Weave Up.
A six-month participatory weaving project exploring choice, experimentation and material preference.
The aim of Weave Up is to investigate how participatory weaving can provide a context for exploring the development, expression and negotiation of material preferences.
01 — Explore
How participants respond to different materials, colours, textures and techniques.
02 — Investigate
How preferences emerge through hands-on experimentation.
03 — Examine
Whether and how preferences change through repeated encounters.
04 — Explore
How preferences are communicated and negotiated within a shared making environment.
05 — Evaluate
Participatory weaving as a potential method for design research.
practice-based / practice-led research
Making is the method.
Weave Up uses participatory workshops over six months of weekly sessions. My own weaving practice forms part of the research, while participants’ making remains central.
Workshop observation — Choices, experimentation, changes, conversations and interactions.
Participant reflection — Opportunities to explain or reflect on choices.
Material / artefact analysis — The woven pieces become research material.
Researcher reflection — A journal documenting observations, assumptions, decisions and responses.
In partnership with Porchlight
The participants are people connected with Porchlight who choose to take part in Weave Up.
Porchlight is a Kent-based charity supporting people affected by homelessness, poverty and inequality. Participants will be invited to engage with a series of participatory weaving workshops over a six-month period, with opportunities to join, pause, miss sessions and return according to their individual circumstances. Participation will therefore remain flexible, rather than requiring a fixed level of attendance or commitment.
The workshops create a shared space for experimentation, choice and collaboration.
Porchlight is a Kent-based charity supporting people affected by homelessness, poverty and inequality. The participants will be people connected with Porchlight who choose to take part in the Weave Up project. Participants will be invited to engage with a series of participatory weaving workshops over a six-month period, with opportunities to join, pause, miss sessions and return according to their individual circumstances. Participation will therefore remain flexible, rather than requiring a fixed level of attendance or commitment.
Participation, consent and anonymity
Consent
Participants are informed about the research, what participation involves, what data will be collected and how it will be used.
Anonymity
Pseudonyms will be used and identifying information removed.
Photography
Separate consent will be sought for photographing participants and/or their work.
Taking part in the weaving activity does not require someone to contribute research data.
Timeline
01
02
03
04
05
06
ENCOUNTER
PREFERENCE
COMBINATION
INFLUENCE
CHANGE
REFLECTION
Unfamiliar materials
Drawn to avoid
Contrasting materials
Responding to others
Revisiting materials
Looking back
Workshop 01
How do material preferences develop, change and become expressed through participatory weaving?
The project will remain open to what emerges through the workshops rather than assuming what the findings will be.