Cockpit Arts: Clothworker Awards | Weavers

The successful recipients of Cockpit Arts: The ClothWorkers Awards for 2020 are Alicia Rowbotham, Millie Thomas and Francesca Miotti.

Millie Thomas
After graduating from Central St Martins in 2018, Millie has worked within the woven textiles industry  in Italy, designing for an Italian Weaving Mill and  in London for a heritage woven textiles company.

Millie’s work takes a biomimetic approach, taking inspiration from nature to explore and often replicate its principles through design. Her approach is process led, looking at the inner workings of the
natural world, from the grooves in beetle shells to the structural pleats in dragonfly wings to design from. She uses this inspiration to create bold patterns, 3D textures and elegant structures.

Millie uses extra weft figuring techniques and warp floats within her work – mixing yarn types, colours and finishes to achieve intricate patterns and textures. She aims to continue developing her practice to
explore the intersection between science and design and how we can integrate the beauty and complexity of nature into fabrics and products.
Millie Instagram – @milliethomastudio

Alicia Rowbotham is a bespoke textile designer with a focus on sustainable and responsible design. Alicia’s practice aims to emphasise and encourage collaboration between manufacturers and designers to harness the potential of textile mill waste and utilise this resource for the benefit of both the industry and the designer.

Graduating from Central Saint Martin’s with a specialist degree in woven textiles in 2019 Alicia is driven by the reclamation of traditional, established craft methods in a contemporary way. Reimagining industrial waste materials through the aid of craft and design in the form of accessories for fashion and interiors.

Alicia is currently working with Joyce Wang Studio on the refurbishment of The Berkeley Hotel, Knightsbridge. Creating a range of decorative textile elements with waste materials inspired by a ‘Makers House’ concept of collaborative craftsmanship.

Alicia’s works are currently being shown in the House on Mars gallery, Shoreditch as part of London Design festival and are available for custom order and purchase.

Instagram
Alicia Rowbotham website
London Design Festival

Francesca graduated from the BA Textile Design course at Central Saint Martins (2020). She works with weaving as a medium to be included in several contexts, moving away from the usual idea of cloth and using the technical restrictions of the process to allow a more conscious experience with materials and their qualities.

By including interactive features in her work through the use of surface, structure and construction, she is interested in the involvement of people’s senses with textiles. She uses a variety of weaving and traditional hand-finishing techniques, as well as basketry, to combine paper yarns and different fibres, focusing on their structural qualities.

In her latest work she collaborated with a Reggio Emilia Approach nursery, gathering inspiration from the natural responses of children towards materials and textile techniques, using hand-weaving as a way of translating the actions into sculptural sensory and interactive pieces which embody this relationship.

She uses a variety of weaving and traditional hand-finishing techniques, as well as basketry, to combine paper yarns and different fibres, focusing on their structural qualities.

Francesca website

Instagram

You tube video links

https://graduateshowcase.arts.ac.uk/projects/2011/cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTGXcbGWHM
https://www.textiletalent.nyc/central-saint-martins/franchesca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtnINB8hrVk

Text and images: with thanks to Millie Thomas, Alicia Rowbotham and Francesca Miotti

 

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