ruth
woods

a gatherer weaving, dyeing and teaching fibreart techniques

ABOUT RUTH:

Ruth is a “gatherer” and part of her basketry journey began with creating her own garden with a keen eye for plants suitable for weaving and dyeing and has developed what she aptly calls her ‘Weaving Pantry’ in her home garden. She harvests her plant fibres throughout the seasons of the year.

New Zealand flax is one of her favourites which she can pick fresh from the garden and use immediately to create beautiful organic sculptural forms.

Ruth also has ‘secret places’ where she collects from good friends that allow her to explore their gardens and choose more unusual plant fibres.

She was a finalist in 2021 for Yering station with her piece ‘Containment”.

Ruth also explores materials that are recycled for her art as she is very conscious about sustainability and care for the environment and has developed a range of slow stitched pieces. Much of these materials could be found in her own stash of collected materials. This philosophy is what drives her own creativity, online workshops and teaching. She is also a believer that it is vital to play and experiment, to enjoy the process of making, to produce interesting and exciting work.

Although Ruth generally doesn’t sell her work she enjoys sharing her knowledge and developed her business Craft School Oz in 2014 where she was able to combine her face to face workshops to share not only locally but worldwide to an audience of keen crafters.

Recently she has launched her book, Finding Form with Fibre, which was developed after going away for a weekend with five other basketry friends throwing an idea around to showcase a selection of contemporary basketry artists, list of materials and weaving techniques. The project was a little larger than first anticipated and took over three years to produce.

The book is available through www.craftschooloz.com and coming soon to the YAVA retail section.

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Ruth partcipated in Yarra Valley Open Studios in 2023.

Medium: fibreart
Tags: basketry, weaving, foraging, gathering, contemporary basketry