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CRAFT | HERITAGE | ENVIRONMENT
Tea Bag Painting and Stitching
Nettles for Textiles: the Search for Sustainable Cloth 1
Pigments, Powder, Stones and Earth
ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019
Dear Readers,
Credits
Winter has already abandoned us! The last time I wrote to you it was November 2018. In September I had just given birth when I heard about the IPCC report on BBC news. I remember vividly how dark and desolate that morning felt. The report, co-written by over 90 scientists with references from over 6000 scientific papers, states that we must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees within the next 12 years if we don’t want the catastrophic impacts of climate change on the planet to be irreversible. This means that we must act now by implementing ‘rapid’, ‘far-reaching’ and ‘unprecedented’ changes at all levels of society and across all industries: agriculture, transport, infrastructure, energy, construction, lifestyle. After hearing this news, it was (and still is) difficult to switch off and go about daily life as normal. Indeed, more and more people are feeling the same. People have been mobilising. More and more, people are being vocal about climate change. Extinction Rebellion (XR) was founded in October 2018. It organised a number of high-profile protests and has since expanded dramatically. Also, many ‘Youth Strikes 4 Climate’, inspired by Greta Thunberg, have taken place on Fridays across the world. No Serial Number Magazine, with the nearly 200 like-minded eco-conscious artisans and enterprises that we have worked with in the past few years, has always known that radical change is needed to address the environmental crisis. Indeed, that’s why this magazine exists. Yet the gravity of this report hit us hard. After lots of soul-searching, we have therefore taken the difficult decision that No Serial Number Magazine will cease to exist under its current name after the Autumn Issue 2019. We will re-launch in Spring 2020 after the release of the Eco Print Workbook in Winter 2019. Sustainable artisanship, understood as making and trading the everyday stuff we need according to principles of social and environmental justice, represents for us a form of resistance against consumerism, unsustainable manufacturing, and air, soil and water pollution. This aspect of our work, in the form of artisan profiles and tutorials, will remain the same. However, we plan to expand our work to integrate more themes related to environmental activism and policy, because we need to stay informed and push for change holistically, at the individual, business and government levels. Sign up to the newsletter if you want to be kept up to date about the changes that will happen to No Serial Number Magazine after September 2019. I leave you to explore the many features of this issue on your own, from earth pigments to tea-bag painting and stitching, from botanical dyeing to digital printing, from jute to nettles, from willow to leather waste, new ways of shopping fashion, and our usual features on eco-friendly businesses. Until the summer,
Alessandra & NSN Team
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Editor Alessandra Palange Art Editor Francesca Palange NSN Italy Editor Rosa Rossi Translations Fuschia Hutton Advertising info@noserialnumber.org Cover Photos Image by Heidi Gustafson Graphic Content: Fonts by Creativeqube Design, By Lef Design, Mainfile, Freepik and desings by whiteheartdesign. Copyright All images are copyright protected and are the property of their respective makers/owners as detailed in each article and photo. No Serial Number Magazine is published four times a year. No responsability will be accepted for any errors or omissions, views expressed or comments by editors, writers or interviewees. No Serial Number Magazine makes all efforts to advertise products that are in accordance with its ethos. However, goods advertised are not necessarily endorsed by No Serial Number Magazine. Information is correct at the time of publication. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission. All prices are accurate at time of going to press but these may change at any time.
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No Serial Number Team ALESSANDRA, EDITOR
Being the editor of No Serial Number Magazine is a hobby for me, something that I do out of passion and with the belief that there are many things we can do to make the world a greener place, one of them is producing and consuming more responsibly as a society. If you’d like to propose a story for No Serial Number Magazine you can email me here: info@noserialnumber.org
FRANCESCA, ART EDITOR
After many years working as a retail manager in the fashion industry, I became more and more passionate about eco printing and graphic design, so much so that I am now in charge of the design of the magazine. You can contact me here info@noserialnumber.org
ROSA, NSN ITALY EDITOR
I am a retired Latin and Greek teacher and an avid knitter and crocheter. I have published school textbooks and work as a freelance writer for Pearson Italia. I am mainly in charge of finding eco-sustainable realities in Italy, where I am based, and writing about them. I also manage the Italian Blog of No Serial Number Magazine, so if you’re interested in No Serial Number Italia, please visit the blog it.noserialnumber.org or email me: noserialnumberitaly@gmail.com
Featured Contributors
Holly Foat
As a freelancer, I’m passionate about supporting the local community and helping local businesses. I also work in ethical marketing, and enjoy promoting sustainable living and blogging about it. I’m a craft and upcycling enthusiast, especially textiles, although I rarely find the time to create as my two young children keep me busy! Blog: www.noserialnumber.org/directory/author/holly-foat Facebook: @EthicalByHeart Twitter: @CaptainHolly
Paige Perillat-Piratoine
I am especially interested in growing the urban fabric. From urban agriculture to biomaterials, I work with projects that contribute to a more organic cityscape and report on the people that make the steps in that direction.
Kate Stuart
I’m a practising artist, writer, craftswoman and environmental activist based in the North East of England. I specialise in upcycling, zero waste living, quilting and painting with acrylic on canvas. Website: www.thephoenixgreenstore.org Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/uk/shopThePhoenixGreenStore Facebook and Instagram: @thephoenixgreenstore
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Contents TRADITIONAL ARTS, TRADES AND CRAFTS 6.
The Call of Creative Pathways: Styling The Stories With Kate Cullen
10 One Artist, Many Techniques: The Textiles .
of Christiana Vardakou
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Christiana Vardakou
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16. A Book of Recipes, Many Vegetable Colours, Wool and Fabrics: The History of Frome 20. Tea Bag Painting and Stitching
Lizzie Farey
26. Pigments, Powder, Stones and Earth 32. Jute, From the Field to the Studio Via the Garden Oversize Knee Patch Tutorial 36. Nettles for Textiles: Rediscovering Wild Fibre and the Search for Sustainable Cloth 42. From Baskets to Sculpture SUSTAINABLE FASHION 46. Footwear From Waste Leather 50. Sharing is the New Shopping: A Nu Age for Fashion UPCYCLING HUB 54. Garbage Turned to Treasure 60. Pebble, Sea Glass and Beach Rubbish
Kate Cullen
ZERO WASTE 66. Plastic Free Craft Campaign Spring Update 68. A Journey to Open a Zero Waste Shop
in
Ottowin Footwear
Cornwall
PROJECTS FOR THE PLANET
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PETITIONS Extinction Rebellion: Managing Social Change THE ECO CRAFTER AND ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
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Early Futures
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ABOUT
Each issue is created with love: love for our world heritage and love for the environment. We are really passionate about meeting creative people that put all their effort in combining these two elements - that’s why this magazine exists! In this day and age we desperately need to change the way we live, consume and produce. We hope that with this magazine we are contributing towards this goal. If you love what you see purchase today and help us grow and reach more people! www.noserialnumber.org
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Summer Issue 2019
OUT SUMMER 2019
www.noserialnumber.org
PINTEREST Follow our Pinterest boards for vintage fashion, traditional toys, natural colours, textile design, ecofriendly ideas & recommended books www.pinterest.com/ noserialnumber
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TRADITIONAL ARTS, TRADES & CRAFTS ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019
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The Call of Creative Pathways: Styling The Stories With Kate Cullen Interview by Kate Stuart Photography by Bowtie & Belle Photography I am often asked about my creative life by those interested in what I do, and yet every time, without exception, I pause before replying, trying to decide in that split second before the pause becomes uncomfortable, which part of my creativity to speak of first. There are many artistic paths I follow, and they all feel equally important. I imagine that many other artists feel the same, unable or unwilling to place the artistry that makes them who they are, into just one box. With a creative spirit, how do you choose just one discipline, just one story? And how do you resist the outside pressure to stick to just one path, when there are so many to explore?
the point where I could leave my day job and pursue my own business fully – and I’ve never been happier!” Beginning as a hire service for vintage tableware, and moving into styling weddings and events, Kate soon began adding her own creative flair with small artworks, hand-dyed ribbons and table linens. “Eight years on”, she tells me, “and I have added paper-making to my list of activities, alongside continuing to style not for weddings any longer, but for other creatives – designing and directing editorial brand shoots for them to show off their skills and get them the imagery their businesses deserve to take them forward. I adore working with other creative people – it’s an enormously rewarding job, so much so that I have created an online community of creative people – Nurture & Bloom - a group to inspire and support other people in the creative world.”
Kate Cullen is one creative who doesn’t get hemmed in by the expectations of others and has mastered both the art of listening to her heart and the courage to follow her own creative path, wherever that may lead her. From a young age, historical art and artefacts had always fascinated her, and led her path through a ten-year career in archaeology. Uncovering ancient stories long held safe in the earth and carrying them forward to new listeners brought her joy. But she never let go of the other parts of her creative self. “I don’t believe in putting myself, or other creative people into neat little boxes”, she explains. “I think most creative people are capable of doing a great many different art forms, and I see it as a strength not a weakness to show off all these different skills. I love learning new crafts and working in different mediums. I feel all these elements make my business offerings unique, and they all feed beautifully into one another too.”
Nurture and Bloom began as a way to bring creatives together, uniting people from across all creative disciplines – as Kate herself says, “to find a common purpose of support and to inspire each other. I have no agenda other than to create a community that supports and nurtures one another – there is so much negativity and comparison out there, especially in the online world, I wanted Nurture and Bloom to be a safe, joyful and enriching space where we can share
Kate is a creative stylist and designer, based in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK. A lover of natural dye techniques, vintage things and their lost stories, handmade paper, textiles and all things nature-based, the professional path she follows is tailored exactly to her passions - passions she attributes to her family background. “I’ve been very lucky”, she tells me, “that my family members have always been incredibly creative people and encouraged me to follow and try new art forms … my mother especially, who I always remember painting when we were on holidays when I was small. She also encouraged me to visit museums and art galleries and some of those visits have remained strong influences on my own work even today. My parents and grandparents are also keen gardeners and my grandmother especially has a great love of floral designs. My love for all things from nature and the great outdoors definitely came from them.” Kate’s creative career blossomed after her daughter was born. “Like many people”, she explains, “with the arrival of my daughter I wanted to find a new career that allowed me more flexibility, as well as satisfying my creative spirit. So I started up my business when she was very small and I was working part-time in an office job. Eventually it progressed to 7
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our work with each other without fear. A place to share and perhaps look a little more deeply at things – there is such a drive towards aesthetics over all else since the dawn of the Instagram world, and whilst I adore beautiful things, it is the stories that they represent that grab me – the soul of the person behind the art and their interpretation of the world around them.” As a creative who often finds her path muddled by the desire to make art in many different ways, this concept of a space for all is both refreshing and welcome to me. Being able to connect with others who feel the same and approach their creative life in similar ways can be invaluable to developing our artistic practice. “I strongly believe in the power of community!” Kate explains. “Of finding your tribe and feeding off each other’s experiences and talents – I always feel my best work has been as a result of collaborations – it pushes me to think even more creatively, to produce my very best, and most importantly to enjoy the processes fully. It can be hard being self-employed working alone, and the sense of teamwork and support is so vital in evaluating your successes.” Kate is always keen to engage whole heartedly in collaborative projects, telling me “I would love to be asked more about collaborating on creative projects with my dyes or paper-making – I love working with others and I would so love to be asked to combine skills with someone, or a team of people to create something unique. I will always say yes if I can to these types of art projects!” Kate has recently launched an ebook for creatives in business, and has been determined that it would be offered for free. The book is a taster of the content she shares in her Curated by Heart workshops, and her goal is to make it accessible to as many people as possible. “The free section [of Curated by Heart] is something I really wanted to share with as many people as possible,” Kate explains, “regardless of whether they attend one of my workshops or not. It tackles the core of why and how you have set up your businesses, delving into your true motivators and exploring how you can do the things that make you happy, as well as be financially stable. I hope that any creative in business can read it and find it useful, and even maybe re-examine their approaches to their business.” In terms of sustainability, Kate is very focused on how she can connect the stories of the resources she uses into her creative practice. “I try to source as much as I can locally”, she tells 8
NO SERIAL NUMBER me. “From responsibly foraging dye plants in the countryside around me, to ‘liberating’ some from my parents’ garden when I visit! I use vegetable dyes from our own patch and have also just begun growing a few selected other plants for dyeing myself and am hoping to be able to expand that in an allotment soon. I’ve even used waste from a florist friend down the road from me to do some lovely eco-printing - a great way to really make the most of every plant! Some non-UK plant materials I source from ethical wholesalers, and I avoid any strong chemical mordants, preferring natural substances where possible, as well as plants with natural tannins that don’t require mordanting. For my papers I source as much as I can from companies like Khadi Papers that support ethical, environmentally sound and Fairtrade practices. I have a long way to go but am constantly striving to make my business more sustainable in all areas, from packaging to materials, from using recyclable/recycled bags to paper tape and sustainably-grown wood reels.” Reflecting on everything weaves its way into her work - the wild treasures, the handmade cloths, the homegrown blooms. Kate has created an ever-evolving business ready to welcome all who may benefit from her skill of seeing the story so often hidden below all the layers of life, and reminds us that in our creative lives, we may be free to choose all the paths that call us.
R FIND IT ONLINE FB: @katecullenstyling IG: @katecullenstyle, @nurtureandbloom Twitter: @KateCullenStyle Pinterest: @katecullenstyle FB Group: @NurtureandBloom
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“Prolonging: Aegean Sea” naturally dyed silk fabric dyed with natural indigo, 2018 10
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One Artist, Many Techniques: The Textiles of Christiana Vardakou Interview by NSN Team Photography by Christiana Vardakou Christina was born in an environment filled with art. Surely in this environment lie the foundations that allowed her to grow as an artist. Here she tells us her artistic journey.
Hi Christiana, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to No Serial Number Magazine. We are so pleased to be showcasing your work. First of all, tell us something about your background.How did you become interested in textile design? I developed an appreciation of art and design from an early age. My parents both draw and paint, my father is an architect and my mum paints a lot in her free time. My sister also studied Fine Arts. Our house has always had tons of books about art and design for inspiration as well as prints and paintings decorating most walls. I have always loved drawing, but in my teenage years I started being interested in texture and shape. I wanted to create three-dimensional objects and pieces that could be used. I started thinking about fashion and textiles, and after a foundation course I decided that textiles were what I wanted to focus on. I could draw and print my drawings on different fabrics but I could also create textures and feels. You can do a bit of everything, and that’s what I like - how versatile textiles are, and the freedom I feel when creating them.
from dyeing textiles with chemical dyes is one of the substantial sources of severe pollution problems. Whereas disposing of natural dyes does not cause any problems — in Thailand they use the excess of the natural dyes to water their plants. The textile and fashion industry uses more water in its processes than any other industry apart from agriculture and it releases huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the environment every day. Working slowly, not following fastfashion cycles and being aware of what each technique does to the planet is what every designer should have in mind while designing and producing items. I see that in addition to working with botanical dyes and digital printing, you also work with screen-printing and batik. Is it possible to combine these techniques? Do you ever work with more than one of these techniques on the same piece? If so, can you describe some examples (preferably accompanied by photos)? I do really enjoy combining techniques, it’s something I’ve always done. I like drawing using watercolours and markers
You do both digital printing and botanical printing. Can you tell us, from an environmental perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each technique? In which situations would you prefer one over another? I enjoy working with both of these techniques. Digital printing allows me to transfer a drawing really easily onto fabric, whereas botanical printing and dyeing is so much fun and I love the colour possibilities, and the experimentation. However, they both have their limitations. Digital printing is quick and there is increased productivity (since the printer can always be printing) and that is why it is used in ‘Fast Fashion’ - it has a faster turnaround time compared to other print techniques. It is better for the environment compared to silk printing since it decreases industrial waste and print loss, and also doesn’t use as much water (just one wash after the design has been printed). My issue with digital printing is that even though it does not burden the environment as much as other techniques, it still supports the ethos of ‘Fast Fashion’ and quick disposal. However, I use it for some of my work. I work in a slow manner, and I would not print anything I didn’t have a purpose for or I wasn’t sure about. I use natural dyes to dye fabrics and sometimes to screen-print with. They are definitely better for us and our skin compared to synthetic dyes. Toxic dyes can make eczema worse, or even cause allergies. Natural dyes and organic fabrics are much better for our skin, letting it breathe. Also, the wastewater
Indigo Dye Vat, 22 years old vat, Houey Hong Voca-
ontional top, orCenter, acrylic paints with oil pastels. Vientiane, Laos 2018 11
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“Flux:Turn and Face the strange” batik piece, natural dye used: indigo (linen fabric) 2017 It’s the same with textile techniques. I have used botanical dyes to dye fabric and then mixed natural dyes with Indulca (a sticky clear substance that thickens our the dye and makes it stick on the fabric) to make a paste I can screen-print with. I haven’t combined screen-printing with batik; however, it is something I would like to try in the future.
