Master weaver David Cochrane talks about his latest tapestry, Water Surface, created to celebrate the decade since Dovecot Studios moved to Infirmary Street, Edinburgh
On Tuesday 4 December, Dovecot Studios is inviting art and textile lovers to watch the cutting off of Water Surface, its newest speculative tapestry, and celebrate its 10 years in the Infirmary Street studio.
Master weaver David Cochrane, who has spent 30 years honing his craft with Dovecot Studios, explains the inspiration and process behind Water Surface, how weaving has changed with contemporary culture and the threads that bind him to William Morris, the 19th century’s most influential designer.
Tell us about Water Surface. How did this tapestry come about?
Water Surface 2018 is the third in a series of tapestries depicting the qualities of water and the ephemeral effect of light. The design comes from a photo I took of the Crinan Canal on an autumnal day 20 years ago. I remember the day distinctly, there were silky clouds in the sky and the reflection on the water was stunning.
Nature has always been my main inspiration, I love the textures, and capturing how light dances on the water’s surface. I instinctively knew the photographic image would make a beautiful tapestry.
This year we are celebrating 10 years in our studio, the former Infirmary Street Baths. It seemed fitting to weave a tapestry that reflected on the properties of water and celebrated our contribution to Scotland’s fine art and textile scenes.
How long have you been working on Water Surface?
I’ve been working on Water Surface full-time since March 2018. I’ve been weaving alongside Ben Hymers, who joined us as an apprentice and is now a junior weaver. It’s a large tapestry, around 2.5m by 1.5m.
We began with my photo and from there we trace the image onto acetate. We mapped the colour changes of the image, outlining areas of colours and tonal changes with lines. The image was then blown up as a black and white line drawing to scale, and then traced directly onto the warps, which are the vertical strings on the loom.
This is the process we follow with all commissions. Artists find this process intriguing, seeing their paintings reimagined as colour maps.
Unlike painting or sculpture, where you can see the whole work at once, we begin weaving at the bottom and work our way upwards, rolling the tapestry around the bottom roller as we progress. We need to be sure from the very start that the colours and tones are right as you can’t go back and paint over it; it’s a very slow and precise artistic process.
Speaking of colour, how did you choose which ones were included in the tapestry?
In Water Surface, none of the colours are pure, they’re all mixes. There must be hundreds of colours in the tapestry, across the piece the blues begin to give way to greys and blacks.
I have spent the last six months weaving, surrounded by around 200 bobbins of wool, cotton and linens at any one time, mostly shades of grey and blue.
We mix blends by taking individual threads of different colours combining them together and winding them onto bobbins; there could be a number of different threads together to give a particular hue. Sometimes all of the colours are picked before beginning a tapestry, depending on the complexity of the design. For this tapestry I preferred to trust my eye, choosing blends as I was weaving.
What’s a cutting off ceremony?
This is a weaving tradition. At Dovecot, we celebrate the completion of a tapestry by inviting the artist, clients and special guests to watch it being cut from the loom. Traditionally this was always done by a woman, but in modern times this honour may be given to anyone connected to the project. Quite often we invite several people to cut a few warps each.
This is the first time the weavers get to see the tapestry as a whole. It is a moment of anticipation and excitement but it’s always good fun. It can also be an opportunity for guests to find out more about the processes of weaving a tapestry.
When people think of tapestries, they probably think of old castles and medieval scenes. How is Dovecot making tapestry contemporary? Tapestry, like all art forms, has moved with the times and trends since its inception. One big change came from the colourist movement and working with contemporary painters. Tapestries reflect these changes.
Dovecot Studios has worked with a number of contemporary artists and designers, such as Chris Ofili, David Hockney, Alison Watt and Garry Fabian Miller. Where do your tapestries end up, do they mostly go to galleries and museums?
The first water tapestry I created now hangs in a lakeside house in Canada, which is a wonderful location for it, while the second graces a staircase in a home in Scotland. Water Surface 2018 will go on sale following the cutting off ceremony.
No colleges, art schools or universities in Scotland offer weaving courses any more