Hannah Waldron Lecture

• Making textiles as research.
• Illustration based on map making.
• Capturing a memory and getting a feeling of a place while learning practical skills.
• Commission work, weaving, printed textiles, own work, designed and manufactured herself. Limited runs and sold online. Book projects and editorial illustration. Very varied practice. 
• Made a book while studying, managed to get it stocked in Brighton and London. Gets your name out there. Expand to products linking to the book.
• Got a job after uni but kept her own practice going alongside. Solo show in Shoreditch, prime location.
• Fist commission after uni - cd case/cover. Folding poster - inventive idea, something different. 
• Home book - V&A.
• Weaving - horizontal and vertical lines/grid used in drawings translates well into this process. Simplify things down to the most essential elements.
• The thinking hand - Juhani Pallasmaa (book).
• research design agencies and studios who you think are doing good work.
• makes the experience of working for big companies better.
• Travelling influences change in her work.
• Mapping - taking experiences and making them into weavings.
• Submit work to competitions that you might not think you fit into. Your work has more potential purposes than you may think. 
• Be aware of context - if you commit you can get pigeon holed, keep it broad. 
• Textiles as research - language, qualities of materials, making connections, stories about journeys and places, exploring contexts for crafts.
• Textiles for retail
• Designing to commission - collaboration , limitations, reaching wider audiences.
• Illustration - map making, freedom from constraints.
• Create your own manifesto while studying to see how far you've come and refer back to when you feel a little lost with what you are doing.

I found Hannah's talk really interesting, especially the relationship she makes between travel and image making. I love the idea of recording surroundings through imagery. Her work is very shape based which connects well with the restrictions of the weaving process. My work, in contrast, is very line based but I definitely feel inspired by the way she translates a location into imagery. It was also interesting to see how her practice has grown from a lot on monochrome imagery to full of colour. I feel I am just embarking on this change right now, I love working in black and white but I realise that this is not always the best option and colour is almost essential for making my work adaptable. 

I was also really interested to hear about Hannah's professional practice, how she gets work, who she works for and how she manages to maintain doing what she loves. Learning about her work for commission, retail, and as research was interesting - it is clear she gets work from a lot of different avenues and I suppose this is what helps her work to continually evolve and be adaptable. One key thing that I notices in Hannah's talk was that she exhibits her work in as many places as possible and her travels have definitely helped her to reach a wider audience.