Experience the ancient art of backstrap weaving in this hands-on workshop with artist Ilka White. You’ll create a beautiful woven band using just your body and simple tools. Explore pattern making, learn basic techniques, and connect with a textile tradition practiced across cultures for millennia.

→ Suitable for ages 14 and over
→ Suitable for beginners
→ All materials provided
→ 12 places available

About the artist

Ilka White lives in Djaara (Dja Dja Wurrung) Country, Central Victoria. Direct engagement with the natural world and a love for ‘primary’ skills inform the way she lives and makes.

Ilka taught Textile History, Weaving and Crafts in Society at RMIT University for many years and maintained a production studio before working throughout Australia as an independent artist, teacher, and facilitator. She has taken an immersive approach to making in communities and ecosystems across the continent and the Torres Strait and learned alongside traditional weavers in Indonesia, India, Nepal and Bhutan.

Ilka’s work has been published and exhibited in Australia and abroad for around 30 years. She is represented in public collections including the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
As a teacher, Ilka’s popular classes continue to reflect her appreciation for the potency of cloth and our responsibility as co-creators on this incredible, finite planet.

This workshop is held in conjunction with the exhibition Weaving matter: material experimentation, which runs to Sunday 16th February 2025.