I also learnt how to use a Wacom (an interactive pen) drawing directly on the computer. At the internship I used it to create prints straight away, choosing colours that the computer already has. I didn’t really like that, however I still use the Wacom pen to create black and white patterns for screenprinting. Finally, I like drawing with watercolours or even natural dyes, creating a watery effect. These digital prints have a more natural effect and are not as harsh as other prints.
For my project ‘Flux: Turn and Face the Strange’ I wanted to combine a traditional technique with a modern one. So I chose to combine digital printing with batik.
Tell us more about how you do botanical printing. Can you show us images of your botanically printed pieces and describe the plants, fabrics and techniques used? So many different natural materials can produce amazing colours. Kitchen waste, flowers and plants from the garden, fallen leaves, barks, roots found in a nearby forest or field — they make the most beautiful colour palette.
I first drew some landscapes inspired by Icelandic Mountains, using acrylic paints and oil pastels. I scanned them on my computer, removed some parts of the drawing (leaving white gaps), and then digitally printed them on fabric. After covering the print with wax, I dyed the fabric using a botanical dye, and then batiked some more parts, before dyeing it again using a different colour. This created many layers of colours. When I removed the wax, there was a nice mix of digital print and naturally dyed hand-drawn shapes, complementing the lines and shapes of the original print. When you work with digital printing, how do you paint the initial image? What kind of paints do you use and why? I really like working with different media. I used to only work with acrylics and oil pastels. That way I could do a lot of layering, and have a lot of different hues of a colour in one shape while at the same time build texture.
Dyeing with botanical dyes is a constant experimentation and there is always a pleasant surprise, and that is what I like the most. Changing the amounts of water or dyestuff, changing the amount of time the fabric or yarn is in a dye, these are all factors that affect the final colour. Mordants also change colours. Two plants within the same species might produce different colour hues depending on their age, soil or even weather conditions! Also, over-dyeing with two or more dyes again creates completely different colours. The possibilities are therefore endless.
However, two years ago I did an internship at a print studio in London and there I started using markers, for quicker sketches with no layering. The prints are bolder this way, creating a different effect, which is often used in fashion.
While I lived in London I used a lot of things from my kitchen such as pomegranate skins, avocado pits and stones and onion skins. I also ordered some natural dyes online to use and experiment with. Some of my favourites are logwood 12
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“Flux:Turn and Face the strange” digitally printed and then batiked and naturally dyed pieces, natural dyes used: indigo, madder, fustic chips, marigold flowers, heather flowers (silk/cotton fabric) 2017 (deep purple), madder (pinks, oranges and reds), cutch (browns) and heather flowers (ochre). I always use un-dyed (not bleached or white-dyed) 100 % organic fabrics. Linen, cotton, silk, organza, hemp, wool or muslin. I also really enjoy using natural indigo, which has a very different process to other dyes. With indigo, the colour deepens and darkens according to how many times you take it out of the vat and put it in again. This is because it works with oxidation - for the fabric to become darker it has to be oxidised more times. I was very lucky to experience the whole indigo vat-making while I was in Thailand - we harvested the indigo plant and prepared the vat from start to finish. It is a very long process that takes up to two weeks before the vat is ready to be used for dyeing. I’ve written more about this on my blog.
countries of south-east Asia) or ebony. I will be sharing those recipes on my blog. There are so many recipes and so many things to learn about natural dyeing, I keep reading books and blog posts about dyeing in different cultures. I am hoping to travel more in the next few years and learn more about traditional dyeing methods as well as create my own recipes using plants found in Greece. I see in your work “Prolonging 2018” that you have applied Jonathan Chapman’s idea of Emotionally Durable Design in your work. Can you tell us more about this concept? How does it translate into practice? Could this idea be used to reduce the attraction of fast consumption? Emotionally durable design is a theory I came across during my second year in university. It’s a theory I agree with and one that I would like to use in my everyday practice. It explores the idea of creating a deeper and more sustainable bond between people and material items.
I feel like I learnt the most about natural dyeing when I was in Laos. There my teacher and I went foraging to pick up different dyestuff. I loved doing this — it really made me connect with the plants and nature. My teacher had a very specific way of dyeing. For 1kg of fabric/yarn he used 2 kg of fresh dyestuff, or 5kg if the dyestuff was dry. We boiled half the dyestuff for half an hour, then added the other half and boiled again for half an hour. Then we would remove the dyestuff with a sieve and add the skeins of yarn to the dye. We would let them simmer for one hour. After that, we would remove them, wash them, and put them into an alum or iron and vinegar solution for 20 minutes. After that we would wash them again before adding them back to the dye for another hour. We would wash them and hang them out to dry. While I was there I learnt how to dye with 14 different plants some of them have very different recipes, like sticklac (lac is an insect which secretes resin - this is used for dyeing in
I do this — I form relationships with items I own, either because they are a present from a loved one, something I bought from a trip somewhere, or something I or someone else made by hand. These objects bring back memories, I feel attached to them, and I take care of them. They are the things I would mend and that I would like to keep and pass on. The aim of this theory is exactly that, to reduce consumption and waste by creating relationships between consumers and products. For items to become part of you and your life, to become heirlooms that will be passed on. It goes against the throw-away culture created because of fast fashion and trends. 13
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Naturally dyed skeins left to right: cotton dyed with coconut, cotton dyed with jackfruit, silk dyed with jackfruit, silk dyed with indigo and over-dyed with jackfruit, cotton dyed with indigo and over-dyed with jackfruit, cotton and silk dyed with onion skins and alum mordant. Houey Hong Vocational Center, Vientiane, Laos 2018
Backstrap weaving, natural dyed cotton, Studio Naenna, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2018 (photo taken by Studio Naenna staff)
“Prolonging: Spring Meadows� naturally dyed fabrics left to right: organza with logwood, cotton with cutch, undyed cotton, organza with cutch. 14
NO SERIAL NUMBER I think handmade items are the best way to put this theory into practice. Knowing who made the item, how, with what materials, is something that could make consumers prefer this item to something found in a fast-fashion (or homeware) shop. Handmade objects are unique and one of a kind and knowing that no-one will have the exact same object as you is something that makes you want to take more care of it, instead of disposing it because of the new trend.
environmental impacts of fashion and textiles. This was one of my favourite projects in university since it allowed me to really focus on one technique - naturally dyeing - but at the same try to convey how amazing working with botanical dyes is. I do see myself as a design activist. I want to create beautiful items that customers will cherish, but at the same time, I want to be transparent with my process. I want the customers to understand how much time and love goes into one product. I also want to organise workshops where I will teach different techniques I use. I think being sustainable and eco-friendly is the only way forward right now and I want to be one of the designers that help show this to the society.
Of course, handmade objects and most objects created with sustainability in mind or slow designing methods will be expensive. However, I think if designers are open and transparent about their process and make sure to show how much love, time and effort has been put into making something, maybe consumers would choose one item like this rather than five items from a fast fashion retailer. Most importantly though, to reduce the attraction of fast consumption what is needed is education. People should learn about these things from a young age, they should know what this industry is doing to the planet, as well as how much time and what is needed to make something. We shouldn’t just see items as something that magically appears on a shop’s shelf.
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In your website you mention a project that you did in 2017, where you looked at 10 strategies for a sustainable future (www.tedresearch.net/teds-ten) and looked especially at the tenth strategy, “Design activism”, by making a book about botanical dyes. What is ‘design activism’ and what do design activists hope to achieve? For me, ‘Design Activism’ is about designers putting products on the side and working with consumers and the society in order to make a change. It is about events, presentations, workshops and education. It is about communicating with customers in order to increase knowledge about the
Website: FB: @ChristianaVardakouDesigns IG: @christiana_vardakou
Marigold Flowers and Ebony fruits to be used for dyeing, Houey Hong Vocational Center, Vientiane, Laos 2018
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A Book of Recipes, Many Vegetable Colours, Wool and Fabrics: The History of Frome Interview by Rosa Rossi Photography provided by Carolyn Griffiths When we prepared this questionnaire for Carolyn Griffiths, we had already experimented a bit with woad. We participated in a wool-dyeing course near our headquarters in Navelli, near L’Aquila, in Italy. We also took an eco-print course at the Lago Lungo and Lago Ripasottile Nature Reserve in Rieti, also in central Italy.In the wool-dyeing course, we watched first-hand as a skein of wool turned blue the moment it emerged from the dye bath. In the eco-print course, we spoke to Alberto Lelli, who collaborated with the Reserve to rediscover the local tradition of dyeing with woad. There is evidence of its use since the 14th century, but it sadly declined over time. The sides of the roads and fields in this region bloom yellow with woad plants, testimony to its past use as an indigo dye. We planted it in the dye garden of our Italian headquarters, as part of the Coltivare il Colore (Cultivate Colour) project, which started in Lake Como. When we discovered Carolyn Griffiths’ book through Instagram, we couldn’t resist it. We just had to find out more about the story’s beginnings and backdrop, and how she is helping keep her community’s traditions alive. The book reconstructs the much-documented history of Frome, Somerset. From the 14th century, the main occupation had been sheep-rearing and wool production. This involved shearing, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and selling and sending the textiles via London. Carolyn pieced together this story after discovering an old eighteenth-century dye recipe book. Local interest and the work of the Frome Society for Local Study meant she was able to publish her research. Passion and curiosity, along with her new status as a retiree (which meant she had time on her hands) allowed her to dedicate herself to this valuable reconstructive work. With an abundance of facts and details, she tells the story of dye and textiles before the second half of the nineteenth century, when this industry experienced huge changes. Her answers are a valuable testament to how important research is not only to a community’s history and sense of belonging, but also in reviving the old dye tradition so we can reflect on current industrial textile processes.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. I’d like to first ask you, how would you like to introduce yourself and your artistic/craft work? I am happily retired, so I am lucky to have the time to explore any opportunity that comes my way. However, for many years, having a presence on the internet and now social media has led me to receive diverse enquiries and projects. To give you an idea: could I please make 400 fused-glass Christmas cards; would I consider mentoring degree students; and just recently I was asked if I could dye material with indigo for a wedding dress. Artistically, my working time involved teaching stained and fused art glass and later with the use of recycled glass and copper that would turn lovely shades of blue and red.
as woaded when it was dyed to a particular shade of blue, before being overdyed to create compound colours. Elizabethan laws were enacted to ensure that wool cloth was first dyed with woad to then produce a fast black. From 1577, indigo from indigofera started to supersede woad, but like so many trades, the natural commercial dyers retained their own jargon which probably lasted for as long as the industry existed. Which path led you to undertake the research that is at the base of this book? Was it a casual encounter or was it born of a professional interest? It was not a professional interest. I find, like many others that once my curiosity is piqued, if possible, I like to understand all the whys and wherefores. Maybe it stems from childhood - we all know and love children who constantly ask ‘but why?’ So research has always fascinated me.Even though it raises more questions, it also provided some of the answers.
These days, I live in Frome where we are privileged to have a Guild of Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing with a large rented workspace that enables us to weave each week. So, following an injury, I decided to give it a try. As with learning most artisanal craft, it has been good to take the time to think about the history, and how it is reflected in the present. To not only think of who and how our clothes are made but also how and even why they were coloured. My favourite colour has always been blue, so I became fascinated with woad, Isatis tinctoria, a plant that produces bright yellow flowers, lime green seeds that turn blue black, and with different methods, the most amazing indigo blue pigment can be extracted.
Were you already interested in natural dyes before you embarked upon this journey or did the discovery of the recipe book happen for other reasons? We had moved to Frome in Somerset about 15 years ago and lived along a road running along the river. Each day, I walked past ‘The Blue House’, formerly an alms house for elderly women that was jointly run with a ‘blue school’, so-named because of the blue uniforms of charity and humility that were worn by the boys. The women were also given a new blue gown every two years. So, was this cloth made in Frome? And, just as importantly, was it dyed in Frome?
We are not first-language English speakers so I’d like to ask first, can you explain the story behind the book title, ‘Woad to This’? Is it a play on words? How did you come up with this name? The name of my book ‘Woad to This’ is one of those little snippets of information to puzzle over. It was the directive given to the dyers working in this area in the 18th century, but it probably originated much earlier. A cloth was described
Writing a book like ‘Woad to This’ represents a remarkable personal and professional commitment. Did you find support for the research and writing phases? From which institution(s) and for what purposes? I think that the answer to this, in all honesty, was foolishness 17
ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019 and naivety. Sadly as an independent researcher it is virtually impossible to access academic archives without paying subscription fees, so there are tantalising leads that cannot be easily pursued. Local and national archives are amazing resources and I would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to go and visit. The privilege of being able to touch and read the most amazing documents brings history to life, it makes you feel connected to the past and provides an understanding of where we are now. As a local organisation, the Frome Society for Local Study have generously supported the printing of my book. Is Frome your native town? Is the culture of dyeing with woad still a part of this community? I am not native to Frome, but my research has emphasised how much and how far people travelled from a very early age without the benefit of cars and computers! Towns increase and decrease according to the opportunity to find work. Until the 19th century the rule of primogeniture prevailed. The eldest son inherited the estate, daughters were married to men who could further the business, and younger sons had to go out and make their own way. The parish records this information in examples of settlement examinations, so the French and Dutch were in Frome, and a local man, John Coward, went to teach cloth-making in Italy and others learnt the trade abroad and returned with new methods. Like elsewhere, natural dyeing has had a resurgence on a small scale. It would be very exciting to initiate a project to grow woad as a crop once again, so if anyone is interested please get in touch. How much has the writing of this book allowed for interaction between theory and practice? Can you give some examples? It has been great fun to put theory into practice. I would recommend, if possible, that natural dyers organise community vats, seeing and sharing with people of all ages the history and magic of indigo is so special. I was fortunate to organise a talk by Dr David Hill, Dr Jenny Balfour Paul and to show a screening of the stunning Mary Vance film. I have found it amazing that the heritage of a whole town was primarily brought about by the production of woollen cloth and dyeing the blues, and that the legacy of merchant law, banking and insurance for the whole country would not have happened without wool. Are there any other projects currently in the pipeline related to this book? If so, what kind? Last summer I organised an exhibition to showcase the cloth trade of Frome. It was held in the 18th century drying stove building, which was so evocative as the stone walls echoed of the past. Visitors were offered the opportunity to try weaving on a floor loom, we held several short natural dyeing sessions for children, and crafters connected on Instagram provided their own little hand-dyed treasures for my 2018 sample book. This year there are some smaller events being organised such as creative walks with Christina, that will combine walking with looking and drawing. I will also be participating in the town annual seed swap, where I hope to encourage people to grow woad with the idea of organising another community indigo vat. You mentioned your book is doing very well. What kind of audience is reading your book? It is very rewarding to have a book that appeals to a wide range of readers, but of course as soon as you mention indigo... What I thought would just be of local interest has appealed to people all around the world, natural dyers of course, but also academics, industrial archaeologists, architects, textile historians and conservationists. This is 18
NO SERIAL NUMBER possibly because of the social history of the pre-industrial era, but also the international importance of the dyed-in-the-wool samples that have retained their colour for 300 years. Have you had the opportunity to verify how much interest there is for plant dyes - with woad in particular - historical as well as practical? There is increased interest in finding alternative solutions to the pollution and lack of sustainability of the commercial dyeing industry. Plant dyes can offer a renewable resource for colour, but understanding the historical context is very important. In Elizabethan times laws were enacted to license the growing of woad and other commodities which at times were grown to the exclusion of food. The exploitation of labour and the slave trade underpinned the wealth derived, in particular, from indigo, and these issues still have considerable relevance today. It is easy to find out how to use natural dyes on the internet, short workshops and books, but more difficult to understand, appreciate and respect the cultural identity and importance associated with natural dyes in their native habitat. There are very few, if any, accredited programs for the in-depth study of natural dyes in the UK. The Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers offers a two-year self study certificate, but it would be wonderful for other programs to be initiated. Do you have a follow-up to your research? Can you give us an anticipation? I loved the research, and I am still intrigued by all these one sided ‘conversations’ that are uncovered in historical documents from court cases, newspapers, wills and correspondence. This year, however, I would like to spend more time on the practical aspects of growing and dyeing with woad, as I am continuously amazed at the colours produced commercially by eighteenth-century dyers.
R FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.woadtothis.com www.fromesociety.wordpress.com FB: @Woadtothis IG: @indigo_woad_to_this 19
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Tea Bag Painting and Stitching Laura Davies is mixed-media eco artist living a slow-lane life in her eco-friendly Earthship in southern Spain. Formally trained in graphic design at Reading Art College, Laura enjoyed over 20 years in the profession before transferring to fine art and Spain in 2002. Since then her ecological ideals and creative skills have led her and her partner to build their eco-friendly Earthship and nature reserve in the wilds of Andalucia. Her studio is based here and is where she creates her abstracted microworlds inspired by nature and infused with positive energy to protect the wilds. She chooses media and materials that are as eco-friendly as possible: starting with watercolours and traditional gouache, she paints onto tea bags, then builds up the piece using various elements and techniques including embroidery, fabrics, crochet and fragments collected from nature.
Not all tea bags are created the same... It’s surprising how quickly even one or two cups of tea a day can build up a mountain of bags, even if you’re like us and use a bag for multiple cuppas. When I saw all this free ‘art paper’ going in the compost, and then realised that some don’t break down very well because of their dreaded plastic content, I knew I had to utilize them. I buy a varied selection of teas, some Spanish brands as well as UK, and find it amazing how different the paper can be between brands. There are some that I really love to painton (drink more of those!) and some that don’t take colour at all. Also, some have nifty mechanisms that make it possible to open them out completely flat, whereas others need to be slit open with a craft knife to get the leaves out. So it’s worth experimenting with the tea bags - you have to see which you prefer.
Tea bags are porous by design and can be tricky to paint onto so I’ve tried all sorts of ways to prime the surface to make the colour more stable while painting. But after all that experimenting, my preferred way is no primer at all! And if I’m using bags opened out into a single sheet (my Tea Bag Botanicals onto chamomile tea bags are done this way), I do the painting onto the single sheet first, then glue another tea bag onto the back with a no-solvent eco glue stick. This gives it strength and opacity as a finish without the bottom sheet of paper drawing colour from the top while you’re painting. You could also glue the single sheet painting onto a different backing. I’ve used up-cycled cardboard and paper - each gives a different finish and feel to the painting depending on its colour. Apply the glue to the non-painted surface though or you could ruin all your hard work. I’ve also looked at ways of sticking the opened-out bags together to make larger sheets of paper. I was really into rice glue at one point, for its eco credentials and the thick grainy paper it created. But then I splashed on the watercolours and the sheets started to come apart, which kinda freaked me out. Actually it’s not too bad because they stick back together again, but it can be a little disconcerting and unpredictable to work with!
The initial sketch
You also need to consider what tea or herb was in the bag. Some hold their colour really well whereas others fade quickly. For instance I adore Heath & Heather Blackcurrant tea and when fresh the tea bags are a fabulous deep pink colour. But left in the light for even a short time this colour fades quite substantially. So if you base your painting around the bag colour, in a few weeks it could be completely different. If you’re not familiar with natural dyeing and don’t know which colours are more light-fast than others it would be a good idea to leave your tea bag paper in a light place for a week or two so you can see what happens to the colour. Once I’ve emptied out the leaves for
the compost I iron them and store in folders. The piece I’m demonstrating here has been carefully ripped open to give an interesting shape, then ironed.
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Composition paper white, so will need to use a white watercolour paint for highlight and opaque areas.I sometimes also use gouache as it’s naturally more opaque. Choose traditional gouache paints that don’t contain acrylic (plastic). Then when it dries on your palette it can be reworked, unlike acrylic gouache which is set when dry and has to be thrown away. Okay, back to watercolours. With my Botanicals series I can do up to 5 or 6 (or 8) passes of colour, leaving it to dry inbetween and refining the detail on each pass. I use a looser technique for the first layer of the Spanish Landscape series, but also do 5 or 6 passes to get the depth, intensity of colour and detail I like.
Working on tea bags is such fine work that, for me, working plein air or from a live flower just doesn’t give me the time I need to finish the work to the detail I’m looking for – I would literally be left sitting in the dark or in front of a dead flower. I also enjoy the sense of peace that working from a photo gives me.I’m always taking photos for reference, when I’m out on my walks, driving down the tracks to the local village or during seasonal events like the almond blossom in February. I have so many that they could keep me going for years! I believe composition is one of the most important elements that make a painting unique to an artist, so copying someone else’s photos is just plain wrong. If I do need to use someone else’s photo (for my Big Cats series, for instance, where I don’t have access to snow leopards and tigers!), I make sure not to directly copy their composition and try and use multiple photos to create my own take on the subject – and, of course, ask their permission.
Slow stitching Slow stitching is a form of meditation for me. I love it. It’s also when I do my Creative Intending Technique as the repetition and slowness of hand stitching lend themselves very well to this. I use only a few favourite embroidery stitches as I like to keep things simple – so French knots, running stitch, feather stitch and a simple edging stitch are my favourites at the moment. But I do tend to freestyle quite a bit as well as it gives a more painterly finish. The main thing is choosing the right thread and having an extra fine needle – oh, and strong glasses or a magnifying glass! I use cotton sewing thread and/or a single or double strand of embroidery silk. Most of my threads are hand-medowns or bought in charity shops - it’s surprising what great supplies you can find in these Aladdin’s caves.
Sketching in Whether I use a pencil or black fine-liner to make my initial sketch depends on the subject. Some call for the gentler appearance of pencil, most of which disappears at the painting stage. I use a highly sharpened 6 or 7B as this leaves enough of a mark on the delicate paper without having to press too hard and tearing it. Sometimes it’s really nice to have a black outline, in which case I use a simple water resistant fine-liner, a .2 or .8 again depending on the subject and amount of detail and delicacy I want to project. I’ve used water-soluble ones before, which are ok, but do bleed when you apply the paint. Sometimes this can have a nice effect, other times it can ruin the whole piece!
Final tweaks As with any painting the final tweaks can really add depth and focus to a piece. I normally leave it pegged up beside my desk for a day or two so I can see it often. This gives me time to sense what else needs doing - does it need one more French knot? Could a patch of colour have another layer to bring it up a bit? Turning it upside down can sometimes help me see where something needs adjusting.
Building up layers of colour
Tea Bag Botanicals and Spanish - Landscapes series worked onto a variety of different types of tea bags
Using watercolour paints as opposed to acrylics is important to me because of their natural, eco-friendly nature. But they do bleed quite a bit on tea bags and need many layers and a slow hand to build up a depth of colour. And because of the tea-stained colour on the tea bag you don’t have a
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Time for tea 1.
This micro landscape - Memories of Spring - is one of the Fragments of Spain seriesusing Clipper Organic Redbush tea bags torn open and ironed before use. It captures a moment in Spring 2017 when our earthship was surrounded by poppies and yellow flowering Anthyllis cytisoides (albaida).
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Working from a reference photo and using a 6B pencil, I sketch in the main elements of the composition, using the rule of thirds (roughly) to place my main focal point. I work from photos on my computer screen as I don’t want to be printing unnecessarily. Even though our earthship is the main focus I’ve decided to make the flowers in the foreground the secondary focus and the elements I’ll stitch flowers and foliage tend to work better for this.
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I then used a .2 waterproof fine-liner to outline elements I want to have more definition. You’ll see I haven’t outlined everything as I want the foliage to have soft edges.
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Switching to watercolours and gouache I do a first pass of colour, usually starting with the sky and a number 12 brush. Sometimes I’ll do this upside down as it helps me get the colour into the mountain outline without it sneaking into the mountains themselves. You’ll see in the photo that colour bleeds through the tea bag. To stop this happening I’ll sometimes lift the tea bag off the support. You’ll need to hold it up while it’s drying too. You can see how transparent and fine the paper is in this next photo.
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Leave to dry, then do a second pass to block in other areas and add more variation of colour and detail to areas already painted.
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Once dry a third pass can be made. I work into the darks and start adding white gouache to the areas I want highlighted. Be patient and don’t skip the drying stages in between passes or you’ll end up with colours bleeding into each other.
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You can keep repeating this process until you’re happy. I tend to paint even the areas I know will be stitched. It normally takes me up to 6 passes to reach a point where I’m ready to move to the next stage.
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Using an ultra-fine needle and sewing thread , I start to make French knots using one loop around for the smaller flowers and two for the larger, maybe even going up to three or four depending on the piece. I’m incredibly gentle when stitching onto single layer bags - it’s too easy to rip the paper with an errant tug. I’m also careful to think about where to start and finish stitching, trying to reduce the amount of space between stitches on the back – if you jump around and cross large areas your back stitching may show through. I hope you enjoyed this introduction to watercolour tea bag paintings with stitch (I really need a shorter description for this - any ideas?!). These micro paintings look great framed in a conventional frame – I like using charity shop frames spruced up with a lick of paint. But as you can see in the In My Backyard series on my website, I do take these paintings to another level where I mount onto fabrics and layer up all sorts of up-cycled and natural finds to create a larger wall hanging. These go through a slightly different and longer preparation process, but that’s another story…
R FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.lauradaviesart.co.uk FB: @lauradaviesart IG: @lauradaviesart Twitter: lauradaviesart Pinterest: @lauradaviesart
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Second pass with watercolour and gouache
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Third pass
Memories of Spring finished piece 24
Keep going!
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It can take up to 6 or 7 passes of colour before I’m ready to move onto stitching
French knot lover
You can buy art from her website shop. International shipping included for readers of NSN Magazine. Use code: ‘NSNreader’ when placing your order.
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Pigments, Powder, Stones and Earth Interview by Paige Perillat-Piratoine Photography by Heidi Gustafson
If you open the Early Futures website you will be immediately blown away. Why? Just a full page of mesmerising pigments in powder form, which if you look long enough come to represent in your mind the colours of earth. In this article we interview Heidi Gustafson to learn more about this ambitious project. Hi Heidi, I can see you studied forensic art/science and have an MA in Philosophy and Religion. Those are very interesting subjects. What did each of them teach you about your current practice? I think the common thread between these two is intensive field work that reveals what is hidden in plain sight. In forensic science, it’s death - or corpse-oriented: piecing together details of a crime scene, identifying the criminal or their behaviors, uncovering the identity of a skeleton, or the reason behind a death. In philosophy and religion (inside of which I studied natural philosophy – philosophy and religion interested in thinking with nature), it’s arguably life- or ‘consciousness’-oriented: getting to the heart of what is here, what makes things feel alive, how do we discover meaning, based on contemplating and observing natural (which is also mental or internal) phenomena.
when you actually read or listen to the primary texts. For example, the reality of angels. What’s that? Or a ‘chi’ pulsing through everything. What’s that? I think aside from religion and philosophical traditions there are the sciences, arts, literary lineages and many other ways of exploring existence openly, and letting all experiences count equally as sources of meaning and inspiration. I found that a lot of philosophy and religion, especially feminist or transhumanist revisionings, can totally support practices in being as compassionate with non-human beings – whether that’s stones, deities, angels, Allah, landforms or words, precious gold-leafed books - as you are about human beings. And of course, in the history of religion, and also philosophy, minerals and stones play a kind of subversive, oracular and magical role - an obvious one being Adam, from the Hebrew ‘dm, which harkens back to ‘red soil’ or ‘red earth’ (i.e. red ochre or iron-rich earth). ‘dm is also carried forward in the words for silence, blood, humankind…
So both taught me different ways of deep observation, finding meaningful stories in a field of abstract fragments or concepts, and maybe most importantly, taught me to build curiosity around what’s at the heart of life-force. And what’s in the hearth of death. And… what we do in between.
You focus especially on iron-rich pigments, is that right? Or would you say your focus is on ochre? Or is it on mineral pigments in general? (I avidly read your website - it is so new and interesting to me - but I couldn’t make out exactly what you do; perhaps it changes a lot?)
What did you learn in university and what did you learn yourself? How does one learn about the history and making of pigments? I didn’t learn anything about earth pigments directly in any of my education that I recall! Not even at art school. Kind of ridiculous. All of my knowledge about ochres, mineral pigments and geology came from experience with the stones and soils, working with researchers, solitary or hermit teachers, elders etc., dreamwork, intensive interdisciplinary research, and visioning/meditation practices.
My focus is on ochres, which, as a pigment material, are most generally defined as iron-rich minerals that include the elements iron (Fe) and oxygen (O) plus or minus other stuff, like clay. Thus my personal focus is really on iron and its diverse manifestations. Iron is an endlessly radical teacher to me. In terms of ochre, though, it can be a bit confusing! The word “ochre” linguistically means “light” or “yellow”, but that has very little to do with what an ochre pigment actually is. You can have red ochre (iron oxide), green ochre (ferromagnesian silicate), blue ochre (iron phosphate), and, of course, yellow ochre (limonite, goethite) etc. That said, I study non-iron mineral pigments too, like red cinnabar (mercury sulfide), because they sometimes show up in the same places as ochre, and are sometimes confused for them in archeological or artistic records. It’s important to understand all the lookalikes in order to correctly identify and work with the ironbased material.
