Aviva Leigh runs workshops for mainly weaving and dyeing. She has a 3D weaving workshop scheduled in a couple of weeks time and invited me along to her home studio to help her sample and experiment! She wanted to experiment with willow and wire using a circle loom and basket weaving techniques to then create a 3D woven piece. I have never used a circle loom before and I was really glad I tried it out. It was a long process but worked well, instead of a rigid heddle or a table loom, you had to manually weave the weft in and out of the warp. As we were using wire in the warp, it was much trickier than just simply cotton or wool, as it was stiff and hard to get the weft underneath. In the weft we used recycled materials such as found string and cord from the beach which had a lovely worn quality to it.

We sat looking out onto the river drinking tea and chatting whilst weaving away, which was wonderful, she has so much knowledge and it really inspires me. The day went so fast and we didn't get all of the weaving done but I have bought the circle loom home to continue to play this week.

I would love to continue to use techniques similar to this in the future, I especially love the idea of using found materials from the beach and using basket weaving techniques.