No Serial Number - Summer Issue 2017

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

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CRAFT | HERITAGE | ENVIRONMENT

LIFE CYCLE: THE FOUND OBJECTS

STORY FROM A MILLINER’S WORKSHOP

MAKING THE HORSEHAIR TRADITION CONTEMPORARY 3

BOOKS THAT GO AGAINST THE GRAIN

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Dear readers, Welcome to the fifth paper issue of No Serial Number Magazine!

Michela Pasini. The photoshoot also includes Malaterra’s handbags, which are made using the artisan’s grandmother’s original Singer sewing machine. During our travels, we also went to meet Silvia Ronconi, an artisan who talked to us about the traditional work of a milliner and her passion for theatre.

As part of this article, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in a visual step-by-step guide to making a hat! In this section we also have another step-by-step guide, fashion designer Bea Lorimer of Heke Design shares with us how to make an upcycled skirt. Finally we also meet mixed media artist Heather Freitas who talks about environmentalism through her colourful and impressive art.

We have come a long way since our first ever issue of the magazine and it’s all thank to you.

To celebrate the first year of paper copies we have introduced a brand new section in the magazine, the Zero-Waste Lifestyle section. In this section, we look at various ways one can shop more sustainably on a day-to-day basis and tell you stories behind everyday objects.

Moreover in the traditional trades and crafts section we talked to textile artist Roxanne Lasky, whose textile art is where slow stitching, natural dyes and upcycling converge. We also interviewed Marianne Kemp, a wonderful textile artist from the Netherlands who uses horse hair for her weaving projects, reviving an old tradition by giving it a modern twist. In the same section we visited the traditional workshop Legatoria Viali, from Italy, and documented the process of binding a book. We also interviewed the lovely ladies behind Drap Art, from Spain, a non-profit organisation which helps raise awareness of sustainable consumption and waste through art.

The stories don’t end here! The travel section, and social projects, biodiversity and multi-functional garden are all packed with more informative and inspirational articles.

Remember to visit our social media pages to wish us a happy first anniversary! Fill out our seasonal survey (the link is at the end of the magazine) for a chance to win a lovely craft book!

Happy reading,

No Serial Number team

In the sustainable fashion section, you will browse through our Summer Photoshoot, featuring the wonderful dresses created by eco print artist and our long time collaborator

Credits Editor Alessandra Palange Art Editor Francesca Palange NSN Italy Editor Rosa Rossi

An Interview with Roxanne Lasky Interviewer Francesca Palange Photography by Roxanne Lasky

Collaborators Jaqueline Rosenbach Lucy Sobrero

The Cycle: The Found Objects by Roxanne Lasky Words and photography by Roxanne Lasky

Eco Print Consultant Michela Pasini

Making the Horsehair Weaving Tradition Contemporary Words by Jacqueline Rosenbach See photographers inside article

Marketing Alessandra Palange Francesca Palange Translations Fuschia Hutton Lucy Sobrero Subscriptions & Advertising info@noserialnumber.org Cover Photos Cover page: Detail of MIGRATION - HEARTH Found, repurposed rust and eco dyed fabrics, lace, metal embellishments, wire, hand stitched by Roxanne Lasky Back cover: Rusted Length of cotton, contact printed with rusty washers by Roxanne Lasky Copyright All images are copyright protected and are the property of their respective makers/owners as detailed below.

Books That Go Against the Grain Words by Rosa Rossi Photography by Elia Palange Craft with a Higher Purpose Words by Roberta Milia and Rossella Barbarossa Photography by Roberta Milia Drap-Art: Not to Waste, Not to Miss Words by Jacqueline Rosenbach Photography by Drap-Art Summer Outfit: Dress with Flowers Outfit by Michela Pasini Photography by Luana Calabro’ Model Naina Bajaria Venue Cody Dock, London Malaterra (= wicked earth), the Story of a Bag Words by Rosa Rossi Photos by Antonella Carchidi