However, I learned how to be a multi-disciplinary researcher. And I was introduced to the works of some influential ecological artists, philosophers and psychologists that were important to me, especially one of my favorite mineral advocates, Gaston Bachelard. How important are philosophy and religion in that mix? Important. Important though to revision them as ecological. That is to say, how can they most be of benefit to beings on earth and Earth itself? For me, what is key is finding traditions that make sense to you and help you to recognize your capacities for deep compassion towards others, where ‘others’ includes a pretty radical and interstellar meaning of what constitutes another being. A lot of philosophy and religion do have some pretty crazy crazy things going on
Why is that your focus? What inspired you to go in that direction? I went in this direction from the experience of powerful 27
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images in meditation and dreams which led me to discover actual ancient ochre quarries in waking life. I was called to this work from inside out. Then, after years of research and experience with ochre after these initial experiences, it’s become clearer and clearer to me that it is an essential creative material for humans during this current era of radical transformation and climate change due to human activity.
bleeds,’ and is more generally our oldest creative tool, as well as a tool used in burials (i.e. where vultures fly). It was shocking to slowly come to realize that my dream had landed me in this hidden ochre quarry. But as I spent more time there, I began to understand the connection between ochre and ‘imaginal realms’ – it began to make more sense. In a way, ochres want to help make imaginal realms come to life. They sort of taught me that by coming first in visions and a dream, then later in material reality.
Maybe I will share a little bit more about about the dream that lead to the quarry, so you can get a better sense. While living in Oakland, California after grad school, I had a very vivid dream of walking down a path with special metallic rocks. It was so simple and very precise. And I felt when I woke up it might be an actual place.
Can you describe to us the full range of projects you might have in a year? Hmmm - it changes all the time as my practice transforms and becomes more public. Many of my projects are simply open conversations and sharing of knowledge with citizens and researchers in the field of ochre, iron oxide, soil, art, natural pigment and remediation.
In some kind of post-dream divinatory hunch, I found on a satellite map a place that stood out to me. An old defunct area and abandoned parking lot in the Oakland hills. I went there to explore. I found a trail at the side of a crappy junkyard. As soon as I began to walk down the trail, immediately I was reliving the dream, exactly. Two huge vultures flew by, just as in the dream. I think I definitely started crying. It was such a surreal, intense experience, and yet it was absolutely simple. I was walking a path by these rocks, it was a hill of old mine tailings – they were exactly the same as I saw in the dream, and it felt even more real than real in a way.
Some projects are making highly customised, personal pigments for artists based on their visions and needs. Often people write me letters about their practice, or some relationship with a place, and I work on making a reconnection point for them through pigment. Other projects range in applications from topical application research, conservation of artifacts, researching new sensor technology for field analysis of pigmented objects, to testing novel applications for wastewater pigments, helping assess possible pigment sites for people in various countries, and foraging for specific materials in a landscape. I also review people’s new research. I do weird experiments with materials
It turns out, this dream-discovered place was the center of one of the largest, mostly destroyed, ancient indigenous, sacred, red ochre quarries in Northern California. It would have been a sacred material and sacred place to the Ohlone. The metallic rocks were hematite (iron oxide), the ‘stone that 28
NO SERIAL NUMBER late at night with NTS radio on ambient freakishness. I sometimes do very little but sit with a single stone for multiple sessions in a week. I catalogue and write information down about material that is sent to my archive. So -many different things! I am also a practising artist, so I also make my own work with the materials I forage and archive. Most of this is emotional processing of things I can’t hold on my own. These ochres are really supportive holders of things that are hard to let go of.
someone says “oh, go to this creek xyz, somebody said there was hematite”. Once there (and this would be the same for intuitive and spontaneous foraging), I spend time in the land in different ways. I get down on my hands and knees. I touch things, I smell them, I might walk barefoot; in short, I interact. Primarily I’m listening with many senses. And being present and sensitive with as many of these senses as possible, including our ‘sixth’ senses and ones that help connect to imaginal realms. I observe the flora and fauna, animals, smells, rocks of course, humans, habitats, water sources, possible binder sources, mycological presence etc.
What are you currently working on? A book on foraging mineral pigments and my ongoing Ochre Archive project are the two major ones. Within the ochre research work, I’ve got a handful of collaborative projects in the works that utilize this material in healing practices, not just as paint or artistic material.
I usually only collect a few rocks or handfuls of material the first few times I visit a place, to see how they react to being taken out of their home environment. Or I don’t even collect anything, I just explore the material in the landscape and make a note of it, in case the time arises when I need to explore it further.
What are some of your favorite places to forage for pigments? Abandoned mountain mining landscapes, coastal beaches and wasteland or midden areas. I like rubble and ruins and disturbed landscapes. And of course, my main, more secret, teacher sites, which are powerful red ochre shrinelands.
In the studio, the materials end up in different places depending on what I feel to do with them. It’s too detailed and very private, internal and meditative a practice to convey here. But essentially, the materials go places and I work with them as I and they feel ready, or as needed for research (for example, I’ll immediately work with a material if I was foraging for a specific intention, like finding a source deposit of a particular mineral).
If you are willing to share with our readers, we would love an in-depth description of the step-by-step process of how you make a pigment. Do you go into the land knowing what you are searching for? How much do you collect? What is the process of transformation in your studio? How does the whole journey feel? What are the challenges and rewards of it? It’ll be difficult to convey here in detail, but I’ll try to cover the basics! First, here’s a few key kinds of foraging: Intentional foraging – going to a place you have researched ahead of time, on some level. Intuitive foraging – going to a place you feel drawn to that you do not know anything about. Spontaneous foraging – exploring a landscape you already find yourself in.
The whole process is a very confusing, non-linear, and a long and often disorienting process, with many surprises and teachings along the way. The opposite of “streamlined”. I think the main challenge out of all of this is dealing with the tension between the deeply solitary work I do in the landscape and in my studio with the stones, and the equally deep yearning to share this work with people, and especially to be able to find the right ‘match or resonance’ between a pigment material and an individual person, artist or practitioner who feels called to work directly and integrally with their material resources. You prefer to grind pigment with mortar and pestle rather than machines. Why is that? It’s more personal. My body and my hands are already
When I am doing intentional foraging, then I have researched a particular landscape I want to go build a relationship with. That research can have many steps, or it can simply be that
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excellent tools and create material at the scale and amount that I can handle. Machines are for commercial-scale practices, plus they are expensive. More importantly for me, processing by hand gives me an intimate relationship with the material, allows me to experience the material’s vital impulse, create diverse particle sizes which can retain the unique behavior and personalities of each stone, and allows me to stop if I notice a stone is resistant to being crushed or worked. Also, nuance. You can’t begin to understand the nuances within a single deposit if you are using a commercialscale machine. It makes the practice of creating art material more tender, more relational. Plus it costs very little, except the wear and tear on your own bones - and maybe your psyche!
the mineral work beautifully and seamlessly as collaborators with that pigment material. For example, certain tree resins are found within landscapes with specific stones. Tree resin + pigment = watercolor paint. Or some exist where there is more limestone present. Limestone + pigment = plaster, bricks, chalk pastels, medicine, etc. Specific plants with particular qualities - soaproot for example, which makes ‘soap’ - is a great material to bind with ochres from certain regions in California where it grows. I guess, most simply, I sit around and touch stones with intimate, tender, attention. You talk about “certain groups of knowledge-keepers that are aware of localized mineral pigment deposits”. Can you tell us more about this world of knowledge? Who would these knowledge-keepers typically be? How do they gain their knowledge? Is it passed on? People that touch the land, who are caretakers of the land, who have intimate relationships with local systems. Or whose ancestors have occupied the land for generations. These knowledge-keepers can be anybody from indigenous elders, ditch-diggers, construction workers, farmers and ranchers, witches, homeless woods-campers, to homemakers, drug lords, high-level academics who study archeology, geology, paleontology, agriculture, environmental science, etc., or even your local insect-lover, adventurous child or dog-walker. All kinds of people have special relationships with local place and notice details of the land,including rocks and soil and clay. Many gain their knowledge from lived experience. And it is passed on to people who are curious.
You mention that there are five rudimentary ways to change iron-based colors. Do you change the pigments you forage to create new colors? I sometimes do, yes. Iron is very sensitive to heat, water and other heavy metals. For example, when heated it will change colors, often warm up, redden and darken, which can have a powerful effect on the depth of a pigment. Some pigments have radical color changes. Vivianite, a blue iron, goes from white to gorgeous blue and then to olive green or black, very quickly when heated. So heating is a simple way to also gain elemental information. Plus it’s fun to watch. I tend to change color as way of testing the full range of capabilities inherent in a pigment. One of your quotes in another article is: ”Not every stone wants to become a pigment. Not every pigment wants to become paint”. How do you go about discovering this? I suppose it is like any relationship with a companion species. Firstly it comes from knowing and living with a being in its home environment, amongst its ecological community. Foraging repeatedly in a land teaches a lot about how a stone, soil or mineral material will flourish when taken out of that context. Often, the plants and animals that live with
Making pigments is a completely unsustainable practice, on one level. Many of the stones I work with are millions, if not billions of years old, formed and decomposing over these millennia never to be formed ever again. When you crush a stone, you destroy it. At the same time you are expediting the process of that stone’s decomposition through weathering, and essentially you are soil-forming. 30
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Here’s where it gets interesting - where we start thinking ‘what is sustainability?’ on a larger geological timescale. Despite the fact that every time you make a pigment, or move a stone, you cannot remake it, it will never ‘regrow,’ you are also making the conditions for life to continue to occur – as pigment becomes soil, it becomes the ground and support for all earthly life, especially plants, animals and humans. By turning stone into pigment you are destroying a being and making a ‘creative resource’ on many levels. Creative resources help us make art. Art in a way is fresh soil for the imagination. I find this to be a vital way of being, having to grapple with the mutually intertwined tension between destruction/death, excess, decomposition, rot, and also creative response, creative practice and life-giving force. In contrast to large-scale mining, though, foraging by hand has a more obvious sustainable impact. For one thing, you aren’t radically and violently opening a wound into the mineral soft-spots of Earth. Foraging is generally like picking up peeling skin, little scales, eyelashes, dandruff, scabs, etc. Earth-pigment foraging is just that – picking up only what earth has offered up, what has become exposed or scrubbed off through time. Again, in this more intimate practice, you are building a relationship with many beings, including geological ones, and most importantly, with Earth itself as a living, creative entity. Without this level of relationship, sustainability doesn’t matter. Because it always ends up being ‘sustainable for humans, or sustainable for that one rich human ego.’ What I think we need to care about is how to support the flourishing of many kinds of life (and embrace their full cycles, which includes celebrating diverse ways of dying and ‘recomposting’), which in turn supports us. This starts with knowing how to handle the full spectrum of earth and the minerals and soil of which you are entirely made, in my opinion.
R FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.earlyfutures.com IG: @heidilynnheidilynn
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Jute, From the Field to the Studio Via the Garden Words by Rosa Rossi Photography by Elia Palange
JUTE’S COMEBACK Different types of string
Anyone with land or a garden must have owned a sack at one time or another. Perhaps a reused sack, origin unknown (you can often tell where they came from by the exporter’s logo). Perhaps containing potatoes, coffee, rice, or some other produce. A sack from Uganda proved to be the perfect container for a collection of balls of string.
If you catch yourself nodding along and smiling, and you have a sack at home or in the tool shed, go and sniff it. You will catch a whiff of the mingled aromas. You will smell its contents past and present - coffee, potatoes, or leaves and soil from your garden. And you will also smell the container itself - the fabric it is made from. Sacks are traditionally made from hessian, jute cloth, a textile fibre created by macerating the stems of capsularis and olitorius, herbaceous plants from the Corchorus genus.
Sacks can be used over and over again and patched with fabric taken from others that are now unusable. They can also be used as mulch, where natural materials are used to protect crops from extreme temperatures and keep soil moist, as well as stopping the seedlings from being overwhelmed by weeds. This sack has been turned into an apron, perfect between May and June when the ‘weeds’ sneak into the flower beds. The big poppy, with its leaves and buds, pops against the jute and brightens it up. Guendalina from Viterbo’s Antica Frutteria (the ancient greengrocer) models it for us.
Bill Laws gives a brief history of jute in his Tales from the Tool Shed: he dedicates a whole page jam-packed with historical facts outlining its trajectory between the 18th and 20th centuries. The fibre, traditionally used in India and Bangladesh, arrived in England courtesy of the British East India Company. It then spread throughout the western world in the form of string and a rustic and resistant fabric which was ideal for supporting plants and conserving farming products. Jute began to decline in the 1950s, an inescapable result of the proliferation of plastic.
Patched sack
Ugandan sack)
It is hard to distinguish jute string from hemp or linen, the unquestioned market leaders. You need a keen eye, a fine sense of smell. Even then, it’s not easy. They are usually all used in their natural colour and there is only a slight difference in their shades.
You can also use hessian to make curtains, perfect for keeping rooms cool in the summer months. Rosella designed this curtain by adding felt leaf shapes, turning it
After centuries of using only natural materials, it has taken just sixty years to see the devastating impact plastic has wreaked on the land and marine environment. NSN Magazine is pleased to share with you our rediscovery of jute. Mulch
Now jute’s traditional uses - as string, fabric, or coarsely woven ribbon - are joined by new textile experiments. 33
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Guendalina’s vegetables on cloth
Guendalina apron
rather uneven and stretchy. Before using the finished piece, we recommended you wash it and dry horizontally in the shape you wish it to take. Strips of knitted fretwork alternated with strips of jute ribbon can create a swishy curtain for a gazebo, store cupboard, pantry, or tool shed. Experimenting with different knitting or crochet stitches, there is no end of creations you can make. Follow your whims and tastes in interior design. You can also achieve a fretwork effect by crocheting the jute. All you need to do is alternate double crochet stitches and chain stitches around a foundation chain, which will help you reach the length you want. It is prudent to switch the order in the second round (double crochet stitch followed by chain stitch followed by double crochet stitch and
Rosella’s leaf curtain
into a unique piece of rustic decor. It really stands out against the archway cut from local Abruzzese stone. If you find yourself in mountainous Abruzzo, the green heart of central Italy’s Apennine Mountains, you can take a trip to Navelli and see Rosella’s experiments up close as you wander around the old town. Any number of ‘samplers’ can be created with a spool of jute (bought from Campolmi, a Florentine thread dealer with a long tradition), a ribbon bought in a gardening accessories shop, and the tools for the job in hand (knitting, crochet, and sewing needles). Let them be inspiration for projects big and small, rustic and elegant. Jute is a rather stiff material: when using a simple knitted fretwork stitch, the result is 34
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atmosphere of a Benedictine convent without missing out on the wonderful beaches in nearby Rimini and Igea Marina! A sack can become as a sampler by combining shapes cut from felt scraps and embroidery thread, attaching them with simple stitches. Here is an olive tree with its leaves, fruit, and all the olive harvesting equipment. Rosella shared a life’s work.
