Hollie Ward

Name: Hollie Ward

Studio location: Deptford, London

Website / social links: hollieward.co.uk, @hollieward_

Loom type or tool preference: Schacht 8 shaft mighty wolf

Years weaving: 4

Fiber inclination: Surplus stock, cotton and wool

Current favorite weaving book: The Handbook of Weaves

 

 

1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?

Fabric always interested me, from being a teenager discovering punk and wanting everything in my life to be tartan and wanting to create a world of my own. From there, I had a pretty generic path, I left school and went straight to art school where all I wanted to do was make and paint and naturally progressed onto a degree in textiles where I was taught how to weave. I believe my greatest resource was the amount of technical knowledge to learn. I saw weaving as a structured challenge that I could navigate through and develop my own understanding.

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 definitely consider myself a weaver. My enjoyment comes from the actual act of weaving. I guess the other word I would use would be a maker. The reason I do what I do is for the joy that comes from making. Be that weaving, knitting, putting furniture together. I think the distinction is very personal and therefore important. I never sit down and design, I make.

3. Describe your first experience with weaving.

My first experience was at art school, we had a table top loom which had already been set up. I made some awful lengths from scraps of fabric and embroidered into them, I really wanted to create work that would fall into the realm of fine art at that point. I don’t think that moment defined my experiences of weaving.

The part that sticks out the most to me is grasping the basics and teaching myself how to weave a double-cloth. I’ve always had a strong desire to learn and push myself and the challenge is what sticks with me most. That to me is my first experience of weaving in the realm of how I define weaving, I see the initial example as my first experience of using a loom.

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?

My creative process is very natural to me and is never planned. Everything is generally on an almost winging-it basis. When I find some stock of yarn I like, or a yarn supplier, I buy the yarns which speak to me most. Generally these are cottons and slightly tougher wools.

The process of making fabric comes from an almost “guessing” angle. I think that’s where I find joy. The other day I grabbed 3 cones of yarn and just started winding a warp. And I think it’s my favourite fabric to date. No planning, no over thinking, very little consideration. I have the odd moment of “this is possibly going to look awful” but I have faith in my ability. I find excitement in spending 5 days winding a warp, setting up the loom and weaving it when it’s almost a risk to what you’ll end up with. Sitting and designing does nothing for me personally. I think I just trust the process and myself. And really, what’s the worst that could happen?

 5. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?

Personally, making is my sanctuary. The main purpose is that, creating a world in which I can exist at peace through the work I do. There are certain other influences which are mostly life experiences which have shaped the work. I’ve always wanted my work to speak to people who can relate to the narrative. The kids who grew up as the misfits and wanted to create their own path. I try to view it as a rebellion through the act of making.

 

6. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?

Taking the fabric off the loom is always the most fun. Especially as I often weave 8/9 metre lengths of the same fabric in one go. I don’t think I will ever tire of having a roll of fabric I’ve made entirely with my hands and this machine. I find it just as invigorating now as I do the first time I ever did that. Maybe even more so as my work has come very far since then. I enjoy the whole process; I enjoy how methodical it is. 

There are days when threading heddles is comparable to having a migraine. When I’m not in the mood, I find that part particularly difficult.

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?

It’s always been incredibly important to me to have integrity in what I do. Part of that being I will never so anything I don’t really want to do. I need my work to have soul. Producing work for other people does nothing for me. I work with other brands on very specific projects that only me and them could work on together through a very natural process. I also sell my own work through The New Craftsmen, London and L’EChoppe, Tokyo. The next steps for me will be creating a clearly defined HVW collection. Living off my work comes through having very select and great stockists and working on those niche collaborations.

8. Where do you find inspiration?

Honestly, I think about this question so often and I’m never sure how to answer it. I’m endlessly intrigued by everything. This doesn’t always mean I want or need to delve deeply into everything but curiosity keeps me going. Everything I make comes from me, so I guess my inspiration comes from an internal place considering all of those things I have learnt and discovered along the way. I often think of my work as a way of emptying my head, clearing out space for more information. It can feel pretty chaotic in there and sometimes making a length of trippy colored fabric seems like it has opened up a smidge of space in there.

9. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?

I have the upmost respect for Le Kilt. I have worked closely with them over the past few years and find it awe inspiring to be around someone who knows their brand and identity so well and executes such innovative work in the realms of traditional textiles. I have the upmost respect for a whole variety of people who have homed their craft and know how to utilize it. Over the past few weeks I have spent a lot of time admiring Sage Flowers in Peckham who are a contemporary florists, and also the work of one of my closest friends, Shawn Correia, who is a tattooist in Melbourne. 

10. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?

It would have to be something creative or I think I would simply wither and die! If it wasn’t allowed to be creative (and I hadn’t withered and died) I would most likely work with Staffordshire Bull Terriers in some capacity – they’re my favourite thing. If it could be creative, I always overly romanticized the idea of being a painter, so I would probably venture down that path.