Weavers Guild of Aberdeen Award Winner - Matt Russell

On Thursday the 10th of November I was invited to an intimate awards ceremony hosted by the City Guild of Aberdeen to allow me to meet the Guild as well as present my research, development and weaving samples.  I gave a presentation exploring my work, thought process and development leading onto how beneficial the cash sum the guild presented me contributed to my research and studying in Nanjing China last March - there I  researched textiles of the east as well as Chinese Culture and language. 

Read more about my Chinese Experience in depth via the links below.

- Nanjing University

- Nanjing City

- Confucius Temple

- Mochou Lake 

- Chinese Painting

- Hot Pot experience 

- Purple Mountain Tomb of Dr Sun

 I was so pleasantly received by the guild and it was a wonderful privilege to be given a dedicated night to my work. There was a private tour of the Guild Property where there were hundreds of magnificent paintings and priceless chairs and artefacts dating back to the 12th Century. Such an archive of wonders I was given an insight into historical pieces the public are unavailable to witness. Such an inspiration.

This is a short summary of the Work I created for the guild - beginning with research and developing through to the winning weaving samples and outcome. 

Research of Pattern Colour and Tone

I began my research for pattern, colour and tone at Glasgow's Botanic Gardens where the have a fantastic array of exotic plants and flowers. I Posted a full blog post about my research at the Gardens which you can read in full here.

Weaving in Action

I began researching traditional weaving methods at the Edinburgh weaving mill as well as an in depth visit to Lanark Weaving Mill museum where I learned the traditional methods and principles of Scottish weaving.

You can read about Matt's Visit to the Mills via the links below. 

- New Lanark Mill and Heritage centre.

- Edinburgh Weaving Mill

I then took all my research gathered from the Botanic Gardens as well as the Mill's into my weaves and developed them into my work as you can see below. 

Winning Weaving Profile

The following photographs are a insight into my weaves designs, for these I took the colour texture and tone research from the botanic gardens and combined it with the traditional methods of Scottish weaving. I created these designs which explored both the exotic as well as the local. I used some innovative materials such as the coloured branches - which are seen in a range of warm and earthy colours giving a contrast to the soft and versatile wools and chenille etc.

I would especially like to thank Lorraine Sneddon the technician from Gray's School of art, who helped me overcome any technical difficulties weaving my branches.
Thank you very much also to Weavers Guild of Aberdeen who's contribution to my trip to China was incredibly beneficial as well as an incredible privilege to be invited to the City Guild and be given such a warm welcome at the ceremony and for the wonderfull insight into Aberdeen's past and future.

MIRRORED - Collaborative Exhibition

Above : Flyer for Exhibition, half Matt half Holly.

A Collaborative exhibition exploring the bridge between Photography and Textiles. 

I worked with my friend and Photography student Holly Aitchison to create a series of photographs and projections which explore the boundaries between textiles and photography.

We worked with Textiles Prints and photographic research I used in projects previously along with Holly's photographic and digital media skills to make a combined set of projections.

These projections then were projected onto each others torso and face, allowing the projection to interact and be manipulated by our positions and angle.

Some of the projections really allowed myself to visualise in another manor how my prints could interact with the human form.

These were then photographed in the photo studio in high quality, adjusted by ourselves then we shortlisted with photos we would use in the exhibition. After much thought and consideration the photographs were then printed digitally to the size of A1 (roughly the size of 8 A4 pages combined).

The preparation of an exhibition was greatly underestimated by myself however it was certainly worth the work.

Myself within a textile photo combination of stained glass window and a Tiger print.

Holly within a photo I took in Shanghai with her Cat's eyes.

Myself interacting with one of my textiles designs

Falling from a hight.

Wings of Barcelona

Holly within my Textiles Print

Holly within the Tiger Beach.

It's me Matt!! With Mini Matt projected
 on my top. I MUST Make a T-shirt like this

The Exhibition opened on Thursday 13th October at Gray's School of Art with a fantastic 

reception along with wine and nibbles. 

A few photos of the Opening night too below.

The Exhibition is running for a week at Gray's School of Art Aberdeen so be sure to pop by if your near...

Bradford Textiles - Matt Russell Print Designs

For our summer project this year we were given the task of designing a range of designs for our specialism - my specialism being Printing .


For this I began as I usually do, with  a piece of inspirational material and go from there. 
The Inspiration I sourced for this project was an antique 1800's book on the British army in spain, with handwritten notes from a sergeant in Aberdeen and his personal experiences in the war. I wanted to capture the age of the book as well as the texture and rough surface of the book facing which had been damaged not only by age but fire also.


I combined the delicate flowing movement of the text as well as the rough and rugged patten of the book cover along with some of the map patterns, a drawing of the Sergeant himself.

From here I created a Client board and Colour board to keep my designs in line with the market and colour scheme I wanted to target.

Client Board

Colour Board

These are some of the textiles print designs I worked with and developed from this inspirational book. Now I will look at shortlisting these to the top ten and make these paper designs into fabric samples and see which ones come out the most successfully.

Print Designs

These designs will go towards the Bradford Textiles competition once sampled and the design and development process is finalised.


Hopefully I have captured something a little unusual to the ordinary applicants by using this original and one of a kind antique book and the naturally aged book pages hand writing and maps.


The Bradford Textile Society's Prize Schemes, which have been the source of encouragement and inspiration to textile students and practising textile designers, and have helped to stimulate new developments in textile design and construction, and finishing and printing techniques.

The original sponsors, the Society itself and the Wool Record, share the distinction of having presented special prizes for design achievement since the Schemes were established in 1923.
 The Society is also grateful to individual organisations and companies, whose support and encouragement has helped the organising committee to increase the total prize money by a considerable amount over the years. 


In particular it acknowledges the generosity of the Clothworkers Foundation, which has awarded a number of prizes since 1968, the Dyers' Company, Prestigious Textiles Ltd, The Woolmark Company, the British Wool Marketing Board, the Association of Fashion & Textile Courses, Holland & Sherry Ltd and Bradford College.


To find out more about the Bradford Textiles Society CLICK HERE

Blairs College, St Mary's - Aberdeen

My Grandparents visited me in Aberdeen the other week and we took a trip to Blair's College, a museum for an college closed in the 80's.
  
It was Scotland's only junior seminary for boys and young men 
studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood.


Up a country lane, along a dirt track you are led up to the "Hogwarts" 
of Aberdeenshire.
The most impressive building hidden within the trees and 
surrounding countryside.

Inside there was also St Mary's Church, which the boys would have attended.
This however still runs as the local parish. I took a photosyth, a 3D panorama
 of the church allowing you to see it in depth, in my previous post.

There was a wonderful archive of religious textiles dating back to the 15th Century,
 embroidery and rich colours like you couldn't imagine.

A trip with the grandparents wouldn't be right without a trip to the tea room.

Blairs college and St Mary's Chapel is well worth the visit if your interested in seeing a rather unknown tourist destination in Aberdeen. You can find out more by clicking here.

What not to do...How to feel miserable as an artist.

Make the most of Today...

M x