Rosella’s Olive Panel
A disabled access ramp in the chapel of the Santarcangelo di Romagna convent’s elegantly simple hotel has been ‘dressed up’. An ingenious solution, it is the perfect balance of practicality and design. Small jute vases hang symmetrically along the entire railing. They are a touch of rustic decor, perfectly positioned between the breakfast room (the biscuits and sweets are made by the nuns, of course!), prayer space, and the convent’s magnificent garden. Simple in style, the display creates an ideal progression from the space for prayer to the space for reflection (the garden and allotment). It is the perfect place to spend a few days breathing in the
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Nettles for Textiles: Rediscovering Wild Fibre and the Search for Sustainable Cloth Words by Kate Stuart Photography by Allan Brown The European nettle, Urtica dioica, or as it’s perhaps best known, the stinging nettle, is easily recognisable by its tall stem and fine-toothed, almost elongated heart-shaped leaves. As children we learnt early that they were to be avoided, their fuzzy leaves covered in tiny stinging hairs. A perennial rhizomatous plant, the nettle grows happily in damp, disturbed soil, in woodlands, by riverbanks and in gardens across the UK, at the ready to sting any gardener who attempts to remove it without first putting on their gardening gloves! Yet there is so much more to the humble nettle than its sting. Used as a fodder for animals, as a healing tea, or turned into soup, beer and rennet, as well as being used as a dye plant for shades of yellow and green, the nettle is a truly multi-functional plant. And that’s not even considering that it can be used to make textiles. Nettle cloth was still being produced in Scotland until the 19th century and was known as “Scotch Cloth” here - a use for nettles in spinning yarn was commonplace. Recent archaeological investigations note that spinning and splicing nettle fibres for use in textile production was happening in the UK as early as the Bronze Age. As it is such a widespread plant, I wondered whether perhaps we could be looking at a sustainable alternative to other resource-heavy plant-based fibres like cotton and linen. I decided to talk to Allan Brown, who runs the hugely popular Nettles For Textiles Facebook group, to find out more. Thanks for agreeing to chat with me, Allan! Can you tell me the story of how you came to connect with nettles as fibre/cloth? Was there an initial experience/inspiration that began the journey, or is it something you have always been interested in? It was as much idle curiosity as anything else. I’d learned to make nettle cordage years before, but it was only when I found myself with a dog and spending a lot of time out exploring the countryside that I reconnected with them and began investigating their fibres in greater depth. I had no background in textiles but as I played around with the fibres and discovered just how fine and strong they were, I wondered if they’d ever been used for making clothes – and if so, how exactly was it done?
materials, would inevitably look beautiful - the two appear to walk hand in hand. What place do you see nettles having in terms of a more sustainable, eco alternative to some of the more intensive fibres like cotton? Nettles undoubtedly have an important part to play in our attempts to curb the environmentally damaging excesses of our current relationship with textiles. They, along with hemp and flax, provide both food and fibre and they can be both cultivated and foraged freely. However, they are also an elusive fibre that resists mechanisation, as though they don’t want to be tamed, more like a mystery to be entered into,
I had a lot of questions, but finding answers proved difficult, so, through trial and error essentially, I began working out a method whereby I could extract nettle fibres and turn them into a useable yarn. I had to pick up a number of key skills along the way in order to realise my goal of creating some foraged fabric, made entirely from our common nettle, Urtica dioica.
Nettle (Urtica dioica, the plant is suitable for harvesting from late June into October in the south of the UK)
Can you tell me a bit about your background, your early influences, training, etc. I read that you were born in South Africa – can you tell me a little about the crafting influences you experienced there? I grew up in Durban, the Zulu heartland of South Africa, and I guess I was always fascinated by the beautiful bead, basketry and weaving work that was ubiquitous in the area. However, I remember being particularly enchanted by the traditional Zulu round houses (rondavels) made from grass, tree poles, mud bricks, cow manure and thatch that I saw being expertly put together by Zulu men and women. I think my love of practical things and the use of readily available natural resources to create them was born there. It seemed that anything functional, made from natural 37
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Kaltenbacher and Gillian Edom, on running the ‘Nettles For Textiles’ website, which is an ever growing resource of articles, research papers and videos from the practical processing side of things right through to the actual creation of nettle cloth. Along with Judy Kavanagh, we also have a vibrant Facebook group, also called ‘Nettles For Textiles’, which has grown into this really wonderful community of likeminded souls. This is really the most important thing that has happened in relation to nettles, especially as it seemed to just fall together without any forethought. By working together and sharing both our successes and failures, in a couple of years our knowledge of the various means whereby nettle fibres can be processed and worked with has expanded enormously.
A lot of people have made huge progress in extracting nettle fibre on a handcraft basis and in general we see this as the way forward for nettle fibre at the moment. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because if nettle fibre can be extracted widely, even in smaller quantities, it enables a larger number of people to be involved and share their skills and knowledge. However, companies like Camira in Yorkshire are demonstrating that it is not only possible but economically viable to use nettle in their textiles. They cultivate and process their own nettles and blend them with wool to create beautiful upholstery fabrics. However, we’re still at the very earliest stages of this transition and viable models are still being worked out.
There is a strong magical element to the process of turning nettles into textiles. It demands such a degree of commitment in order to achieve, that in the actual doing of it, one cannot help but be transformed. There is also a romantic appeal in being able to create something completely outside of any financial context - I think it appeals to the anarchist in us all.
Commercially it may be that concentrating our efforts on increasing hemp and flax production is a more viable approach at the moment, but nevertheless it is exciting to see developments in commercial nettle fibre starting to happen. There is a seasonal rhythm to the process of creating fibre from plants – how is this reflected in your daily life? I’m completely wedded to the process of gathering and extracting the fibres from plants, primarily nettles, which are foraged, and flax that I grow on my allotment. In order to collect enough nettles to make anything substantive, it involves getting out into parks, hedgerows and woods on an almost daily basis. I gather the majority of my nettles from within a ten-mile radius of the house and I’ve built up a detailed but ever-fluctuating mental map of where all the best nettles are to be found.
Nettles are a liminal plant - they inhabit the areas where domesticity ends, and wildness begins. They are the most immediate, nutritious, reliable source of food in our countryside, contain wonderfully soft, strong fibres, yet they sting and appear to want to keep us away. It’s amazing to me that there exists a freely available resource that can feed and clothe us, yet requires no cultivation or land ownership. But it requires that you bend your life to the process and by so doing one is subtly changed. I envisage us all making our own magical nettle garments, in spite of money not because of it.
Woven nettle textile, (made entirely from locally sourced European Nettle, Urtica Dioica)
On some level the whole enterprise is absurdly quixotic, but it’s contagious and one’s relationship with one’s surroundings inevitably deepens. You’re drawn to different places and time walking can be productively spent, hand-rolling and manipulating ‘retted’ bundles of fibres, helping remove the outer dusty bark and softening the fibres ready for scraping. Harvested ‘green’ or fresh nettles can also be stripped and the fibres pocketed whilst on the move. By the time autumn arrives, the harvesting work is done and the wetter weather and heavier dews allow any final ‘retting’ to be completed and the nettle bundles dried and stored, ready for stripping and processing over winter. I try to process as much of the fibre I’ve foraged as I go, but inevitably it gets away from you as the summer progresses and tall nettles are more abundant. Likewise, I’m spinning up nettle fibre throughout the year. Spinning is a constant meter. You’re a member of The Green Cloth Collective – how do you feel about the connection between craft and new producerist economies, and what paths do you see being forged in terms of creating (re-creating) sustainable and earthly conscious trading of craft work that is not exclusive to only those who can pay? The process of turning nettles into textiles by hand is so labour intensive that I can’t really envisage how they fit into any viable economic system. Nettle textiles, made this way, would be financially unreachable for most people. I have preferred to try and side-step the whole question of worth and value by concentrating my efforts on sharing knowledge of the processes involved, as opposed to producing saleable cloth. To this end I work with two great friends, Brigitte 38
Nettle warp on small loom
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TUTORIAL I’ve found myself recently very interested in spinning (learning how is on my list of Things To Do this year!) and so I asked Allan if he’d be kind enough to offer readers a tutorial on gathering, preparing and making nettle fibres into usable yarn – and here it is! We hope you enjoy – and if you have a go, share your results in your social media channels and remember to share on our page or to tag us! Step 1:
Step 4:
Find the tallest nettles you can, be selective and leave plenty for all the other creatures that need them. Cut them a couple of inches up from the base of the plant and don’t disturb the roots. Using gloves, a twist of grass or a square of leather, strip of all the foliage and gently remove any side shoots, leaving you with just the nettle stem.
Hand-roll the fibres to soften them up ready for scraping. Step 5: Gently scrape the bast with a blunt blade (I find a small table knife works well). The outer bark of the plant will be scraped away, primarily in the form of a dust or light powder, leaving you with a small amount of lovely soft nettle ‘line fibre’. This can then be spun straight into the highest-quality nettle thread or yarn. Whilst scraping you will also be removing a significant amount of the shorter, tangled or rougher fibres – this is called your ‘tow’ and this too can be turned into yarn.
Step 2: ‘Ret’ (or rot) the nettles by laying them on some grass and allow the morning and evening dew – plus any rainfall – to activate naturally-occurring bacteria that will help break down the gums and pectins that bind the fibres together.
Step 6: Step 3:
Gather up the ‘tow’ and place it on a pair of ‘wool carders’. Brush vigorously until all the outer skin/ dust has been removed, as well as any stubborn bits that refuse to yield. When your fibres are as clean as you can get them, roll the fibres into a ‘rolag’ and spin directly from these.
Strip the ‘bast’ (the outer skin of the plant, including bark) from the core of the plant.
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Woven nettle textile, (made entirely from locally sourced European Nettle, Urtica Dioica)
1.
4. The majority of the ‘retted’ nettle ‘bast’ will be converted into ‘tow’. This is achieved by ‘carding’ or brushing the fibres with a pair of wool carders. Almost everything that isn’t extracted as line fibre can be converted into tow and a lovely yarn spun from it
2. ‘Retted’ nettles on the left, stripped nettle ‘bast’ fibres on the right
5. Spun and plyed nettle yarn, spun primarily from the ‘tow’
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Website:
(The ‘bast’ is then hand rolled, to soften up the fibres, then gently scraped with a blunt bladed tool like a kitchen knife. These are your line fibres, the amount extracted from any given bundle of nettles is extremely small)
www.nettlesfortextiles.org.uk FB: @NettlesForTextiles IG: @nettles4textiles 40
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‘Swallows’, Willow Wall piece. Photography by Lizzie Farey 42
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From Baskets to Sculpture Words by Kate Stuart
Lizzie Farey lives in the lowlands of south-west Scotland, a beautiful region painted with shades of green and composed of glens, lochs, forests, and wild places of all sorts. In this landscape, she has evolved as an artist: her work involves both traditional and abstract basket-making, and at present she is following an artistic trail that originated with traditional weaving and has evolved to become something more akin to original sculptural pieces. This is a process that was born out of a very intimate relationship with nature. Indeed, taking long walks in the lowlands has become a necessity for Lizzie over the years, almost something she doesn’t feel right without. These walks have transformed her craft to become something new and uniquely hers.
In this process she developed a strong affinity for willow and took it upon herself to grow the material in nearby fields. To plant these fields, Lizzie travelled to Ireland and France, consulting with other basket-makers and gathering ideas as to what to plant. Today, Lizzie has a few fields shared with other basket-makers where she grows different varieties of willow, including Flanders Red, Brittany Blue, Oxford Violet, Black Maul, Black Satin, Dicky Meadows, and Whissender. Some have an almost orange bark while others are purpleish-blue, and then can dry to entirely different hues. They differ from the standard UK variety which is usually available to order (Black Maul), and offer a wider range of properties and subtleties which inform her work and make it unique. Willow is a strong and versatile material that has been used for centuries, especially to make artist charcoal. It’s also a very renewable material in the sense that it can grow 10 feet each year and around 200 rods can be harvested from one plant. In fact, it seems to thrive on being coppiced, making the plant/grower relationship an almost symbiotic partnership. Willow also attracts many insects, which makes it a great ally to biodiversity.
To rewind a little bit, Lizzie followed a Fine Arts education in Canterbury and Cardiff, and worked for several galleries. During that time, she trained in craft-based skills so that exploration eventually led her to study traditional basketmaking. Traditional basket-making involves a specific heritage of techniques, a sort of recipe laid down hundreds of years ago and passed on for generations. For Lizzie, there is something very romantic in this idea. Indeed, a basket is a functional piece defined by a laborious process. In that sense, making a basket can be a very meditative movement, when one has acquired the method. Lizzie often gets lost in the practice. In fact, while talking about her inspirations, Lizzie mentioned a trip to Japan. We talked about using the making of things with a view to a meditative process, and the way this is pervasive in Japanese culture. She was especially touched by the pervading craftsmanship of the things around her, even the signposts made of bamboo.
These fields and the wild have become Lizzie’s principal source of material, which has resulted in her practice
So as Lizzie moved to Scotland and discovered her surrounding landscape, she developed her own type of meditation: walks in nature. Lizzie has always had a fascination for the natural world and the natural form. Her daily process involves strolling through the lowlands and simply observing what is before her. For example, she talked passionately about the simplicity of watching a daffodil: for her, “it’s just loving itself; a simple, wild daffodil; and it’s just growing, it can transform the way you look at things”. Nature is now where she sources most of her basketry material. In the beginning, it was a very exploratory process - simply going into the woods and gathering a few branches here and there, then bringing them home and assessing their qualities for basket-making. She harvests from many varied species not traditionally used in basket-making, such as birch catkins, bog myrtle, larch, hazel, rowan, ash, honeysuckle, heather, and wild plum.
‘Flock’, Willow Wall Piece. Photography by Shannon Tofts 43
ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019 becoming less functional and more organic. From here on, Lizzie’s craft started evolving. Foraging and growing her own materials slowly brought about a change in her style precisely because the materials changed what was possible to do. She makes it a point not to fight the materials but to slowly uncover how to bring out their various properties. This is a work of true patience and presence, and makes it a uniquely personal process. Indeed, Lizzie grows the material in her home landscape, she hand-harvests the material and then tentatively works the material to follow what it allows. The whole process is permeated with her energy.
What she makes nowadays carries her essence and holds her signature: she has broken away from tradition, giving an entirely new function to her skill. Her work now has a lot of inherent movement, and some people have even used it in combination with light, sometimes angling it purposefully to get specific shapes. In her words, she now practises the fine art end of craft. Lizzie makes beautiful swallows as wall pieces, and is currently working on several for the Moat Bray House, which is under restoration. Moat Bray is the place which inspired J. M. Barrie to write Peter Pan, and her swallows will echo a memorable quote from the novel: “Do you know,” Peter asked, “why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.”
Hence, following the string of her artistic development, this straying from the norm in terms of materials has helped her work evolve from a recipe-based process to a more organic, artistic endeavour. From baskets, she moved to sculptural pieces and is now making something closer to “wall pieces”, which are more two-dimensional. Crafting wall pieces, she says, is more like painting or drawing than basket-making in the sense that it is perhaps more mentally demanding, since it comes from a place of creation and original thought.
