'The technique of weaving' by J. Toovey,1975, 2nd edn.

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Type: Books
Date: 1965
Materials: Cardboard, Ink, Paper
Collection: Audrey McBurney collection
Accession number: AR00284.005

Description

A hardcover book with a book jacket titled 'The Technique of / Weaving / John Tovey'. The printed text on the front is in blue against an orange background. Also featured on the front is an image of blue and orange woven patterns within squares and rectangles. The book contains 128 pages, four coloured plates, 147 black and white photographs, 78 black and white diagrams, an appendix and an index.

This book was one of Audrey McBurney's key references in her weaving practice in the 1970s and 1980s.

About the collection

The Audrey McBurney collection comprises objects and supporting material which illustrate McBurney's career and achievements as a craftswoman in the mid- to late twentieth century. It includes needlework and crochet items such as d'oleys, aprons and a tea cosy; knitted clothing; examples of hand woven cloth, and one of the looms McBurney used; a hand-knitted Shetland lace shawl; knitted and crochet pieces made by two of McBurney's English and Scottish forebears; and sample and pattern books she compiled and collected. Born in 1924, McBurney learned craft techniques and absorbed traditions from several female relatives of earlier generations. She became exceptionally skilled at many forms of needle and fabric craft. As a young woman her work mostly consisted of knitted clothing, and embroidered and crocheted domestic linen. Later, McBurney took formal courses in spinning and weaving, and was able to produce her own hand-spun, hand-dyed and hand-woven cloth. She was an early member of several craft associations in Sydney, and taught handcraft techniques at tertiary level. In the 1980s she won prizes for pieces she entered in the Royal Easter Show in Sydney. The McBurney collection evidences the transmission of skill across continents, within families, and through networks operating within guilds-based and educational contexts.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:16:05 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2021-05-11. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.