections between graphic arts and textiles.