Weaving on the Sheridan eight shaft Dobby loom 1987. Photo Chris Shain

Weaving on the Sheridan eight shaft Dobby loom 1987. Photo Chris Shain

Liz Williamson portrait by Angus Lee Forbes commissioned by the Australian Design Centre for the exhibition 'Obsessed: compelled to make'. 2018.

Liz Williamson portrait by Angus Lee Forbes commissioned by the Australian Design Centre for the exhibition 'Obsessed: compelled to make'. 2018.

STUDIO

 “Making is in my fingers and when I’m at the loom, I’m aware of the expertise and precision required to interlace warp with weft to create an envisioned structure”

2018 Leno weaving sample in cotton. Photo Angus Lee Forbes

2018 Leno weaving sample in cotton. Photo Angus Lee Forbes

2013 Studio yarn shelves. Photo Ian hobbs

2013 Studio yarn shelves. Photo Ian hobbs

THE STUDIO

Liz established her studio in Sydney's Inner West on Gadigal and Wangal lands of the Eora nation in 1985 where she continues to weave on her Glimakra countermarche and Sheridan dobby floor looms, both with 8 shafts

Her practice is diverse and includes designing for industry, exhibition artwork, production weaving of wraps and scarves, undertaking commissions, creating collaborative projects and teaching nationally and internationally. All involve weaving, the handmade and creating unique, individually woven and made pieces.

Textiles and weaving form the core of her practise with their historical, social and cultural associations providing a reference for design, structure and content. Of interest is the how and why textile objects have been created, used, loved, worn, darned, repaired, reused and what they signify and represent. Her studio textiles are a woven conversation around and about cloth, reflecting its history, circumstances and memory through the images embedded into cloth, its shape and surfaces and the particular elements interlaced into structures at the loom. Her weaving skilfully integrates concept and meaning with material, structure and technique.

Research projects to inform her practice have included digital Jacquard weaving at the Centre of Contemporary Textiles, Montreal, Canada supported by an Australia Council grant (1998-9); Renaissance textiles at Lisio Foundation in Florence, Italy supported by an Australia Council residency grant (2000); and Irish Damask in Northern Ireland during a residency at the University of Ulster, Belfast, Ireland (2002). Following this research, her Jacquard woven pieces many with damask patterning, were exhibited over several years, including a commission to weave her Jacquard designs for upholstery fabric and interior textiles for the 2006-07 NSW Government House Refurbishment Project. 

An opportunity to document historic Indian ‘Fustat’ textile fragments in British and European museum collections occurred during her residency at the UNSW Cité Internationale des Arts apartment in Paris, France (2015) with the research being documented in a journal article titled Inspiration from the 'Past: Tracing Motifs and Patterns in Fustat Textile Fragments', The Asian Arts Society Australia, Review (2016).

'Pink Edge' scarf from the 'Darned' series. Hand woven with wool and cotton threads. 22cm x 136cm. 2006. Photo Ian Hobbs

'Pink Edge' scarf from the 'Darned' series. Hand woven with wool and cotton threads. 22cm x 136cm. 2006. Photo Ian Hobbs

Studio research has revolved around cloth itself, its construction, use, wear and repair and the traces of memories and experiences left on the cloths surface and the changes in the cloths structure through use and repair. Many pieces have explored the notion of ‘darning’, the impact a darn has on the surface of the cloth, changing the surface, colour and feel of the garment and how a darn becomes an embellishment on the cloth. In 2006 her exhibitions 'A Visible Thread' at the Ivan Dougherty Gallery and 'Visible Darning' at Object Galleries, both in Sydney, investigated notions of invisibility and visibility in the domestic repair process of darning.

Liz was selected for the prestigious 'Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft' series, an award given by Object Gallery and Craft Australia acknowledging her 30 years contribution to the craft and design sector through her practice, education and advocacy. 'Liz Williamson: Textiles' her solo exhibition opened at Object Gallery in November 2008 before touring 13 Regional Galleries nationally to 2011. Dr Grace Cochrane is the author of the publication with the same name, documenting her career, practice and contribution.

Many of her weavings reference the traditions of rag rugs weaving, using readily available materials and the idea of 'making do'. Weaving materials have included domestic materials and her old clothes cut into weft strips, waste and excess studio materials and materials coloured by locally sourced plant dyes.

'Grey Edge' scarf from the 'Darned' series. Hand woven in wool and cotton threads. 28cm x 200cm. 2008. Photo Ian Hobbs.

'Grey Edge' scarf from the 'Darned' series. Hand woven in wool and cotton threads. 28cm x 200cm. 2008. Photo Ian Hobbs.

Liz first experimented with local plant dyes when she began weaving in the late 1970’s and continues in 2021 with eco bundle experiments with locally sourced eucalyptus being woven for installations.

Her 'Living Treasures' exhibition in 2008 and others at this time, included double layer structure or sacs woven with fabric dyed with traditional dyes of Indigo, Logwood and Cochineal alongside eucalyptus.

In 2018 Williamson curated 'Local Colour: experiments in nature' for UNSW Galleries at UNSW Art & Design, Sydney. The exhibition presented contemporary textiles and fibre art from 21 artists, designers and social enterprise groups interested in sustainable practices, local ecologies and natural resources. Works in the exhibition express social, cultural and political issues ranging from place, identity, climate change and land use, to individual and environmental wellbeing. Australian and international exhibitors shared a common interest in experimenting with locally sourced plant materials to extract unique colour for their textiles, paper and fibre.