‘Willow Bowl with Bog Myrtle’, 3D piece. Photography by Lizzie Farey 44
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R FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.lizziefarey.co.uk Twitter: @willowfarey IG: @lizziefarey ‘Ventus’, Willow Wall piece. Photography by Warren Sanders
‘Indomitus’, Willow Wall Piece. Photography by Warren Sanders 45
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Footwear From Waste Leather Words by Paige Perillat-Piratoine Photography by Ottowin Footwear
Ottowin Footwear is a small enterprise that (mostly) uses waste leather to make shoes. They source this leather from Northampton, the cradle of the British footwear industry. In this instance, waste material corresponds to the leftover hides of samples from bigger British footwear companies.
the leather sold, though goat, pig and sheep skin are also sometimes used to supplement demand. The majority of cow leather is indeed sourced from animals who are slaughtered for their meat, though it also sometimes comes from dairy cows who no longer produce enough milk to be profitable. But there is an important economic link between the leather trade and industrial farming, and in reality, selling leather is less about minimising waste than it is about maximising profit. In fact, leather amounts to about 10% of the animal’s value, often making it the most valuable component of the animal; and in places where animal rights laws are more lax, they are often killed even if their bodies offer no substantial meat. This is the result of consumer demand which creates a market for this type of practice. In China in particular, the world’s leading leather exporter, millions of cats and dogs are slaughtered for their skins, a fact unknown to consumers owing to the lack of industry transparency. On top of that, while leather does decompose at the end of its lifecycle, its production is not environmentally friendly. It is associated with industrial farming, which is ethically questionable in so many ways regarding fossil fuel use, methane overproduction, water intensity, and land destruction. But the modern tanning process also involves the use of several chemicals, including ammonia and formaldehyde, which contaminate the soil and water supply, especially in countries where environmental regulations are not enforced. In the end it is unknown which
Lucy and Oliver are vegetarian, and have even moved to a vegan diet; yet meat is being consumed in large quantities, leather is also being produced as a result, and it would be a waste not to use it. What’s more, a huge amount of waste is caused through pattern cutting, creating the opportunity for Lucy and Oliver to recuperate it and give it a second life. They feel the mainstream existing alternatives to leather are extremely polluting as they are fossil-fuel derivatives which are rarely recycled and take centuries to decompose, in contrast to leather. In that sense they have a tremendous respect for the material and would rather use leather and the scraps of the footwear industry than see this precious fabric go to landfill. In fact, Lucy and Oliver also source some of their leather from Thomas Wares, one of the last remaining traditional tanners in the UK. This is an interesting debate, and it is difficult to trace the real environmental impact of the leather trade since it is often considered a by-product of the meat industry. This is not entirely true, however. Cow skin provides the bulk of
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ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019 option is more ethical between leather and its fossil-based alternatives. It would definitely be a horrendous waste not to use every part of the animals we slaughter, though change is undeniably needed in all of these industries to make it worthwhile at all. For the time being, using the waste leather that would otherwise be thrown away is a resourceful and respectful move. And the journey of an Ottowin shoe starts with this consideration in mind. Oliver and Lucy hand-select each piece of leather, choosing only the better-quality pieces. These carefully selected pieces inform what the future collection will look like, and the crafts team brainstorms myriad designs including a rough color pallet. Indeed, using waste means not knowing exactly what will come their way, and accepting that what was made once can perhaps never be made identically again. After the final designs have been chosen, a pair of Ottowin shoes takes up to a week to be completed. One pair starts as a few flat components: the insole leather and the leather for the upper design. Patterns are cut out by hand using a clicking knife, a curved knife used especially for leather cutting. For Lucy and Oliver, leather is an exceptional product when treated with care, and it creates desirable goods which stand the test of time. In fact, Lucy has engaged with shoemaking from the age of 17, and the pair have thereafter evolved their craft together in a deep appreciation for hands-on work. Lucy and Oliver are strong proponents of the slow fashion movement - it is an ethos that permeates their company. They feel it is part of a wider movement towards mindful living: a way for one to reconnect to their belongings and regain an appreciation for what is owned. It also involves buying less and producing things more ethically. They make a conscious effort to craft shoes in colors and styles that they feel are timeless and can withstand the tides of consumer culture. Lucy and Oliver are deeply fulfilled by being able to make footwear the way they do, and producing small-scale allows them to craft one pair at a time, seeing each shoe from start to finish. They feel intimately connected to the material and are genuinely satisfied by the transformation of the fabric from leather to functional object. It is a daily reward which has led them to experience high job satisfaction and general wellbeing. While Ottowin only produce footwear, they have recently opened a shop in Bristol where they stock a variety of other ethical brands. This is a way for them to contextualise their footwear while providing a platform for other small-scale businesses to showcase and sell theirs. In fact, for many small businesses and independent makers, having a physical shop is often not an option, so the Ottowin shop is a place for these makers to come together and create a community of like-minded brands who help each other to reach common goals more efficiently. All the brands stocked there have a similar ethos of slow fashion and beautiful backstories or powerful provenance. Together they hope to promote slow fashion and a wider appreciation for mindful living.
R FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.ottowinfootwear.co.uk Twitter: @ottowinfootwear IG: @ottowinuk 48
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Sharing is the New Shopping: A Nu Age for Fashion Words by Paige Perillat-Piratoine Photography by Kolbra Sveinbjornsson and Cecelia Morgan
The 1980s marked the rise of the phenomenon known as ‘fast fashion’. Nowadays, fast fashion has morphed into an industry-wide practice whereby new trends are constantly emerging, with brands releasing collections as often as every week. Such fast production and rabid consumption have a devastating impact, with social and environmental repercussions that threaten human lives and planetary ecologies.
The environmental impacts of fast fashion are equally dire. For example, it takes approximately 2,700 litres of water (22 bathtubs) and 7 lbs of CO2 (the equivalent of driving a car seven miles) to produce one cotton t-shirt. During this production process, chemical dyes leak into vital water sources and pollute rivers and ecosystems. Not only that: our clothes continue to be harmful to the environment even long after we dispose of them. In the US alone 10.5 million tonnes of toxic garment waste is sent to landfill each year, a figure about 30 times as hefty as the Empire State building. On top of this sits the microplastics debacle, which kills innumerable species of marine life each year.
While brands demand more products faster and cheaper, a massive strain weighs on the people who make our clothes. Garment workers in countries like India and Bangladesh are overworked, and often labour in unsafe conditions for exploitative pay. A catastrophic but illustrative case of this was the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, which saw the collapse of an eight-storey garment factory in Bangladesh. 1,134 people were killed while hundreds more were injured. The factory produced clothes for high-street brands such as Primark, Walmart, and Benetton, involving consumers worldwide in the consequences of their purchases.
But as destructive as it is, this is an ingrained reality. A pattern of behaviour worn across socio-economic classes and ages, with products available to all thanks to the incredible affordability of some labels. As college students in Dublin, Ali and Aisling were participants in this system, buying and disposing of clothes on a regular basis. They purchased what they could afford, i.e. cheap but poor quality garments. It was a trip to India through a volunteer program that confronted
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ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019 them with the reality of their choices, where they witnessed all of the above. It was a shock - so much of this is unseen by crowds in shopping malls. This glimpse into the realities of the fashion industry caused them to rethink their behaviour, and spawned in them a desire to change things. But changing behaviours was not easy. Ethical and quality brands barely existed in Dublin three years ago, and if they did, they were far out of their price range. Being hardcore minimalists was not appealing to them either, as they felt the fun of fashion was about changing wardrobes, and experimenting with texture, colour and shape. The question then became: “How do we enjoy fashion without encouraging such a dysfunctional and unethical system?”. Their answer is to rethink ownership. In their final year of university, the pair decided to run sustainable fashion events. While it was slow to begin with, more and more people gradually came along and volunteered, building up the first Nu community of women rethinking how to consume clothing. As the team expanded, they learned a lot about how to engage people in the movement and help them rethink their fashion choices. While this community was slowly bonding, Aisling began setting up a business that could truly scale up and create change: The Nu Wardrobe. The Nu Wardrobe is an online clothes-sharing platform for women to borrow clothes from each other, but it also relies on a feeling of community and the trust of borrowers. Instead of buying a brand new outfit for every occasion, community members are encouraged to borrow from each other’s wardrobes. So with Nu, you don’t need 50 dresses. Just one dress and 50 friends. By sharing, members get more use out of the clothes they already have and love, while reducing their garment waste and their fashion carbon footprint. The community is built by women who believe in the mission, and who actively help to grow the community with their own skills which they are encouraged to bring to the table during physical events. The Nu Wardrobe works like a social network. Users upload their clothes to the online platform and can borrow from others in a safe and secure environment. So far, Nu have had sizeable engagement with over 250 pieces borrowed during their trials. It has built a community of like-minded women wanting to enjoy fashion, make an impact and make friends in their local area. What they need now is more resources to grow this community and make it easy and natural for people to share. To build towards this, Nu are first targeting professional women who already have an interest in fashion and/or sustainability, and are living in the East-London area. But in the future Nu sees itself expanding into areas as varied as maternity, bridal, and sportswear. Children’s clothing is also an option. The fact is, most of our clothes can be shared - and when we do get to that point, our attitude towards our clothes will change towards buying better-quality, longer lasting garments that we care for better, and collectively. This is what Nu wants: to grow a thriving clothes-sharing community in east London and build a blueprint that anyone can follow to build their own local sharing community. Their aim is to have a Nu sharing community across every city in Europe and the US by 2028. In fact, the Nu Wardrobe can be used in the same way all over the world - all it takes is people who support the idea and want to get their own community, workplace or university sharing. Contact Nu if you feel your own community could benefit from this sharing economy platform. Each borrow offsets 25% of the resources that would have been used in the making of a new garment. 52
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R FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.thenuwardrobe.com FB & IG: @thenuwardrobe
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Garbage Turned to Treasure Interview by NSN Team Photography by Helen Frost
Where others might see garbage the artist sees treasures. How do garbage and art mix together using various techniques? We talk to Helen Frost to find out about these two elements in her art, which result in an interior design that brings memories of the countryside and the sea into the home.
We would like to explore the particular uniqueness of your art and try to grasp the relationship between your ‘eye’ and your work.
whether I am glorifying the very “rubbish” that I collect and use by turning it into “art”. Ultimately, I have decided that as long as I state my view of the bigger picture and also transmit the message about the need to recycle and to stop dropping land - and sea-sourced litter, I can justify what I do. I do appreciate that some will look at what I collect and say, “that is just a load of rubbish!”. And so it is, literally speaking. However, most people appreciate that there is an art to displaying the found items in a pleasing and sympathetic way and also enjoy the contrast between the rough and distressed and the smooth and contemporary frame or display.
Let’s begin with your walks: does the artist let the dog lead her, or the other way around? I am in charge! I choose the destination for the walk and only visit places where our dog can run free alongside me. He knows the drill now and I doubt he would take a route other than the one he knows. He does not wander far, although I do have to be quick or he will often grab the item of interest before I do! At this point he is in control. For this reason, most of my “in situ” photographs are taken from high vantage points. On one occasion, he picked up a piece of plastic and took it to the rubbish collection point on the shingle as he was so used to my going there! Looking at your work, we sensed an intrinsic link between the sea and the countryside. Is this just our impression, or is there some truth behind it? I would say that the countryside is my first love and I still get excited at seeing birds and animals or a flower in bloom. My father and his parents were country folk and they taught me how to look - how to notice the signs, for example, that a badger had been on a certain route or that a particular hedge was a likely nesting place. I don’t think I have ever been on a walk without noticing the “little things”: a seed head or piece of moss; a twig bursting into bud or a feather dangling from a branch. As a child, I always came home with something for the School nature table - I now live near to the coast so in the last 10 years, my walks have taken me increasingly sea-bound. The skill of really looking has stayed with me and my husband often remarks that I spot things that he would never see. I am still bringing things home for that nature table 50 years later!
I could spend my time making pleasant landscape pictures but, frankly, I don’t see the point. There are plenty of other artists doing that. I feel that I must create in a way that I am passionate about and I think that art sometimes needs to be ugly or disturbing to make a point. Having said that, I do not use brightly coloured plastic, for example - my colour palette has always been one of earthy tones or even monotone. Again, there are others making art from found plastic but not so many using the type of things that I prefer. To what extent does the combination of “beautiful” and “ugly” play a role in your interior design work? My involvement in the interior design world is now restricted to producing works of art. I think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder - some of what I find beautiful I know would seem ugly to others. Any art that makes the viewer think about the subject of it is worth doing. My interior design training has been of great help to me in creating art. It taught me the importance of texture, how to put colour together, and rules of composition.
Could you say that the two bags you carry represent, respectively, your source of artistic inspiration and your social awareness about rubbish? Yes, definitely. I started out, I must admit, just looking for art materials. But very soon I was only too aware of the volume of plastics, metals, rubber, twine and other detritus that was on my route. I felt strongly that I had to start picking that up too. In fact two bags are often not enough when there has been a storm or windy night. Some of the beaches I walk on provide bins and some do not. In any event, I tend to bring it all home (unless something is particularly heavy) as there is never a bin for recycling and I don’t wish to put my haul of plastic drinks bottles into the general rubbish. Not everywhere provides a bin at all. Sadly, the “trash” bag is always fuller than the “treasure” bag! To what extent can ugly or unpleasant rubbish become art? It’s a good question and one I ask myself a lot. I wonder
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ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019 obvious ways to make use of this. I hope shortly to learn about crochet as another way of using these materials. How do you combine your interest in weaving and sewing with your artistic inspiration? The items that I collect are quite varied - they might be wood, rubber, textile, metal, plastic or fibreglass, for example. One way of combining various materials is by bringing them together by the use of weaving or stitch. I rarely know what I will do with an object when I pick it up. Everything I find is photographed and catalogued recording the date and place of the find. At a later date I will start to work through a series of combinations and see what works together and what I need to add to it to make a final piece of work. Sometimes, the weaving or sewing idea might come first and then I need to hunt for the right things to go with that idea.
“Woven Waste”
I also collect the fabric that I occasionally find on the beach - this might be part of an old shirt or a baseball cap for example. These can form the basis of a textile piece of art.
What sparked your interest in weaving and sewing? I started out with painting, particularly with watercolour, but, over time, found that the flat finish of works on paper did not excite me. I love texture and so textile work seemed a natural progression. One of my first courses was with Cas Holmes. She helped to forge my interest in collage with cloth and I completed a series of further courses at West Dean College when I completed my Foundation Diploma in Art and Design.
Which techniques and painting materials do you use when creating your art? I am a jack of all trades. I might draw, paint (most often with ink) or sew. In order to create the sort of texture that I like, I often work with a mix of media maybe including charcoal, homemade gesso, clay, wax or whatever I feel will complement the idea I am working on at the time. When making my sculptures or books, I will often employ wire found if possible. I made a few pieces from porcelain at one point and have used some in combination with the found, but I am no ceramicist. The term “butterfly” is very apt for me. I have so many ideas spinning around and often jot down “notes to self” when ideas pop into my head. I have yet to combine printing and collagraph with the found, but I will at some point. A favourite technique to which I return over and over is that of collage. I have made works with found papers but, as you will appreciate, I do not find much paper on the beach! Instead, I create with found paper supplemented with old books, documents or packaging, inherited or discovered.
“Victorian Collection”
I am keen to use the large amount of found twine and rope that is on our shores and weaving and sewing seemed like
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NO SERIAL NUMBER When creating your art, do you always begin with one or more found objects, or do you sometimes begin just with the images captured by your artistic eye? Most often I start with a found object or objects. Over a period of years, I have built up a collection of items that appeal to me and that I feel I can use at some point. I have a filing system for all the finds so that I know where to look when I want them again. At a later date, often while walking or perhaps while meditatively hand sewing, I will come up with a concept. I will jot it down and then work through a few ideas on paper or, more often, experiment directly with the found pieces, auditioning this and that until I get a mix that works together. Here is an example: a couple of years ago I found and filed away a piece of flat metal (I have no idea of its original purpose) that was filled with holes. The holes were all the same size and equidistant on manufacture, I am sure, but by the time I had found it, they had worn slightly differently and some were partially filled with small worm casts. I find a lot of rope knots on the beach and one day, a year or so after finding the metal sheet, I decided to play with an idea based around knots, with the intention of creating a series of work on that subject. I trialled a few systems of knotting and then formed a series of small knots made from found twine which poked through the holes in the metal. This took quite a time and while I was working, slowly and meditatively, I began to think about all the fishing nets and ropes that would have been made over the many years of the fishing industry and how laborious that must have been. To enable me to continue the holes and knot theme, I am now particularly looking for suitable bases. Having said all of this you find what you find! One cannot control what will appear on the shore in any way, which is why it takes many many hours to gather the right materials that will fit together. For this reason, if one were to form too strong a concept at the outset it might take a lifetime to find the pieces that you need to complete that piece. When I see the range of fabulous objects that others find on the northeast coast for example, I wonder how I am able to construct and assemble any works at all! Can you tell us about a particular walk, concentrating on the elements that come into play when you bend down to pick up an object and put it in one of your bags? There is a particular walk that I do in quite an isolated spot. Most of my walks are early in the morning maybe at around 6 a.m. when light allows. As my treasure-hunting is quite a selfish occupation, I like to be alone at this time, although our dog is always with me. I will set out with a feeling of excitement, not knowing what awaits me. I have come to learn that some days I will only pick up “trash” and others may yield a piece of two of “treasure.” The trash is easy to find - it’s generally plastic. Most common are bottle lids which are often brightly coloured, or the separate ring which sits below the cap on the bottle. Another “cert” is a few drinks bottles and mostly likely cans. Sometimes I will keep the cans, if they are distressed and interesting. Often there are cigarette lighters and at the Chichester Art Trail last year I formed a hanging curtain of these at the entrance to our studio, which made quite a talking point. Every time I spot a piece of plastic or other pollution (another one of my hates is insulation foam, which I find every day) I feel driven to collect as I feel I am doing my little bit towards helping reduce the litter on our shores. Doing something positive helps me to deal with the sadness I feel at the volume of litter I see as I walk.