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Stories from a Milliner’s Workshop Words by NSN team Photography by Elia Palange Make Your Own Upcycled Skirt by Heke Design Words and photography by Bea Lorimer The Eco Art of Heather Freitas Words by Jacqueline Rosenbach Su Mruzu Words and photography by Annalisa Atzeni On the Trail of Pomona Words by Rosa Rossi Photography by Elia Palange Maine, Ocean, Camping Words by Jacqueline Rosenbach Photography by Searsport Shores Ocean Camping Following a Precious Thread Words & photography by Coordinamento Donne di Montagna Lotus Bag with Little Hands Design Words and photography by Little Hands Design CIC Stories Behind Everyday Objects Words and interviews by NSN team Photography by each individual business Craft Project: Eco Printing on Paper by Wolleboom Words and photography by Hilde Wolleboom

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This is a quarterly magazine released on the following dates: Spring 23 March Summer 23 June Autumn 23 September Winter 23 December

Contents TRADITIONAL ARTS, TRADES AND CRAFTS 4 . An Interview with Roxanne Lasky 10. The Cycle: The Found Objects by Roxanne Lasky 15. Making the Horsehair Weaving Tradition Contemporary 20. Books That Go Against the Grain 24. Craft with a Higher Purpose: Hand Weaving and Social Engagement 28. Drap-Art: Not to Waste, Not to Miss

SUSTAINABLE FASHION 32. Summer Outfit: Dress with Flowers 38. Malaterra (= wicked earth), the Story of a Bag 40. Stories from a Milliner’s Workshop 46. Make Your Own Upcycled Skirt by Heke Design

HOME CHRONICLES 50. The Eco Art of Heather Freitas

KITCHEN CHRONICLES 54. Su Mruzu, an Old Traditional Sardinian Harvester’s Breakfast

THE MULTIFUNCTIONAL GARDEN 56. On the Trail of Pomona, to Defend Biodiversity

TRAVEL CHRONICLES 58. Maine, Ocean, Camping: An Eco-friendly Experience

DIARY 64. Following a precious thread... (Processing Alpaca fibre in Bolivia) 68. Lotus Bag with Little Hands Design

ZERO WASTE LIFESTYLE 70. Stories Behind Everyday Objects

FROM THE BLOG 82. Craft Project: Eco Printing on Paper by Wolleboom

QUARTERLY COMPETITIONS

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TRADITIONAL ARTS TRADES & CRAFTS

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Q&A

An Interview with...

Roxanne Lasky

In this fascinating narrative of her life as an artist, we discover Roxanne Lasky’s complex and adventurous journey through many art forms, techniques, materials, and skills, which make her artwork what it is today.

Hi Roxanne, thanks for agreeing to speak to us, first of all tell us a little bit about yourself.

I grew up the oldest of three daughters in a very traditional household that emphasised education and spirituality as the foundation for a wholesome existence. I developed an early love of music and reading as portals to the imagination. I also loved to collect and make things.

One of my favourite childhood crafts was assembling model cars. I think it gave me an understanding of how things fit together and made me aware of my knack for deciphering instructions and manipulating intricate pieces.

I started to study art seriously in college, but ended up leaving school to work in finance for ten years. I got married and when my two daughters came along I stayed home to care for them. In my spare time, I began painting again and returned to college for my Visual Art degree. I took courses in painting, writing, sculpture and photography, museum studies and the full teaching curriculum until I acquired my Master’s Degree in Teaching. I taught art in the public schools until 2006, when I started a fabric and long arm quilting business with my husband. During that time, I taught workshops on design and colour theory, developed a line of quilt patterns, published a book and designed fabric.

In 2014, we closed the business to move to South Carolina where the weather is warmer. It was time to devote my attention exclusively to my art practice and teaching.

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Roxanne, you work with watercolours, oils, metals, photographs, cloth and words. Many kinds of materials and many practices. How did you learn to manage all these materials, and how did you get involved with all these practices?

