ISSUE 1 SUMMER 2015
An Eclectic Magazine about Eco-Conscious Design Dying PATTERNS with spices and handcarved wooden stamps: continuity and design in a traditional Community of Dyers
Eco-Minded Transformations the extraordinary journey from the scrapyard to elegant fashion collection
Reclaiming Beach Finds the poetic journey of a British artist
The Community-Engaged Streetware Label: Included: Fun Quizzes and Competitions to WIN Handmade and Eco-friendly Products worth
£350!
how keeping it small-scale can be more rewarding than aiming big
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: SUSTAINABLE FASHION • DIARY OF A KNITTER • HOME DÉCOR IDEAS TRAVEL CHRONICLES • TRADITIONAL RECIPES • THE MULTIFUNCTIONAL GARDEN
ISSUE 1 SUMMER 2015
A warm welcome to all our readers! No Serial Number is a new magazine dedicated to the promotion of small, independent designers, artisans, creative businesses, labels, projects or otherwise realities with a strong social, ethical and sustainable ethos. The title No Serial Number stands to represent those products that cannot be reproduced in series: rooted-locally, organically grown, naturally printed (or dyed!), traditionally crafted, hand-made, upcycled or recycled and always ethicallyminded. In this issue, we lined up a number of designers and artists who look at similar values (such as being conscious of environmental and community issues) and problematics (such as overproduction and waste disposal) from different angles and from very different contexts. Their stories have in common the sheer creativity with which people adopt different practices to respond to similar concerns. Rosalind from Derbyshire tells about her constant search for natural materials and her artistic way to send environmental messages by transforming waste into art. Kimberley tells about her journey from customising with recycled materials to minisimising waste and her deep connection with disadvantaged members of her community in Bristol (UK). From the UK, we then ‘travel’ all the way to Rome (Italy) to tell the extraordinary
story of a couple and their business of transforming scrapyard items into elegant fashion, which is also combined to social projects related to salvaging and waste reduction. We then go to India to find a designer involved in maintaining and evolving the craft traditions of a longestablished Community of Dyers. She describes her resilience and confidence in women’s empowerment through work. We then go back to Europe, Spain, to visit an eco-designer involved in finding innovative ways to look at the full life-cycle of products as well as developing the nonmaterial emotional aspect of sustainability. The other articles in this issue hope to give an insight into different realms of eco-conscious and/or traditional lifestyles: watching closely the chaotic rhythms of our edible garden, cooking with wild herbs, preserving fruits and vegetables through the winter, dress-making with naturallydyed wool from local sheep. We hope that you will find in this issue new ideas to explore and experiment with. This is very much an experiment for us too so we welcome your feedback and opinions. Don’t forget the competitions at the end of this magazine will give you a chance to be creative and also provide us with the feedback we need to improve future issues. We will publish our magazine four times a year as a seasonal issue, so see you again in September! All the best,
No Serial Number Team
Are you an artisan or designer working with traditional techniques and/or eco-friendly, organic, locally sourced or recycled materials? Do you have a small-scale production? Are you in London (UK)? Or would you be interested in travelling to London to participate at trading/design shows? If you answered YES to these questions please contact Francesca: noserialnumber@gmail.com
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CONTENTS
This is a quartely magazine that will be released on the following dates: Spring: 23 March - Summer: 23 June Autumn: 23 September - Winter: 23 December
TRADITIONAL TRADES AND CRAFTS
4 Diary of a knitter: how to make
a dress from naturally hand-dyed Italian sourced wool and my knitting tools right by my side!