“Delicate Beauty”
gives a little lurch of joy when I spot something that I think I may be able to use in my art. I also look out for things that my artist friend in Kent would like that I do not. We have made friends through Social Media and now collect for one another and send regular parcels of goodies - it’s fun and it also means that more waste is being recycled than would otherwise be the case. I walk mostly on stones and shingle and the sort of things I am looking for creatively are often in muted colours and not easy to spot. However, when I do see something with potential, I will pick it up and briefly examine it for any particular point of interest. If I can find a nearby groyne or suitable contrasting material, I will photograph the item in situ. Then, into the bag it goes as I continue to hunt for the next piece. Over time, I have learnt where the most profitable places are but, as I say, there is a great deal of luck involved.
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ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019 When you create, to what extent do you think about the environment in which the piece might end up? As I said earlier, when I started to collect from the beach, I confess that I did so for purely aesthetic reasons. However, it was not long before I realised that there was far more rubbish than useful pieces lying around and I felt that I had to respond. Sometimes I want to cry when I see how many tiny pieces of plastic are on a beach. Consequently, I would love my work to be displayed in public places to help raise awareness of the need to stop harming our wildlife and environment by polluting it with litter. The objects that I use are beautiful to me but I am well aware that they are not the sort of things that people would traditionally think of having in their homes. I see them as aesthetically pleasing tools which could usefully be shown in restaurants, hotels and perhaps in the foyer or boardrooms of environmentally -caring businesses, particularly those in coastal locations. So I am trying to send a message in a subtle way, combined with creating interesting pieces of art.
R FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.helenfrostartist.com IG: @helenfrostartist FB: @helenfrostartist
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“Lighthouse on the rocks”, two pictures supplied one framed and one mounted. Made from rubbish collected on the beach. 60
Pebble, Sea Glass and Beach Rubbish Interview by NSN Team Photography by Sally Potter
For Sally Potter the sea is, first and foremost, her home. The place that must be protected. The garbage abandoned on the shores becomes her art and with her art Sally helps charities that protect the coasts of the Isle of Wight.
Hi Sally. Thank you so much for getting in touch with us. We love your frames! Tell us a little bit about your background. I have painted all my life. Painting and creating is a passion, therapeutic and great fun – it’s what gives me the biggest buzz. My family has had connections with the Isle of Wight for four generations. My great-grandparents had a house in Sandown and then the family moved to Seaview where we have been ever since. I love the Isle of Wight. It is my haven. Many a day is spent walking along the beach. Sometimes I walk in brilliant sunshine, sometimes in the wind and rain and sometimes just a cold crisp day. Whatever the weather I am drawn to hunt for sea glass, pebbles, shells driftwood and beach rubbish - with or without the family and the dog!
the time to create a personal picture for them, to capture a moment in their lives, a sentimental or loving memory, or perhaps a gift for a friend, colleague or family member. I love that. I love the challenge. Better still the end result.
When and why did you start collecting pebbles, sea glass and waste found on the beach? Painting and creating has always been my hobby, my ‘time out’. Eighteen months ago my family suggested I give up my job and concentrate on what I love – painting and creating. It was time for me to retire and so I took their advice. It was a big step, and Sally Potter Designs was born.
Tell us a bit about the charities you support. What do these charities do? How can people support them? Creating art out of beach rubbish is all very well but I had to take it one stage further. I wanted to help. To make a difference. A small step for mankind! So in my own small way I decided to donate all the profit from my beach rubbish
Sally at work in her studio
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It was only in the summer last year that I became aware of what beach rubbish was really doing to our wildlife, marine life and sea birds. I saw a seagull feeding its young part of a crisp packet. It became apparent to me over the course of about five weeks that rubbish could also be used in a creative way. My beach rubbish art was born. People look and are astonished by what I have created with rubbish. Straws, tin cans, tennis balls, plastic bottles, fishing nets, shoes, buckets, plastic lids, fishing hooks, sweet wrappers, rubber - .the list is endless but it can all be used to create a beautiful picture.
Beach rubbish in boxes. Selection of beach rubbish divided into boxes and colours having been washed and cleaned.
What are the subjects of frames? Where do you find inspiration? I started by making pictures out of shells. Their shapes are extraordinary. When I look closely an ordinary shell can look like a fish, a wedding dress, a skirt, a heart, the sun or the moon. Pebbles are the same - suddenly I see a dog head, an arm, a leg, a body, a cat, they just seem to jump out at me – and so I am inspired every day to create pictures from anything I find on the beach. Birds on a branch, washing on a clothes line, a lighthouse, a rainbow or perhaps a bunch of flowers in a vase. Every day I see something different in my beach finds and a new picture is born. What’s a typical conversation about your artwork with passers-by and potential customers? How do they react when they find out that you do art out of rubbish? I watch people’s faces when they look at my pictures. They smile, they laugh and seem to love them and so my strap line was born: Sally Potter Designs, ‘Creating art from the sea to put a smile on your face’. Now, a year on, every time I do a fair people come up to my stall, smile, laugh and make a comment! Craft fairs are a great way to meet people and I love seeing their reaction to my work. People ask me all 61
ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019 pictures to charity. I have chosen two charities. Blue Seas Protection in Sandown, Isle of Wight - not only do they support by clearing the waters around the island from fishing nets and rubbish, they are also helping to stop shark and dolphin finning, killing whales, and much much more. They are a small charity with a big heart. If you would like to support them then please take a look at their website and press the donate button. (www.blueseasprotection.com)
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The other charity I support is The Final Straw Solent, in Emsworth, Hampshire. They are a group of people who have come together as a community to minimise the amount of plastic entering our local seas. They constantly get together beach cleaning around the local area and encourage local businesses to switch to paper straws and paper or reusable fabric bags. If you would like to support them you can donate on their website. (www.finalstrawsolent.org/home)
Website: www.sallypotterdesigns.co.uk Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SallyPotterDesign FB: @sallypotterdesigns IG: @sallypotterdesigns
“If Friends were flowers�, two pictures supplied one framed and one mounted. Made of sea glass, shells and ceramic. 62
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Tutorial
Learn how to make your very own frame...
What you need: • • • • • •
• • • • •
PROCESS:
Step 1: Using the scissors, pencil and ruler, cut the
Square box frame Craft mat/large piece of cardboard to work on Watercolour paper or good quality card Pencil and ruler for measuring paper Scissors Hot melt glue gun/craft glue, to stick plastic, wood, and pebbles to paper. (Hot melt gun glue will dry almost instantly; craft glue will take approximately 15 minutes for each stage.) One fine and one medium waterproof liner pen Piece of driftwood or a twig Green plastic from a water bottle – possibly found on the beach! Two small pieces of plastic/rubbish you find on the beach, or elsewhere, in the shape of little birds. Can be cut into the shape of birds. One pebble from the beach or garden in the shape of a bird
watercolour paper/card to fit the inside measurement of the frame.
Step 2: Stick your piece of driftwood/twig ¼ of the way from the top of the paper, with the hot melt glue gun or craft glue.
Step 3: Cut the green plastic, from the bottle, into the shape of leaves – approximately 9 leaves in total - and carefully stick either side of the driftwood/twig.
Step 4: Take the two plastic/rubbish ‘birds’ and stick above
the driftwood/twig, creating a dot with the medium waterproof pen and leaving space to create legs on the birds.
Step 5: Using the fine pen, draw some legs and beaks on
the driftwood/twig ‘birds’ and a wobbly line ¼ of the way from the bottom of the watercolour paper/card. Stick the pebble ‘bird’ ½ way between the wobbly line and draw legs and beak onto the pebble ‘bird’ with the fine pen. Finally, using the medium pen, make a black dot on the pebble ‘bird’ to create an eye.
Step 6:
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Place finished picture into the box frame.
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RO E Z
E T AS #PLASTICFREECRAFT W
Help us reach a thousand signatures, visit this site and sign the petition: https://goo.gl/iQYXA3
Plastic Free Craft Campaign -Spring UpdateWords by Kate Stuart Photography by Elly Platt
I imagine that you are reading this magazine because you love to create, and you enjoy the inspiration that can be garnered from such a publication as this one. I imagine that you love to create using materials that are natural, biodegradable, earthy. Perhaps you sew, or paint, or carve, or weave. Maybe you are a gardener, a potter, an ironmonger, or a spinner. For many who come to these pages for the stories of other creatives’ work, there is a sense that their own craft is close to the earth, respectful of the planet, and focused on nature in some way, be that by using recycled materials or by maintaining sustainability in ways that are key to minimising negative impact on the land.
the realisation that my quilting templates, the bobbins inside my sewing thread, the packets and pots my pins and needles arrive in are very solidly plastic. My sewing machine and cutting board and iron are all made of plastic too. But when looking at our own collections of plastic craft paraphernalia it’s easy to think, oh well, it’s not so much. Just a few bits of plastic. Until you see that small plastic pot of pins, that plastic packaged packet of needles en mass. That’s when something changes. Before Christmas, I visited two major department stores in my home town of Newcastle upon Tyne, making a beeline for their haberdashery sections. My goal was to try and find some craft or haberdashery item that was packaged without plastic. I found myself in a busy, hot shop, full of Christmas shoppers and stressed out staff and rows and rows and rows of plasticpackaged craft and haberdashery supplies. So. Much. Plastic. The next shop was a little less hot, a little less busy, but still entirely full of plastic or plastic-packaged craft notions. I took some photographs and left, feeling hot and sad and full of despair, with a sense that this was a wall that would never fall. In both shops (and for full disclosure here, they were Fenwick and John Lewis) I found only 2 products which were packaged
But what happens when the very tools we use to create with, the materials and, crucially, the packaging they are all sold in, compromises our desire to be kind to the earth? What happens when we buy pins and needles, crochet hooks and scissors, clay and chisels, and they all come with an excessive amount of single-use plastic packaging? I realised very recently that one of the biggest impacts of online shopping for me is that I’ve become aware of the enormity of plastic packaging. Since having children, online shopping has become my norm. Everything you could imagine and much more besides can be bought online, which is wonderful, especially for this busy single mother, but in shopping this way, I only get to see the plastic packaging on one single item, and not 100. Most of my sewing notions, quilting batting, fabric scraps for quilts – in fact almost everything I use in my craft work - I buy online. It saves me time, and money. But it also keeps me in a place of disbelief at the vastness of the plastic problem in the craft and haberdashery industry. That is not to say that this industry is alone in the impact of its plastic packaging devastation – we are aware now, with a global awakening, of the plastic problem. Working out how to reverse it is hard work, but recognising its hugeness goes some way to helping us all see the issue and find ways to stand against it. There was a time when you could buy needles in paper cases, and pins in a reusable metal tin. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see manufacturers return to plasticfree packaging? I’ve admitted already being blinkered to the amount of plastic my crafting life produces. I’ve talked at length about 66
NO SERIAL NUMBER plastic-free, and in both cases they were displayed at the bottom of a rack, out of sight. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when faced with the magnitude of the plastic problem, and easier still to give up and say that your small contribution can’t really make that much difference. But coming home and reading some of the comments on the #plasticfreecraft petition, I was reminded that there are many of us on this path and that working together to challenge the industry and to make practical changes in the materials and suppliers we choose to use as part of our creative practice, really CAN make a difference when we do it together. Reflecting on some of the resource streams I have coming into my work space, not all are brand new from a shop, arriving in plastic. I recently acquired some wonderful embroidery threads, passed on to me by a friend. A box of cotton sewing threads on wooden bobbins - still very usable but also wonderfully tactile and NOT PLASTIC! – was found in a vintage sales group on Facebook. It occurred to me that many of us could reject the mainstream shopping arena by choosing to buy only second-hand materials and equipment, sourcing what we need from charity shops, car boot sales, estate sales and online marketplaces like Ebay, and applying as we go the principles of a less wasteful life to our creative work too. If you have found alternatives to buying your craft and haberdashery supplies new (and wrapped in plastic), let us know here at the NSN team, and we may include your ideas in the next edition of the magazine to help inspire other readers. You can also get involved in the campaign by signing our petition, writing to local and national suppliers to call for change, and sharing our campaign on your social media platforms. We want to make a difference and hold industry accountable for the single-use plastic in our craft and haberdashery supplies. We’d love you to raise your voices with ours and help bring about lasting change. Join us!
CALL TO ACTION Challenging the craft industry to reduce #singleuseplastic on craft and haberdashery goods RT our campaign poster & ask the big names in industry to #bringchange Ask craft suppliers how they can reduce their single use plastic packaging
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A Journey to Open a Zero Waste Shop in Co r n wa l l Words by Kate Stuart Photography by un_rap
Un_rap is Falmouth’s first package-free shop, owned by Hannah Pierce, who is proud to be bringing a plastic-free alternative to supermarket shopping to this Cornish town. NSN Magazine Contributor Kate Stuart spoke to Hannah to ask her about her journey to open her shop.
What challenges have you faced in setting the shop up? The most challenging parts were finding the correct shop in a good location and learning to wait and be patient with regards to this. It was also challenging organising the Epos till system as everything is paid by weight. Other than that, it was just time management and hard work.
Tell me about your shop: how it works, what you offer, and who runs it. I own and run Falmouth’s zero waste shop, un_rap. The idea is customers bring their own containers and refill from our bulk dispensers to avoid single-use plastics and unnecessary waste. We stock organic dried wholefoods, such as grains, nuts, seeds, spices, cereals, baking goods, dried fruit, etc. We also have a great range of eco cleaning products and a wide range of sustainable lifestyle products, such as bamboo toothbrushes, metal straws, reusable water bottles & coffee cups. Our number one attraction is our peanut butter machine.