Since childhood, I have been fascinated by colour and graphic design. I was surrounded by people who were adept at handcrafts. These included a maternal grandmother who crocheted prolifically and my mother, who sewed our clothes. My father had a woodshop in our garage and a photography darkroom in our basement. His father was an accomplished ornamental bricklayer in New York City and my father’s brother painted as a hobby. I was so moved by a large scale work of this uncle, that at age six I vowed to become a painter.

I was influenced by their make and can-do philosophies which encouraged me to find solutions even if I had to make something from scratch. I became more comfortable with my curiosity for tools and techniques when I looked more closely at the practices of other artists. Multi-media offers countless options for achieving the result I might envision.

As an art specialist for middle and high school, my varied toolbox of skills was an asset. I taught studio art, darkroom photography, sculpture and contemporary crafts. I’ve always challenged myself to use materials that deviate from their expected purpose and to awaken that problem solving in my students. Looking at things from

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Over time, I discovered that this spectrum of materials is not random at all, but a creative thread throughout my work.

So it is no surprise that I made my way through painting, printmaking and photography on my journey to the tactile qualities of textiles, book and paper making, the symbolism of writing, the engineering of stitch and the chemistry of ecodyeing. Nothing is beyond the scope of research, study and practice.

You eco-dye and hand-stitch all your works. How did you first learn about natural colours and slow stitching? And what is it that you find particularly interesting about these processes?

I was always drawn to ethnic fabrics and brought Japanese Indigos, African Kuba and Mud Cloth and Aboriginal and Vintage prints to my shop. I like the simplicity of indigenous design and the resourceful nature of primitive methods.

Human ingenuity is a by-product of imagination and necessity. About ten years ago, when I heard about an ecobundle project, I collected metal, leaves, earth and tied them into a piece of cloth to see how they would “weather” over time in the environment. Shortly thereafter, I moved to a neighbourhood that was still under construction. My walks yielded a wealth of metals scattered on building sites.

I added nails and odd rusty shards to a growing collection of found objects that could make interesting marks on cloth. I had used paint and photography to create prints, now leaves and metal.

At some point I bought India Flint’s ‘Eco Colour’ but my interest in surface design on fabric had started in the late 90’s with Jane Dunnewold’s ‘Complex Cloth.’ I had simply moved into a phase where natural, found and repurposed supplanted my use of acid and MX dyes. I was returning in some respects to the mindset of my purist watercolour studies, where limitations are opportunities to learn something deeper.

My move to South Carolina serendipitously planted me in the land of Indigo, where the climate and soil support its growth.

In an effort to plant roots in my new place, I signed up for a garden plot in our neighbourhood. I grew a crop from two varieties of indigo seeds, and dyed cloth with the fresh harvest. Roland Ricketts, Michel Garcia and John Marshall came to light as resources for recipes. I love the surprises that natural materials and dyes reveal, but keep notes on my experiments, mostly so I don’t make the same mistake twice.

In my digging, I discovered that South Carolina soil is a bounty of natural clays in a variety of colours. I began to make paints from them and also returned to painting on paper and cloth using these muds, rust water, black walnut ink, indigo and other natural dyes.

Having warmer temperatures most of the year has allowed me to spend more time at the local river and beaches, exploring and gathering. In May 2016, I undertook my largest and riskiest ‘Eco-Dye Project’ when I climbed a rusty 15-foot-tall shrimp winch while my husband held the ladder.

I wrapped its I-beam and A-frame supports with 225 feet of cottons to rust them in the elements. It remained there for several months until I had the nerve to climb up again.

Hand-stitching was evolving over this period. I have always liked handwork and incorporated it often in my machined quilts. My long arm quilting work was exclusively freehand, nurturing my love of drawing and longhand journal

Both pages: MIGRATION - PRECIOUS CARGO Recycled artist’s paint box with objects found in Boston area, arranged in compartments. Patchwork map of Charles River in Cambridge, MA with surrounding area upholstered into cover.

