Alec Lamb
Name: Alec Lamb
Studio location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Website / social links: hautbeau.ca, @hautbeau
Loom type or tool preference: 4 harness Leclerc
Years weaving: 9
Fiber inclination: Wool, linen
Current favorite weaving book: Always reading The Techniques Of Rug Weaving by Peter Collingwood
1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?
My mom bought me a frame loom at a second hand store, knowing that I was already interested in knitting. I did a sum total of one project on the frame loom and quickly upgraded to a 45” 4 harness Leclerc loom I bought off Craigslist from a former weaving teacher. My greatest resources at the beginning were youtube tutorials and a beginner's weaving book (can't recall the title). I would scrounge the used bookstores for weaving books and read those, or look at forums on weavolution. I didn't know a lot of other weavers at that time.
2. How do you define your practice – do you consider yourself an artist / craftsperson / weaver / designer / general creative or a combination of those? Is this definition important to you?
I think I use the word “weaver” because it's most descriptive of what I do. It's not the type of thing I would correct people about.
3. Describe your first experience with weaving.
My first experience with my 4 harness loom was very misguided and frustrating! I was using hairy Icelandic yarn as my warp + weft, cannibalizing my knitting yarn stash. Friction from the reed would shred the warp fairly frequently, particularly on the selvages. I think the “blanket” ended up being quite a few inches narrower at the end than the beginning. Naturally I turned it into a “gift” for my parents who, as parents are wont to do, adored it and kept it. At the beginning I was doing a lot of different types of projects with different materials, whereas now I pretty much exclusively do weft faced weaving.
4. What is your creative process, from the initial idea to the finished piece? Are there specific weave structures, looms, or fibers that are important to your process?
I try to spend an hour sketching/brainstorming in the morning over a coffee at this cafe between me and my studio. It tends to be quite reiterative, drawing and thinking about the same structure or design for weeks at a time. When I feel I have a pretty good sense of the final draft, I'll weave some samples, and then tackle the final piece. By the time I'm finished one piece I usually have another 10 ideas that I'm eager to move on to. I've been working pretty exclusively in weft faced flatweave with wool + linen for a number of years now, occasionally taking a break to do wool blankets or scarves.
5. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?
Honestly I still feel like I am in the learning process, with respect to materials. I'm developing a language with each technique I learn, each element I add to my vocabulary, and then eventually I will have something to say. I have many sketchbooks full of bodies of work I'd like to take on, that are themed, more personal, and I will when I feel ready. My biggest fear is trying to tackle these important bodies of work before I am ready, and not doing them justice. As a result most of my work presently resides in the geometric, the procedural, the abstract, as I move closer to the metaphorical.
6. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?
My favourite part absolutely is peeling a finished piece off of the front beam, after weeks of work, and finally seeing the whole result. It's a high that keeps you going through the more laborious or tedious parts of the weaving. I also like the smell of steamed / hot wool, a vicarious farm smell in the city. My least favourite part is the failures, false starts, snapped warp threads, threading errors, wonky selvages, unexpected shrinkage, etc. :)
7. Do you sell your work or make a living from weaving? If so, what does that look like and how has that affected your studio practice?
I sell my work, mostly through the internet / social media. During the warmer months I do landscaping part time. This spring I am returning, perhaps ill-advisedly, to tree planting to make some quick cash so I can spend more unfettered time in the studio this fall. I really enjoy having a diversity of employment. Gardening and tree planting give me a lot of time outdoors and with people whereas work in the studio can be long and lonely.
8. Where do you find inspiration?
For me, the notion of inspiration is a difficult concept to pin down. Is it as it's derived etymologically, something that is breathed into us, is it the origin of an idea. Or is it the result of a process of work and thinking, like a light bulb / eureka moment. Is it common, waiting to be plucked out of the everyday, or is it this elusive and rare object that has to be hunted down, skinned, transmuted into “art”. To mix metaphors a little actually I think the important element to anything creative is respiration. An idea germinates, grows, dies, and grows again. That's not to say that it's healthy or fun to exist and create in a hermetically sealed environment like a Wardian case or a hyperbaric chamber. I guess what I'm getting at is that for me momentum and inertia are more crucial to creation than the initial spark.
9. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?
Rita McKeough – for her humour, voice, and presence
Aboubakar Fofana – for his reflections on indigo + craft
Miriam Parkman – for her palette, style, and eye
Maxime Gérin – for his abiliy to capture a gesture / expression
Melissa Cody – for her seamless integration of traditional / digital motifs
Damien Smith – I love the way he handles space and light
Anwen Sutherland – because she is my sister!
Peter Collingwood – for his uncluttered opinions and writings about rug weaving, his diagrams, his spirit of sharing the knowledge
10. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?
I would probably just keep working to pay the bills and spend more time drawing, making music, fermenting.
photo by Joseph Baron
