tim parry-williams

My research is concerned with both traditional and contemporary woven textile practices and spans commercial collaboration towards industrial production, and designer-maker studio practice.

 

Research strand 1: ‘Craft-industry collaboration’.
Applied research exploring relationships between craft and commercial practice and how far ideas can be applied to industrial production. The work looks at the regularly unseen aspects of woven textile design and isn’t immediately concerned with pattern or even colour, but with the deeper values and potentials of material properties, construction and finish. Hand-woven samples become models and vehicles of concept subsequently informing industrial systems in the creation of innovative solutions for the high-end apparel fabrics market.

 

(Above) Research strand 1: Materials and construction, exploring relationships between craft and commercial practice and how far ideas can be applied to industrial production for the contemporary apparel fabrics market.

 

Research strand 2: ‘Design aesthetics of historical and contemporary textiles’. Practiced-based studio work exploring traditional and contemporary themes in British and Japanese woven textiles in both contemporary and historical contexts, across studio and archive sources. (No image currently available.)

 

Generic research fields: Traditional and contemporary materials; Cloth construction; Finishing treatments; Craft: Commercial applications; Vernacular pattern/colour trends and dyestuffs. (See image above)

 

Recent Activity

 

Conference papers/exhibition:
Craft:Industry interface – A dialogue between hand, heart and machine, November 2007, Neocraft: Modernity and the Crafts, Halifax, Canada

July 2007, New Craft:Future Voices, Dundee

 

Associate Designer for Fabtex Co.Ltd., Japan:
Collaboration with production teams at factory base in Japan, whose clients have included Sanyo Shoukai for Burberry, Fendi, Ralph Lauren; Mina Perhonen (Akira Minagawa); and Attachment (Kazuyuki Kumagai):

• Woven Textiles Collection S/S 2009 Japan/Europe (Selected Icho Japan)
• Woven Textiles Collection S/S 2008 Japan/Europe (Selected Y's Japan)
• Woven Textiles Collection S/S 2007 Japan/Europe (Selected Y's Europe/Contracted Livingstone Studio)
• Woven Textiles Collection A/W 2006/7
• Woven Textiles Collection S/S 2006 Japan/Europe (Selected Baldisserini)
• Woven Textiles Collection S/S 2005 Japan/Europe (Selected Hugo Boss Black Label)

 

Fashion collection collaboration:

• Using fabrics resulting from the craft:industry collaboration project in Japan, exclusive fashion collections produced by Aenne Cordsen; and Rubeksen Yamanaka. With Livingstone Studio, London
• Forthcoming projects with Ian Batten, London, and Jeremy Laing, Toronto

• 1 month working with teams at the factory base of ARA Sangyou/FABTEX (Woven textile manufacturer), developing and initiating new fabrics for Associate Designer portfolio for the International apparel market. Working towards spring/summer 2007, 2 cloth trial collections produced, estimated return value $1million.
• Cloth/yarn dyeing, finishing and processing research in Nagoya and Kiryu.

Meeting and studio visit at Doi Tung Development Project, Thailand.

 

Recent Projects

 

Working in collaboration with award winning Japanese hand weaver, Ikuko Ida, the project is centered on archive and practice based research towards an international touring exhibition showcasing a collection of fashion and interior textiles alongside a central 'archive' from museum and collection sources. The project is built on networks in both the UK and Japan

A central 'archive' of selected pieces will serve as:

• A reference for new woven textiles by the originators.
• Subject of a touring exhibition in 2007
• An educational reference (supported by data and study materials concerning Cultural context, techniques of production, and materials and dyestuffs etc) in the form of the exhibition.
• The central textile reference for a potential international forum/symposium drawing on the expertise of International figures and specific textile groups within the 'collection'.

• Commissioned by the charitable organisation Blind Art to produce 5 garments/wearable art pieces inspired by the senses.
• To be exhibited through wearing to promote the organisation at various events and showcased at the private view of ‘Sense and Sensibility’, Bankside Gallery, London, September 2006

 

Recent Exhibitions

 

• May - Aug 2008, Inspired Design - Creative Entrepreneurial Textiles. Centre for Craft, Creativity and Design, North Carolina, USA
• February 2008, Amitiés Tissées. Paris, France
• September 2007, Plain, Stripe, Check. Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Tokyo, Japan
• July - August 2007, Future voices: Celebrating diversity (New Craft:Future Voices). DJCAD, University of Dundee, Scotland
• May 2007, Fashion collection collaboration (fabrics) with Aenne Cordsen; and Rubeksen Yamanaka, Livingstone Studio, London
• November 2006, Nihon Mingeikan Ten (Japan Folk Crafts Museum Craft Awards). Tokyo, Japan
• May 2005, maka Textile Collaboration: Language of materials. (Supported by Arts Council England), Stroudwater Textile Festival, Stroud
• Feb 2004, Nepalese Nettle-Fibre Sustainable Income Development Project. Ambassador Hotel, Katmandu, Nepal
• Jan 2004 - April 2005, Through the Surface. SIAD Farnham/Hove MoA; Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; Bankfield Museum/Piece Hall Halifax; Nottingham Castle Gallery; Kyoto MOMA, Japan. Catalogue ISBN 0954628527
• Sept 2003, Kakkuu Koubou maka. COMO Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• June - July 2003, Sozai:Materials. Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London
• May 2003, Fine Lines. Rope Store Studio Gallery, Gloucestershire
• Dec 2002 - Feb 2003, Continuity and Diversity. Foyer Gallery, SIAD, Farnham
• Link to web C.V