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017 writing. I revisited a lesson plan that focused on recognizing the source of creativity through our personal stories and I began teaching it at a local museum, where I was required to tie in a current art exhibit to the stitching workshop.

I continued to offer ‘Threads of Meaning’ at my shop, providing exercises and readings as inspiration. The rules of quilting were set aside and offered me and the workshop participants a place to find our voices. The perfection of proper quilting was replaced by the beauty found in the imperfect and the intention imbued in the work. I stitched along with students and in between classes as preparation.

It became apparent quickly that steady and quiet work generated new ideas for more stitching. I think having my shop accelerated this evolution to find alternative ways to work with needle and thread.

allow the process to unfold are good habits of mind and yield results that satisfy my aesthetic.

You say you gather scraps intuitively for your work, and that you compose narrations from them. Where do these scraps come from and what kind of narrations do you build with them?

Whether I am working on a piece for a series or just experimenting with collage, I usually have a colour palette in mind based on the concept for the piece and I cover my workspace with scraps of cloth and lace, trims and threads that have been found, thrifted or gifted. It allows me to revisit pieces partially developed from earlier experiments that I may have forgotten about - often giving me ideas for new applications in the current or other projects.

I work in silence so that thoughts, words, ideas occur organically. Most of my work is based on personal narrative, but the history of the cloth I use enriches the meanings. I believe firmly that we are our own best resource for ideas and using what is closest to us makes for our most truthful art.

What benefits do you find in hand-stitching over machinestitching?

Hand stitching slows down the heartbeat. It requires a focus on the present moment without having to think about it. It is like other repetitive activities that allow the mind to wander wide open. Ideas emerge readily.

Some things are easier to assemble by hand, not limited by fitting under the foot of a sewing machine. While sewing machines are useful for straight construction and assembly, a study of couture details confirmed that hand stitching skills are essential at times and reveal a beauty in slow, precise work that cannot be achieved by machine. I don’t mean to sound partial, but being connected to the cloth - hand to needle and thread - suits my desire to thoroughly engage with the work. The time, patience and discipline required to

Could you please tell us about your “Word Houses”? And how is the process of creating them?

The house has been what I call a ‘personal icon’, something that recurs in my work, because it holds layers of meaning that cannot be expressed in words. Others include feathers, stones and the dress. I was fascinated by the box structure as well, the container or vessel. Materials were becoming available to make 3D constructions with textiles possible.

When commercial materials alone were not giving me the results I envisioned, I was forced (very cheerfully) to come up with ways to resolve my design issues. Enter the knitting needle, oxygen tubing, wire, pipe cutter and pliers and I had a firm foundation on which to build my neighbourhood.

In the course of this process, a theme inevitably emerges which I distil into a one word embroidery or embellishment.

‘Hope’, ‘persist’, ‘dance’, ‘inspire’ and ‘dig’ are some of the titles for these sculptures.

MIGRATION - NEST Hand dyed, eco printed, hand stitched patchwork on canvas stretchers 36” by 60” (Finished piece from layout example in demo)

What advice would you give to someone starting in the art of patchworks?

Start by setting aside excuses for not starting. Start small and simple until it becomes a habit to start. One of my favourite words is “consider”. When I see something that sparks my interest, I jot down a note to myself to consider it more intensely, as if there are secrets that might unfold in its research. It could be a leaf, a colour combination, a book title. By honing our skills for noticing things that may seem ordinary but attract us anyway, we are narrowing the focus on what our work should be about. We move into the realm of intuition. Spending time in the quiet will lead there. Develop patience in allowing the process to unfold. Use and reuse what is in front of you. Limitations can simplify decisions.

Invent new uses for objects. There is no one way to do anything in patchwork or any other medium.

You say on your website that you have a passion for teaching art methods with an emphasis on understanding one’s process and developing creativity. How do you think creativity and eco-friendly techniques can be related?