MULTIFUNCTIONAL GARDEN
25 The garden stories: witnessing the Solstice from the vegetable plot
27 Snapshots of spring: chrono story
of a month told by a nut, a quince, a lilac
7 Dying PATTERNS with spices and
TRAVEL CHRONICLES
handcarved wooden stamps: continuity and design in a traditional Community of Dyers
29 Wild herbs
COUNTRY CHRONICLES
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10 Reclaiming Beach Finds:
in Messapian Country
iary: forthcoming events, exhibitions D and museums. Review of Feltrosa Event
the poetic journey of a British artist
CITY CHRONICLES SUSTAINABLE FASHION
13 The Community-Engaged
Streetware Label: how keeping it small-scale can be more rewarding than aiming big
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co-Minded Transformations: E the extraordinary journey from the scrapyard to elegant fashion collection of Nyom Roma
HOME CHRONICLES
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EYOND recycling: B creativity, emotional sustainability and the life cycle of products. Lessons from Ciclus by Tati Guimarães
KITCHEN CHRONICLES Cooking With Local Produce
22 Drying food, what a beauty!
Tips and suggestions from the Culture and Botanical Art Association
24 Kitchen Table: preparing Romanesco artichokes and potatoes in the home cooking tradition
ADVERTORIAL
33 Holiday workshops in Italy THE SANDPIT
34 Games, Competitions and Giveaways CREDITS Editors and Creative Directors: Alessandra Palange Francesca Palange Rosa Rossi Translations: Fuschia Hutton Graphic Design: Graphic designer: Caterina Sebastiani Arti Grafiche Aquilane http://www.artigraficheaquilane.it Cover Photo: Designer: Filthy Squirrel Clothing Photography by Elizabeth Mizon Copyright: All images and materials are copyright protected and are the property of their respective makers/ owners as detailed below. Diary of a knitter Text by Rosa Rossi Photography by Elia Palange Dying Patterns Photos by I-Ra Designs Reporter: Francesca Palange Reclaiming Beach Finds Photography by John Blakemore Reporter: Francesca Palange The Community-Engaged Streetware Label Reporter: Francesca Palange
Designer: Filthy Squirrel Clothing Photography by Elizabeth Mizon Make-up: Tessa Harrison Hair: Kate Medland Stylist: Kim Filth Jewellery: Swank Jewelry Other Designer: Antiform Models: Manji, Christine, Parrot Man Eco-Minded Transformations Text by Rosa Rossi Photography by Nyom Roma Emotional Sustainability Photography by Ciclus Ecodesign Designer: Tati Guimarães Reporter: Francesca Palange Drying food, what a beauty! Text by Giovanna Tiraferri Photography by Lablab Association of Botanical Art and Culture The Kitchen Table Text and recipe by Rosa Rossi Photography by Elia Palange The Garden Stories Text by Rosa Rossi Photography by Elia Palange Wild Herbs in Messapian country Text and Photography by Silvia Vastano Review of Feltrosa Event: Text by Rosa Rossi
TRADITIONAL CRAFTS
ISSUE 1 SUMMER 2015
DIARY OF A KNITTER: how to make a dress from naturally hand-dyed italian sourced wool and my knitting tools right by my side!
I
t’s no longer the time for knitting baby clothes... (When the twins were born, like the good novice granny that I was, I tried to knit something. A little coordinated hat and cap; the little hat ended up in the dryer; you could hardly recognise it! It could have been a smurf’s hat! A first miserable failure, ending in fits of laughter). Time has passed, numerous clothes washings and dryings have taken place and it’s not even crossed my mind to suggest knitting something
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else; it’s too complicated to take care of it properly in modern houses (especially if your grandchildren live in London, where there just isn’t the space to hang out something which has been delicately washed in soapy water, like I can still do in the village). Not that I’ve stopped knitting; it would be impossible. When you learned from your granny as a child, in an old fashioned house, you can put it down for a while and concentrate on other things; but sooner or later you pick it up again!
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Dying patterns with spices and handcarved wooden stamps: continuity and design in a traditional Community of Dyers
I
had the pleasure to have a chat with Kiran, an inspiring woman who is currently based in Malta but whose heart lies in her traditional textile workshop in India. She keeps a close connection with her country thanks to her constant involvement with the product design. Her designs are uniquely characterised by the intricate patterns in her natural dyeing, which are achieved using symmetrical designs hand-carved on wooden blocks. Typical of Indian cuisine and among other local roots, she uses turmeric to make beautiful golden scarves.
