Amy Stevens placement

We are delighted to welcome Amy Stevens on a 3 week placement with us starting from today.

Amy will be working in different areas of the mill including production, curatorial, waterways and the retail side of the mill.

Currently studying at the University for the Creative Arts, Amy has a deep understanding and interest in textiles/weaving and heritage.

You can keep up to date with the progress of Amy and her findings below.

For my first week at the mill, I used photography, sketches and paintings to gather inspiration for future colour pallets for the mills production. Throughout the week I came up with 4 themes and pallets for the wool collections which can be used in the future.

On Tuesday I helped the volunteers to organise the textile archives which are going to be restored and displayed in the future. This was an amazing experience, being able to view past samples across hundreds of years produced in the mill. Recording them in numbered boxes so they can be identified more easily.

I also worked with the production volunteers on Thursday and I learnt about the 5 stages of spinning and got hands on experience working the traditional machinery! I found this knowledge really interesting and it will benefit me in the future whilst weaving to better utilise the properties of spun wool.

This week I have been painting designs which hopefully will be used in the shop on gift items. I’ve then digitalised all my work ready for future use. I have also been researching colour trends and the wool market to support my colour pallet ideas.

I worked with the production team on winding and packaging hanks and spinning mixed yarns to reduce waste in the mill, this creates some really interesting yarn colour combinations, great for hand weaving!

I have also been working on tying on the new warp onto one of the production looms in preparation for the next production day! This requires using a weavers knot to tie the new warp to the old warp.