I am passionate about sharing the contentment and purpose that making art has given me. I am also most joyful in the invention phase and love demonstrating to others in my

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Cotton weaving (hand) with found rusted cable pieces on rusted cotton background

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017 workshops that they have the ability to take what is in front of them, repurpose, reinvent and make something, giving fruition to the highest form of human spirit. I think we all desire to be creative in some way.

When I consider how teaching relates to eco-friendly techniques, I view my connection to the landscape as a source of inspiration for lessons as well as a tangible source of materials. Creativity is organic when we immerse ourselves in the process of making. Using and doing what comes naturally is ecologically sound.

I encourage students to notice their ways of working, capture thoughts in a notebook and nurture the inner well with reading and writing and free air. Work with materials that speak to you and listen to them as you work.

Can you tell us about your future projects and commissions?

I am currently in the beginning stages of new work in my ‘Body Maps’ series, called ‘Sister Stories’. This project is an offshoot of ‘Migration’, a group of stitched pieces about real and imagined journeys, that has evolved over the last 2 years into three-dimensional objects and wearables as surfaces for hand stitching. My work continues to explore personal stories as a means to greater self-awareness. This work uses embroidery, manipulated fabric and found objects to create a literal landscape of textile topography.

I am also experimenting with the textural potential of handmade papers from natural materials like Spanish Moss in my work. I continue to blog, photograph, explore the landscape for treasures, grow plants for dyes, journal and paint. My goal at the moment is to continue working, experimenting, exhibiting and allowing all opportunities to unfold.

Are you planning to facilitate any workshop during the summer?

I returned recently from a teaching assignment in Melbourne with Fibre Arts Australia. I would love to be teaching Threads of Meaning and my new course, Textile Topography whenever possible. I am also in the process of reissuing my workshops in online format and will be developing new material for that over the summer. I have two pieces of work selected for shows this summer. ‘Migration-Souvenir’ will be traveling with SAQA’s “Layered Voices” until 2019 and ‘Tidal III-Source’ has been juried into “Sacred Threads 2017” in July. I welcome inquiries for teaching opportunities and commission ideas.

TIDAL II - CAIRN Turmeric, rust and indigo dyed recycled cloth, reverse appliqué and other hand stitching 24 by 41 inches

Fiber Indigo Piece Title MIGRATION - NEST Hand dyed, eco printed, hand stitched patchwork on canvas stretchers 36” by 60” (Finished piece from layout example in demo)

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MEMORY - CAMEO Repurposed silks and lace, hand embroidered, hand lettered and stitched. 22 inches square

MIGRATION PRECIOUS CARGO Recycled artist’s paint box with objects found in Boston area, arranged in compartments.

Patchwork map of Charles River in Cambridge, MA with surrounding area upholstered into cover.

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 FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.roxannelasky.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ideasincloth/ Instagram: @roxannelasky Pinterest: www.uk.pinterest.com/roxannegmail/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/roxannelasky

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Life Cycle: The Found Objects by Roxanne Lasky

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bout once a week, I go on a deliberate gathering tour of local thrift shops; but my eye is always tuned in to the odd shape in nature wherever I walk.

I have gathered a hefty selection of rocks, shells, bones, feathers, leaves, branches, vintage linens, sewing tools and ephemera like knitting needles, buttons and buckles.

Gather what you’re attached to and let their presence in your collection foster ideas for your work.

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like reinventing uses for things that I have in my collections. I might use a twig or piece of driftwood as a hanger for a small stitched piece.

Sticks and old boxes are great alternatives to traditional weaving looms. Rusty wire and metal shards can be reshaped into lots of things. Keep an open mind to the possibilities. By reworking a found object into something, you need will give your work its signature character.

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ometimes an object speaks to you immediately.

More often, objects sit around until just the right application.

I am usually working on two or three projects at different stages at one time. Unless I have a specific deadline, I allow myself the freedom to do the work that suits my mood.

Rely on your intuition to cue your work. Trust yourself to sense when something is fitting or right in a piece.

