Rosie Moore Textiles

Hammered

I recently did a series of weaving workshops with a group of women from the Spectrum Centre on the Shankill and came up with the brainwave of teaching them a bit of woodwork as well – get them to make their own weaving looms! So I spoke to Geordie who runs the Tree of Life centre in the mill. It’s a men’s shed/creative arts/drop in centre and it’s brilliant (and free). I’d worked with the ladies in the group before and was really excited for them, I mean how many women of a certain age get to go to a woodwork class?! They arrived on the day and before going into the workroom I explained what we’d be doing, cos Geordie talks a lot and I had to get my spoke in early. ‘What?!?’ says Bernie ‘That sort of thing is for men’. Bernie talks a lot too, but I also know she likes a bit of fun. ‘Come on now Bernie, don’t be playing the helpless wee woman on us, you’ll love it’. And she did. That’s her with the short dark hair and glasses. I’ll get a link to the Tree of Life page once it’s up and running, once Geordie stops talking long enough to sit down and set it up.

A great wee find

I have more knitting and crochet books than I know what to do with, but that is no deterrent to acquiring more. The mill was closed today so I decided on a jaunt to Newcastle, County Down and set off early to beat the Bank Holiday hordes. I took my crochet hook and wool with me, and since it was wet and windy I parked up and did a bit of crochet (as you do) before I set off for a dander up the town. I was delighted to find a really old knitting book dated 1923 in my friend Alicia’s shop – Sew What Interiors – so I practically skipped back to the car with joy (well, in my head I did). Then I got out my crochet to do a bit before setting off to my next destination. Newcastle was getting hectic by this time and a woman came over and asked was I leaving so she could have my space. No, says me, I’m not leaving. She gave me and my crocheting a bemused smirk and turned to walk away. No prizes for guessing what I said to her retreating back under my breath.

Our name ni lights

No, it’s not a spelling mistake, it’s just me trying to be smart. I first met Lyndsay when she came to the mill for a tour so she could write a blog for the entertainment website NI Lights. And of course she fell in love with the place, so she arranged to come back yesterday with cameraman Bee to make a video for the site. With it being market day in the mill the courtyard was packed and there was a high frisson of excitement in the air about being filmed. Lippie was applied, hair was style-ied and comfy tracksuits were left at home. Yours truly was interviewed and I’ll share the video with you when it’s ready. The mill variety market is on every Saturday and you can find out more about NI Lights on their website.

Setting up for my interview – ‘Can you hide my chins?’ says me

Melanie in character sporting platforms to promote our seventies night

Lyndsay deciding which of Terry’s sauces will give her the best mouth-burn

Having to explain to Rosie & Cindy that she spent all her money on a bottle of chilli sauce

Asking DA if any of her gemstones have cooling qualities and DA telling her she’s a chilli wimp

Welcome to my mill

My studio is in The Mill in Conway Street in Belfast. It’s a beautiful old building full of character (and characters!) and I’m at the very top, the penthouse suite if you like. Well that’s how I describe it when I have visitors. The mill was built in 1842 and was a flax spinning mill until it closed in 1976. It’s been battered and bruised and is now a vibrant place with lots happening, sometimes I can’t keep up with it all. One of the things I DO is give a guided historical textile tour of the mill (as I’m not there all the time, tours need to be pre-booked). It’s a fantastic place, you can almost breath in the history. And it’s random and rough around the edges, and that’s why I love it.

Here’s a story

I thought asking someone to tell a story was a simple thing to do, however I’ve just spent the day finding out that is not so. There are all these things to be considered, like reasons, methods, challenges, dilemmas, accuracy – and don’t even get me started on ethics! Artseka have just started a 3 year project called Sanskriti, which will be exploring migration, the linen industry here and influences from South Asia. Rachel has kindly invited me to take part in the oral history part of the project, which will involve interviewing people and recording their stories. I’ll post updates as the project unfolds, and luckily what I’m writing in this blog is my own story, so I can tell it with delightful gay abandon. I’ve no pics of today. While it was really interesting and food for the brain, it wasn’t visually exciting. Well, perhaps the sandwiches for lunch were, but these Artsekta images are much better, and you can see lots more if you visit their website www.artsekta.org.uk. The end. For now.

Better get started . . .

This is my studio, my second home. I have many visitors and they comment how tidy it is and I excuse the fact by saying that I’m not a messy worker. Not that I’m anal about it or anything, unless you’re talking about my colour-coded pin cushion, but we’ll brush over that one for now. I’ll show things in more detail later, don’t want to divulge too much too soon. You might think I’m transparent and boring and won’t come back. I’d two meetings here today. The first was with Anna who has a neighbouring studio and we/I talked a lot about this blog. The second was with Becky who is my ex studio-mate. Again we/I talked about this blog. So now we’re up and running and I’m off to practice my orals for tomorrow. I’ll do a blog about it.