Tell me something about you. I am a textile designer from National Institute of Design (NID) Faculty of Fine Arts MS University Vadodara and my family is into business of textiles and manufacturing of textiles over the last ten decades. I belong to the fifth generation carrying this tradition forward. I am basically a painter, I did painting and then I did my postgraduate studies in textile design. I wanted to take my business at a level that it not just something that every craftsman is doing. In India, everywhere you go there’s fabric. So there has to be some other aspects of it, the designer has to take care of the details, of the finish of the final product. There are hardly any products with these specifications, even if in the last ten years things have been changing.
What about your name? Where does it come from? Indira is the name of my mother in law and I want her name to be remembered, which is why I have kept her name. What inspired you to get into textiles design? When I was doing painting I learned that my
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COUNTRY CHRONICLES
ISSUE 1 SUMMER 2015
Reclaiming Beach Finds: the poetic journey of a British artist
R
osalind Pounder is a British artist who has lived in Derbyshire her whole life. Art has always been a part of her life. Then she graduated in fine arts in 1988. When she was at college she became really interested in environmental issues. She works with foraged and found materials that she usually finds in her surroundings: her garden and the beach for example. I think one of the more significant ideas behind her work is that ‘of turning something quite humble into something quite beautiful and special’. The message that comes across with her work is the attention to detail and creativity that she puts towards items that are seemingly useless and undesirable: waste. She transforms this waste in a message of hope: the prospect of changing our attitudes towards buying new and throwing away. She nourishes a healthy obsession for developing a close relationship with the ob-
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jects of the world. Her art encourages us to stop seeing these objects as simply ‘inanimate stuff’ to dispose of, but as an integral part of out living ecosystem. Waste therefore, becomes an object to be transformed and cherished, an object of attention and a moment of reflection on our very impact on this earth. What are the values that you want to promote with your artistic work? I suppose to use something that is so humble and usually that is overlooked and to create something which would make people think on different levels. For example, with the nests I made from strandline materials on beaches, it’s like strandline is rubbish and can be quiet distasteful when you see all this stuff just lying around. However to create something rather beautiful from strandline, like a little vessel,
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belts also means that the car scrap yard doesn’t need to dispose of materials like polyester which, when burned, is highly polluting. There is also an emotional aspect to Patrizio and Daniela’s recycling work; when they go into cars, which have been in accidents they find themselves face to face with small objects and toys etc. This puts them in contact, although indirectly, with tragic events, and they live these moments with an idea of salvaging in the memory of those who
have lost their lives. The first attempts to make something with the recycled belts weren’t great; they needed to practice plaiting, adjusting and sewing the base material (the belts) to make it become a textile from which the desired products could be made. A sewing course was the tool that bound the two experiences - work and university - into a ‘sartorial’ project with sustainability at its fundamental core. The definition of sustainability that inspires Patrizio and Daniela is linked to the idea of the equilibrium that should support the world but that has been lost in the obsession of buying and throwing away without any consideration for the environment. Respect for the world in which we live must be inspired by using as much as possible of what already exists. Recycling, preservation and respect are the key words for a sustainable future. The secret is in repurposing objects which already exist - safety belts in Patrizio and Daniela’s case - making them into a textile which can be used for all kinds of items, from furniture to fashion, combined with other accessories and with other reused textiles (samples, scraps from closed down businesses etc.).