What do you feel are the rewards of running the shop? The most rewarding thing about running a shop is being part of the community. I have the opportunity to give so much and the love I receive in return is insurmountable. One of
Tell me about your motivation for opening a zero-waste shop. I saw the devastating effects of plastic pollution in Australia, Indonesia and on Cornish beaches. So when I decided to hike El Camino in northern Spain, I raised money for Surfers Against Sewage and walked the 500 miles refusing all singleuse plastics. I realised how much impact one individual can have when raising awareness. On the hike I came up with the idea of a shop without plastic and I met some people who convinced me I was capable of doing it. I came home and started building. How long did it take you to set up, from initial concept to doors opening? Tell me about the journey. When I got home, I started a PGCE to be a primary-school teacher two days later. However, my big dream was to open a zero waste shop. I started attending business classes in the evenings and began drafting spreadsheets and collecting potential products. This was in September. In January 2018 it became apparent that Falmouth was ready for the shop, so I began looking for a premises. In April the building that is now un_rap became mine and I started working twenty hours a day. At crunch time I was getting up at 4.30am to plan lessons and complete work for my PGCE, going to school all day to teach, then going to the shop to manage builders, design layouts and make orders. I would get home at midnight and do the same the next day. I knew what I wanted and nothing was going to stop me. Looking back, I have no idea how I did it. We opened on July 21st, a week after I became a qualified teacher. 68
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the biggest driving forces behind my idea was being able to supply Falmouth with sustainable choices and solutions - it feels great to be achieving this. It also really suits me being my own boss!
all ages support and use the shop. My demographic is like a supermarket, which is really exciting. From opening I have asked my customers what they would like to see in store - if I can find it, I will stock it.
How are people’s mindsets shifting since the media coverage of plastic/waste, and how is this affecting business? Since David Attenborough highlighted the issue in Blue Planet, I knew Falmouth was ready for my idea. People are now being educated about the issues of plastic and waste, which is fantastic. I have seen people’s knowledge grow over the last seven months as more information is released via the media and on social media. It is becoming harder for people to ignore the issue, so they come searching for solutions, which is where I am happy to help.
What do you think we can expect from the future in terms of more plastic-free/zero-waste options? Zero-waste shops are popping up in almost every town. The more of us there are, the more pressure we can put on suppliers and the more products that will become available with minimum packaging and in bulk. Choosing to support a zero-waste shop also puts pressure on supermarkets to make drastic changes. This will take time, but we are showcasing and revolutionising consumerism. I don’t think this is a trend that will die out - I think these are changes that will become normal. People’s habits will naturally change if we keep inventing solutions.
Do you have many people in opposition to what you are doing and do you have opportunities to change their mindset? With any business, you receive some negative feedback and some dubious opinions. I have had very few; however, I understand that it is a lack of education that fuels opposition. I have had many opportunities to educate others by giving talks, attending events, being in the media and just by opening the shop. I don’t like telling people what to do, and I certainly don’t like making them feel guilty for the amount of plastic and waste around. Just by walking past the shop or coming in for a browse, I am raising awareness and making people ask questions.
GET IN TOUCH: Website: www.un-rap.co.uk Instagram: @un__rap Facebook: @unrapfalmouthuk
What reaction have you had from local people about the shop and what it offers? Falmouth have welcomed me with open arms and have celebrated the new addition to their high street. People of 69
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PROJECTS FOR Wyatt & Jack
Eco carbon foam
With all the recent coverage of plastic use and the impact
As plastic pollution is a high priority for anyone with a concern for the environment, we’ve got another plastic recycling project! This one is for an insulating foam board for homes made from waste polystyrene.
on the environment, I was so excited when I first heard about Georgia Wyatt-Lovell and her inflatable amnesty. Isle of Wight based Georgia has been saving deckchair canvas and bouncy castles from landfill since 2010, using the materials to make tote bags. Working with the bright colours, Georgia’s brand Wyatt & Jack incorporates the images from the bouncy castles into the designs. Rather than hiding the fabrics’ origins, the bags showcase their upcycled nature. I love that each bag is unique due to the nature of the fabric sourcing and the conversations that must follow when people spot a bouncy castle bag in use.
The campaign was started by husband and wife team Viktor and Elena Rogalski. Viktor was running a home improvements company in Ontario, Canada when he noticed that insulation boarding was expensive and the offcuts were going to landfill. Elena explained to me that they decided that “if we will create insulation then it should be zero waste and made from recycled polystyrene.” Polystyrene is recyclable but often isn’t recycled so Eco Carbon Foam was set up.
Last summer, Wyatt & Jack launched their inflatable amnesty where people send them broken or punctured paddling pools or other inflatable items to be recycled. Georgia told me that she had the idea the year before but it wasn’t until her cat pierced the paddling pool in her garden that she was reminded of the idea and set it in motion. “The response has been AMAZING!” said Georgia, “we have salvaged over 15 tonnes of just inflatables, since July.” The idea of saving these items from landfill is so appealing, I even sent an 8 kg box over! “We have received everything from teeny tiny palm trees and flamingos, right up to a life sized inflatable Stonehenge!” Collecting and shipping boxes of inflatables isn’t cheap or easy though and Georgia started a crowdfunding campaign to help. “The crowdfunder we ran last year to cope with initial logistics, was amazing! It was so successful that we now need to upscale our premises to house the constant influx of inflatables and increase production super quickly!”
Their friend Steve Adams joined the team and appears in the kickstarter video. The campaign is to raise funds to help the company buy the equipment needed to produce their recycled products. They decided to try to fund the idea in this way as “many financial institutions are very sceptical about the purpose and success. We heard many times how ambitious our plans are.” They refused to give up though. As well as their recycled insulation board, their pledge rewards include recycled plastic products such as a recycled cool bag and recycled backpack. Elena explained that their “inspiration is and will always be, our future generations. It is no secret that our planet is facing detrimental environmental challenges. Eco Carbon Foam will create sustainable products for the consumer by using plastics that could have otherwise polluted our community.” At full capacity, the operation will remove and recycle 300,000 metric ton of polystyrene from the environment which would make an incredible difference!
Wyatt & Jack are now running an ‘always on’ campaign on crowdfunder to help fund the transport and storage of the inflatables. With plastics recycling being cut in some areas due to it not being cost effective, this form of recycling and upcycling of a waste is an ideal solution. And Georgia has further plans too. “We have already started an ongoing partnership with the National Trust and our upcoming collaboration with Thomas Cook, will start in May, when they begin sending us inflatables left behind at their Rhodes resorts.” How much of a difference can one person make? I think Georgia Wyatt-Lovell could revolutionise the way we look at waste and recycling.
You can support the project on kickstarter www.kickstarter.com/projects/ecocarbonfoam/100-recycledinsulation-foam-board?ref=discovery&term=eco%20 carbon%20foam
To support the inflatable amnesty, check out the campaign www.crowdfunder.co.uk/wyatt-and-jack-s-inflatable-amnesty 70
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THE ECO CRAFTERS AND ENTREPRENEURS’ AWARD IRENE CAMPSILL My love of handbags, a desire to be unique and hating waste from the offcuts of my dressmaking efforts started me on my journey into making bags and accessories. This has developed into my business today – Irene Campsill Designs. I launched my business in 2006 and recently rebranded to my current name as I wanted to develop my range – embroidered hoop pictures being the first, using hoops that I find in charity shops. This will allow me to go wherever my imagination takes me. Recycling is a major part of my work after I was given an old wool kilt to upcycle. I use whatever interests me and usually this provides the starting point for my designs. I collect wool clothing (especially kilts) and all the offcuts are saved for the applique: sample curtains (I use the lining to make carrier bags) and offcuts from upholsterers and curtain makers. I have extended this ethos to my packaging and finding new ways to use the scraps so that my waste is reduced to the absolute minimum. My professional work life was in admin and accounts, so totally opposite from the creative process I employ now – though it does help with keeping the accounts up to date and completing the tax return!
DESCRIPTION OF WORK:
Bags and accessories made from upcycled textiles with applique enhanced with hand embroidery and free motion embroidery to create designs inspired by the natural world.
HOW THE PRODUCT WAS MADE:
All products are made by myself.
INTERESTING FACTS:
I can’t pass a charity shop without going in.
Get in touch: Website: www.folksy.com/shops/IreneCampsillDesigns FB: @irenecampsilldesigns IG: @irenecampsilldesigns
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JOIN US ONLINE www.facebook.com/groups/Eco.Designers
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THE ECO CRAFTERS AND ENTREPRENEURS’ AWARD
Shannon Graham - mini mermaid clothing Minimermaid Clothing was born on the East Coast of Australia in 2005, shortly after the birth of fashion designer Shannon Graham’s first baby. Minimermaid proved to be a welcome addition to Australian Fashion, it was fun, bright, practical – but most importantly it offered shopping with a conscience. The year 2008 was the first year that one of Australia’s premier fashion trade shows – Fashion Exposed – highlighted an “eco friendly precinct” at their Sydney event. It saw the top of Australia’s eco businesses, with Minimermaid being invited as the only children’s wear label to showcase in the precinct. The timing of numerous publications and media attention
following the tradeshow coincidenced with the birth of Shannon’s second baby. Combined with a yo-yo relationship, the expectations of seasonal ranges and demands of mass production plus the limited knowledge and understanding from retailers regarding what “slow fashion” actually is in a “fast fashion” world, Shannon saw design take a “backseat” over her most important job of being mummy! However, creativity never sleeps and 2018 has seen a relaunch of Shannon’s sustainable couture children’s wear label. She is now a single mum of 3 school aged children, and has opened a retail store/studio and working hard to add her contribution to the “no waste” fashion movement which is growing momentum globally.
DESCRIPTION OF WORK:
Minimermaid is made predominantly from vintage fabric – quite often (brand new) vintage sheets/linen from the 1960/70s, vintage remnants and other designers off cuts and scraps. These are all rescued by various means – saving them from landfill.
HOW THE PRODUCT WAS MADE:
Each piece is designed and hand drafted by Shannon. Each garment and accessory is hand cut with scissors – couture cut. Much care is taken to utilise every last scrap, and a methodical approach is taken to cutting each pattern piece in a descending order to ensure limited waste – garment, purse, hair accessories and earrings. And fabric smaller than a small coin is donated to the local school for the school children to create with. It ensures as close to no waste fashion as possible. A small team of seamstresses helps to complete all production.
INTERESTING FACTS:
I am proud to share the kaleidoscope of my colourful, eco friendly, sustainable couture, children’s wear garments which I am proud to call minimermaid.
Get in touch: FB: @Minimermaid clothing IG: @Minimermaidclothing
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“treat the Earth well It was not given to you by your parents It was loaned to you by your children” Ancient Indian Proverb
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Extinction Rebellion - Managing Social ChangeText by Chris Mauder for XR Citizen Assembly Working Group Photography by Kay Michel Get involved www.extinctionrebellion.org.uk The world is changing - of that there can be no doubt. The planet is changing, society is changing and how we manage that change will determine our future as a species.
adhered to. Further evidence of these examples can be found on the XR Citizens’ Assembly infosite at https://sites.google.com/view/xrca/
The question is; how do we go about changing our society to cope with the changes the planet is going through and could go through in the near future? Or, to put it another way, how do we adapt our society to the environment? How do we evolve?
However, it is the very idea of evolving the processes of public participation in politics that drives the desire of many of Extinction Rebellions members to protest. Of course, the changing climate is the catalyst for their protests but their fuel is social change. Assemblies of people discussing areas of concern in a structured, organised programme designed to enable an equality of all voices taking part, is not so much a vision of Extinction Rebellion as it is their main principle, their working practice as well as their demand. It is their intention to show us that if we want to manage social change it is we, the people, that can and must do it.
It may appear, on the surface, as though Extinction Rebellion believes that protesting about the lack of truth and action from government in regard to climate change is the best way to manage the changes necessary. However, if you dig a little deeper, there is a simple, quiet, calm method to their public madness.
A Citizens’ Assembly for the Climate Emergency can address one aspect of the problem, but climate change will affect us all, so we will all have to play our part in managing that change. We will all have to begin to take part in the discussions that will determine how we do actually manage these planetary changes as an intelligent and adaptable species.
At the core of their demands is the reduction of UK carbon emissions to net zero by 2025, but it is not written in their mandate as an empty promise. Extinction Rebellion are demanding a Citizens’ Assembly for the Climate Emergency to address this issue. Extinction Rebellion believes people, ordinary people, should be the ones to decide what major steps be taken as they will determine what type of society they wish to inhabit. Citizens’ assemblies have addressed and resolved numerous issues in numerous places around the world already. In Ireland, issues that were impossible for politicians to resolve, such as the law on abortion and same-sex marriage, were handled by citizens' assemblies and brought to a resolution. In Canada, citizens' assemblies have been used to deliberate and create recommendations on electoral reform, the outcomes of which have since been implemented. In Australia a citizens' assembly was set up to deliberate the pros and cons of a nuclear waste facility, and the outcome (that the facility would not make sense economically and should not go ahead) was respected and
The necessary social changes can no longer be the preserve of the elite, as they do not have the answers and have failed for decades to decelerate the process of environmental breakdown. Citizens must take responsibility for deciding what type of world they want. At this serious juncture, that decision should not be outsourced to the elite. Extinction Rebellion are trying to make power accessible to the people so they can act where governments and other authorities have failed. We all, as individuals and as a society, will have to step up and act and that is why Extinction Rebellion are doing their best to manage that change and why we should all help out where we can.
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WORKSHOP & EVENTS HUB
Chichester Art Trail The Art Trail provides an annual opportunity to visit studios of your choosing, see your favourite kind of art in the making, talk to artists you admire and discover all things new and surprising! In short, it is a chance for some inspiring days out; explore our beautiful byways, villages, coastline and city while you meet our artists in their working environments. The Studio, 20 Newport Drive, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 3QQ 2nd 3rd 4th and 9th and 10th May 2020 CONTACT DETAILS: www.chichesterarttrail.org 77
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WORKSHOP & EVENTS HUB Exhibition: Laura Davies – Fragments of Spain An exhibition of my painted tea bags with stitches inspired by Spanish scenes and landscapes. The Albar Gallery, El Pilar, Almeria, Spain - May 2019 CONTACTS Email: laura@lauradaviesart.co.uk Phone: +34 693 028 928
Curated By Heart Workshop
www.katecullen.co.uk/curated-by-heart-the-workshop
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Spring Competition
Available on the website
Share your opinions and ideas about NSN magazine for a chance to win this book by Carne Griffiths. Simply type the address www.noserialnumber.org/spring2019 and answer a few questions to enter. AUTUMN ISSUE 2018
A winner will be selected in July 2019
WINTER ISSUE 2018
BACK ISSUES IN DIGITAL VERSION If you wish to read back issues no longer available on the website you can find them on sale on the digital platforms Issuu.com and Magzter.com
www.noserialnumber.org/spring2019
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ISSUE 16 SPRING 2019
A mAGAZINE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRAFT MOVEMENT Why the name “No Serial Number”? Because nature and craft share a common characteristic, they are not made in series. They are both the result of an organic, slow process of growth and development. Not one leaf is the same, nor is a handmade creation. Crafts remind us that our hands and minds can work in tune with our natural environment to make things that are useful, or simply beautiful. As a society, we are in urgent need to slow down and preserve our collective environmental and artisanal heritages from unsustainable production practices and corporate greed. No Serial Number Magazine is a humble attempt to explore how creativity, nature, activism and business intersect in contemporary society. Who is it for? artists, artisans, casual makers, craftivists, and conscious citizens Topics textile arts • natural colours • traditional trades and crafts • creative upcycling and salvaging • slow fashion • zero-waste lifestyle • biodiversity • grassroots environmental movements INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED BY NO SERIAL NUMBER ISSN 2516-1776 (Print) ISSN 2516-1784 (Online)
No Serial Number Magazine www.noserialnumber.org info@noserialnumber.org Fb: www.facebook.com/noserialnumbermagazine Twitter: @N0serialnumberM Use #NoSerialNumber Pinterest: noserialnumber Instagram: @noserialnumber.com_magazine
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