'Local Colour: experiments in nature' curated by Liz Williamson and shown at the UNSW Galleries, Paddington, NSW in 2018. Photo shows two works by Rebecca Mayo with a section of Dorothy Caldwell's work in the middle. Photo Ian Hobbs

'Local Colour: experiments in nature' curated by Liz Williamson and shown at the UNSW Galleries, Paddington, NSW in 2018. Photo shows two works by Rebecca Mayo with a section of Dorothy Caldwell's work in the middle. Photo Ian Hobbs

‘Local Colour’ was most valuable for opening up not only specific questions about making natural dyes, and threatened resources, but for widening our sensory world. This exhibition offered colours that came from different sources to those familiar colours used by painters and showed that these colours function in very different ways.

Julie Ewington, 'Local Colour: Dyeing and Women’s Wealth', Artlink, Issue 39:1, March 2019. Page 21

Research undertaken for the 'Local Colour' exhibition included documenting natural dye use, experiments and publications that explored the colours of Australian plants from the 1788 British colony 1788 to contemporary practice. Research details experiments undertaken to determine colours sourced from indigenous plants (principally eucalyptus) by botanists, scientists, dyers and community groups. Her current research includes tracing the visionary idea of establishing a natural dye industry in Australia.

In 2019, her installation, 'Shadows of Eucalyptus' was exhibited in the 1st Biennale of Natural Dyes at the China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, China and acquired by the museum. A solo exhibition 'Local Colour: Eucalyptus Shadows' was shown at Off Centre Gallery, Milawa, Victoria in the same year. 

Eucalyptus dyed silk fabric being striped and wound onto stick shuttles as in the Weaving Eucalypts Project. Photo Ian Hobbs

Eucalyptus dyed silk fabric being striped and wound onto stick shuttles as in the Weaving Eucalypts Project. Photo Ian Hobbs

Since November 2019, Liz has collaborated with colleagues in Australia, India and countries touched by the Indian Ocean for her 'Weaving Eucalyptus Project'. The request is for collaborating artists to colour two metres of silk fabric with locally sourced eucalyptus leaves, bark or twigs which, when received in her studio, she strips and weaves into panels  approximately 16 cm wide by 85 to 120cm long. The first eleven panels were exhibited with the title 'Cultural Shadows' in the 'Make the World Again' exhibition curated by Dr Kevin Murray and shown at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, Victoria from 1 December 2020 to 5 March 2021. 

The whole 'Weaving Eucalypts Project' will be exhibited in 'Curiosity and the Rituals of the Everyday' the lead exhibition of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (IOTA21). The 70 panels of the 'Weaving Eucalypts Project' was shown at the Fremantle Arts Centre from September to November 2021 and involved 40 collaborators and at least 40 different species of eucalyptus. 

The 'Weaving Eucalyptus Project' interweaves local colour, cultural connections and weaving traditions and represents a community of practice linked by an interest in the natural world, natural materials / processes and the environment. Countries represented are Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand. As eucalyptus are native to Australia, supporting research has documented how and when these plants were transported to each country, enabling the species to spread around the world.

'Containment' detail of the installation. Handwoven with leather lacing and cotton threads. 105cm x 105cm x 7cm. 2016. Photo Ian Hobbs.

'Containment' detail of the installation. Handwoven with leather lacing and cotton threads. 105cm x 105cm x 7cm. 2016. Photo Ian Hobbs.

From 2017 to 2019, Liz collaborated with furniture designer Jon Goulder and Broached Commission on developing and integrating woven textiles into a suite of furniture designed and made by Jon. Leather and various yarns were woven for the chaise lounge and two credenzas exhibited in Sydney in November 2019 and the Jam Factory Gallery, Adelaide, SA from late February to May 2020. The 'Broached Goulder Chaise Lounge' was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia in mid 2020.

Since 2001 Williamson has been engaging with artisan groups in Asia in various ways - conducting workshops, teaching, advising on design development and for production of her ‘Woven in Asia’ range of wraps and scarves. In 2012 she established the ‘Cultural textiles’ course at UNSW Art & Design, introducing emerging artists and designers to ways of working with artisan groups in Gujarat and West Bengal. The course quickly became a highlight of her academic year, being taught in Gujarat from 2012 to 2017 and with New Columbo Plan support, in West Bengal from 2018 to 2020. Over three weeks, undergraduate and post graduate students were introduced to issues of development, ways of working with artisan groups, social enterprises and social and cultural issues in the sector. The course has been documented in an article published in Garland Magazine (2016): a book chapter titled 'Cultural Textiles: design, engagement and transformation' (2018); and a TAASA journal article'Cultural Textiles: experience, education and transformation' (2021).

In 2018, Liz began a program of Cultural Textiles tours to India for interested people. With an emphasis on textiles, especially weaving of the region, participants experienced the culture, landscape, environment and beauty of the state, while visiting museums and artisan groups specializing in weaving, embroidery, natural dyes, bandhani (tie dye) and block printing. Cultural Textiles tours ran in Gujarat in December 2018 and 2019 and in the Northeast of India (West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya) in February 2020. Since returning from India in late February 2020, tours have been postponed due to the pandemic but hope to be scheduled in 2022 and 2023.

'Earth sac' detail. Handwoven with eucalypts dyed fabric, cotton and leather lacing. 2008. Photo Ian Hobbs

'Earth sac' detail. Handwoven with eucalypts dyed fabric, cotton and leather lacing. 2008. Photo Ian Hobbs

Video commissioned by the Australian Design Centre and made by Angus Lee Forbes for the 'Obsessed: compelled to make' exhibition touring Regional Galleries in Australia 2018 to 2022
Portrait by Wolter Peteers SMH taken for an article on the Jon Goulder collaborative project. 2019

Portrait by Wolter Peteers SMH taken for an article on the Jon Goulder collaborative project. 2019