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Emotional Sustainability: passionate philosophy of Ciclus by Tati Guimarães
T
ati is a Brazilian designer who has lived in Barcelona for the last seventeen years. She started her eco-conscious brand in 1998 and has since developed some iconic items such as the Bakus Trivet, a trivet slash “collector of best memories”, which gained an exclusive packaging and is now part of the international catalogue of MoMa, The Museum of Modern Art of New York. How did you get involved into doing eco-friendly design? It was very natural. In my life since I was 14 I always loved to eat organic foods and I was always worried about the process involved in making them. I think I brought from Brazil the kind of conscience. In the beginning when I opened my brand, Ciclus, the word sustainability didn’t exist. I was a hippie back then. Recycling was felt as part of a ‘hippie conscience’. At the beginning I worked with materials that were part of my dayto-day. My first collection was a bit shy: a collection of jewellery in 1998, which I sold to a mu-
HOME DéCOR ideas
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seum in Barcelona. It was an important platform for me. Because of that I started selling bespoke items to companies by commission, such as corporate gifts. Now I have a range of products about celebrations, for example a ‘collector of best moments’ that is at the MoMa in New York. Now my main philosophy is to develop “emotional sustainability”, meaning that when you have an emotional link with a product you don’t throw it away. The main concept of my design philosophy is to get the most functions and sensations out of a product using the least amount of material and processes. The thread that connects all products is to do the maximum with the minimum and to encourage an emotional experience. Where does the name Ciclus come from? When I started I didn’t want to use my own name. So when I was thinking about a name I thought about the idea of a sustainable design cycle, where you think about the entire process behind the design including giving back to nature again, as in giving a new cycle of life to
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The Garden Stories: witnessing the Solstice from the vegetable plot
the multifunctional garden
NO SERIAL NUMBER
A
ll winter it’s been alternately raining or snowing. Up until the last days before the solstice, rain continued to soak the ground. A guarantee that flowering will occur at the right time; for years, a sunny February has meant that the almond trees and the fruit trees in general have flowered early. A magnificent spectacle, but there was no yield; the first bout of cold weather in March obliterates everything and goodbye fruit! This year, the seasons seem to be waiting their turn... And here we are in the vegetable patch for the first spring sowing: red onions. Candeloro has already seen that the ground is ready, digging and fertilising (only with manure). Our ground is tricky to work with; it all slopes upwards towards the hill where in medieval times the village (Navelli in Italy) was castled. There are so many stones, which led to the building of many dry stone walls over the centuries, and they were also widely used in building construction. Every flat plot of land is used for little family vegetable patches, while the sloping parts are preferred for trees, especially almond trees. The little plot of land is now ready for furrowing. Candeloro carefully plants the little bulbs
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ISSUE 1 SUMMER 2015
started to have a notable presence), a quince tree that we planted around seven years ago and already gives us a good fruit yield, and a lilac tree, which, during the course of a month, develops its incredible ‘bunches’ of flowers (the flowers don’t last very long once they have completely flowered). Whilst the lilac tree, already flowered, is showing off its magnificent green livery, we will continue to follow the development of the quince tree and walnut tree up to harvest season and their transformation; we have made a date in autumn with quince jelly and awaiting excellent walnut cakes.
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travel chronicles
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Wild Herbs in Messapian Land
I
n 1972, Gino decided to start a family, and, along with his wife Vita, a wonderful cook, he flung himself in his passion, the traditional cuisine of Puglia. And thus his family run restaurant was born. We are in Ceglie Messapica, a town with a rich history, in the land of the Messapians, the ancient Italian people who lived in what is now southern Murgia, just outside Salento, and who came from Illyria around the ninth century B.C. In the seventies, the traditional cuisine of this area was focused on simple peasant dishes; orecchiette (fresh durum wheat pasta) either served with meat ragù (in this region of Italy, ragù is not made with mince, but with pieces of mixed meats that are left to boil for hours in tomato sauce), or as orecchiette mantecate (orecchiette creamed with mince and Italian cheeses) and topped with turnip stuffed with cherry tomatoes, garlic and lots of extra virgin olive oil, of which Puglia is a leading world producer. When I tried Gino’s cooking for the first time 25 years ago, the feeling I got was strongly reminiscent of having returned to a relative’s or a friend’s house after a long journey. Huge win-
He found himself once again picking the aromatic herbs and wild vegetables that his grandparents had taught him to recognise several decades ago, and he started to use them in his kitchen at home
dows showing off the colour and fragrance of a majestic wisteria illuminate the rooms. There is an unusual wooden piece of furniture, which lends a slightly baroque appearance, and is actually the result of Gino’s constant experimentation. Gino is also an amateur maker, and makes food trollies out of old washboards and bread baskets (made in the restaurant itself) from dried out mashed beans and gelatine. The real change, however, took place along with Gino’s latest discovery. Four years ago, his
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