FELTING AND WEAVING
Chloé Chagnaud
Could you share a bit about yourself and your background?
I’m a weaver, felter and bookbinder. I’m 38 years old and I live in Aubusson, a small town in Creuse, France. Aubusson is known as the city of tapestry. It has tapestry factories, abandoned or still active, independent tapestry workshops and a beautiful community of people gravitating around textile and wool. There is a great association, Lainamac, which promotes creation and hand-made products using French wool since 2009.
I have a studio with other artists in an old building that used to be a tapestry factory. We are mostly into textile but there is also a ceramist.
Before starting in textile, I did a master of fine arts in Valence and Saint Etienne. After that i decided to go towards crafts and more precisely textile. I wanted to find a craft practice that I could do at home, without needing a workshop and I didn't want to continue in art. I found an old Manufrance sewing machine and taught myself to sew.
What was the early motivation to express your creativity through weaving?
My first step into textile was to sew things like bags and clutches with vintage fabrics. After one year doing that I wanted to go further in the process by being able to create my own fabrics. So I decided to learn how to weave. My grandmother in law at that time used to weave in the 70’s and still had her loom that she gave me when I told her I wanted to weave. I found a weaver near my home, Odile Chevalier, who offered internships. I was able to finance a week of internship with her, then I continued to train alone at home with my loom, not without difficulties! One week of internship is clearly not enough, So the beginnings alone were complicated.
I went towards textiles and weaving in a rather intuitive way, but later I realised that it was a refuge, a cocoon and a soft activity, very linked to interiors, to the home. Textiles have something comforting, warm, and therapeutic. I really need that in my life, and if I can bring it to others through the creations that I make, then that makes me happy.
How do you think the places, people, and traditions where you grew up are now manifesting in your art? Could you share your feelings about these cherished gifts and heritage?
I think what introduced me to textiles is that my mother collected many fabrics during her travels and they were very present in our home, with their colours and patterns. She still has them in a large glass cabinet.
We know you gravitate toward different mediums, including felting. Can you share your thoughts on how you began working with this material?
I started having an interest for felt first of all for the material itself and later I realised that it was a very different approach from weaving. It is more spontaneous and it feels good after 10 years of weaving, which is a premeditated and calculated practice (from my point of view). I find in felting a possibility to express myself beyond what weaving allows me to do.
I still love weaving but I'm in a period where I want to make the warp and the weft disappear, to merge everything. I think there are bridges to be made with felt and weaving, there are things to experiment with.
How did La Tòrna come about?
La Tòrna was created in 2014. It is an occitan word, which expresses the idea of return and repetition, like in music. When I was searching for a name, my ex who is a musician has suggested that I look into occitan music for inspiration. I’ve found a song called La Tòrna and really liked how it sounds. After some research on the signification, we made a parallel between music and weaving and realised that La Tòrna was pretty pertinent for a weaving studio’s name.
Can you take us through your process? Do you have any particular rituals that help you dive into it with greater ease and foster a more natural flow?
I don’t really have rituals, but I like to clean the studio before starting a new project. It helps clear the way for something new, it is a bit therapeutic. I like feeling in good shape by doing sport and yoga as weaving and felting is kind of hard for the whole body.
When it comes to the tactile aspect of your work and its connection with your body, how does the hands-on nature impact your overall happiness and well-being?
Working with natural materials such as wool and linen is very important. Feeling, touching and smelling these materials contribute to my well being. I live in the countryside (Aubusson is a very small town with a very easy access to nature) and being surrounded by natural materials in my studio creates a link between the outside and the inside, a connection and a continuity.
Where does the biggest potential for preserving crafts in the contemporary context lie?
By giving great importance to natural and ecological materials, to gestures and to know-how, and to the creative process and not just the final result. By thinking that craftsmanship is the future and not the past and by giving another temporality to the creation, by slowing down a little.
What current projects excite you right now?
I will be soon working on an exhibition project in an unusual location around Aubusson with my workshop’s mates. The first exhibition we organised last spring, with textile, ceramic, photography and installation was on the top floor of an old castle in a village in Creuse.
Next year I would like to follow a training course at Lainamac on the knowledge of wool, for being able to understand wool as a textile fibre, its preparation and its processing sector.
Where and how can people engage more with your work?
I currently have an exhibition with a textile collective that I have been a part of since 2021. We are exhibiting textile works at La Maison des Grenadières, a museum workshop in a historic village, between Saint Etienne and Clermont Ferrand.
People should visit me at Aubusson! It is an interesting town that seems to be from another time, with a beautiful environment like the Millevaches plateau, which means a thousand sources. They can also follow my work on instagram and my website: @latornatissage, www.la-torna.com
The portrait is by Zoé Forget. All other images are by La Tòrna.
