July 22, 2022
Publish date: APR. 8, 2022
In COVER 66, Editor Lucy Upward takes a look at the trend for tufted homewares and art and speaks to four dedicated tufters about the joys of the craft. Many of the new tufters we can see online are followers and clients of artist and Tuft the World founder Tim Eads, who has earned himself the name ‘King Tuft’. Driven by a desire to share his knowledge and offer better accessibility to tufting materials, Eads set up his Tuft the World business and regularly shares tips and demos online on the company website and on platforms such as TikTok. Here he speaks to Lucy Upward about his discovery of tufting and the craft’s meteoric rise in popularity during the pandemic.
What inspired you to take your artwork into the realm of tufting? I’ve been around textile arts all my life. My family raised angora goats for mohair, my mom is an avid quilter, and I’ve worked in fibre arts since I moved to Philadelphia in 2009. That’s when I started working at The Fabric Workshop and Museum as a Project Manager helping other artists realise their artistic projects using sewing, felting, hair braiding, screen printing, and many other material processes.
Read the complete article here.
July 13, 2023
Eads uses the AI software DALL-E, similar to ChatGPT (they are made by the same company, OpenAI) to type in parameters for an image request. For example, Eads asked for a geometric pattern loosely based on paintings by Bridget Riley, the British artist known in the 1960s for creating optical effects with line patterns.
The software generates many versions of what it thinks Eads is asking for. He chose one of DALL-E’s images, a squared spiral in black. Its imperfectly aligned lines create a slightly dizzying effect.