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ometimes I get an idea while planning that I think is perfect for the item. My sister gifted me three pieces of my mother’s infant wardrobe. The crocheted stockings were eventually cut up and tried as a border before being turned upside down to become a dress. The background cross-stitch was purchased after I had started this piece and the repurposed corduroy background was reassigned to the border. Play around with your materials; when something new comes into the picture, don’t be afraid to edit something else. Let the piece evolve and the story unfold.

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imilarly, using the vintage buckles, that had been in the button jar for a very long time, as a ‘spine’, in Sister Stories I, evolved into a dress shaped vessel as the story revealed itself during the process. The arrangement of the buckles continued to change during the appliqué process. The gloves that I had been collecting for a series about twins, based on a book I had read, became ‘wings’ in this piece. Rely on your own collection of ‘personal icons’ to inform the work rather than avoiding the obvious solutions. Take photographs throughout the process so that possible arrangements are documented. Always stay open to the fluidity of the cloth.

READING SUGGESTIONS FOR SLOW STITCHING Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art by Claire Wellesley-Smith - With its beautifully tactile cover, this book is an experience in slow, mindful reading, stitching and connecting with other creative people and traditions. Slowing down to enjoy hand stitched rhythms, mending, re-using or finishing an unresolved project gives thinking time and resonates with the natural environment and the social history of craft. The book is beautifully illustrated and a contemplation in itself.

Stitch Stories: Personal Places, Spaces and Traces in Textile Art by Cas Holmes - A wonderful reference book showing you how to find a starting point to inspire you to create your own unique work. The printed fabric cover, beautiful photographs and close up details make this book a treat. There are clear instruction on processes such as transfer printing and eco-dyeing: a book for enthusiastic beginners and experts alike.

Textile Collage by Mandy Pattullo - An exciting resource for making beautiful collages with meaningful scraps of textiles. In times of fast, throw-away fashion, Mandy Patullo shares her passion for sourcing and combining recycled cloth. The ethic of Japanese boro and American quilt-making inspires her own work and the book is perfect for the creative hoarders amongst us.

Connected Cloth: Creating Collaborative Textile Projects by Cas Holmes and Anne Kelly - This productive and inspiring collaboration covers setting up a group, finding venues and establishing ground rules, as well as ideas for working together in many different ways from sharing sketch books to meeting online. Fully illustrated with fascinating examples of group projects in textile art, community projects and ongoing textile-art groups. A book for uniting artistic talent The Found Object in Textile Art by Cas Holmes - Incorporating found objects into textile work differs from recycling: the objects can remain themselves and become stunning works of art or sentiment when incorporated into our work. Cas Holmes provides us with a host of techniques such as layering, fusing, printing and stitching and inspires us with her multi-layered, evocative pieces.

Storytelling with Collage: Techniques for Layering, Color and Texture by Roxanne Evans Stout - The author and over 20 artists share the starting points behind their collage works. This book will help you tell your story in paper, fabric, and ephemera collected from your world. It will inspire you to capture your thoughts, memories and daydreams. Full of information on tools and supplies, collage challenges and suggestions with lovely illustrations.

Drawn to Stitch: Line, Drawing and Mark-making in Textile Art by Gwen Hedley - A beautifully illustrated and inspiring practical guide to line, an important component of textile art. Gwen Hedley’s book encourages confidence in drawing and mark-making as a basis for creative stitching and gives comprehensive cover of tools, methods, materials and mixed media techniques as well as many examples from different textile artists.

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aking the horsehair weaving tradition contemporary

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t was in the eighteenth century when the tradition of weaving with horsehair started. Today, in 2017, a number of artists, artisans and even some companies, continue with this cultural heritage, rethinking its processes and uses. Marianne Kemp is one of them, a dedicated designer who is passionate about textiles and particularly attentive to the special characteristics of horsehair. Here are the thoughts and memories from someone who cares about an established tradition, while making it contemporary.

Marianne Kemp studied Textile Design at the Royal Academy in The Hague, Holland. Her interest in producing her own fabric was directly related to the times in which she learned to weave. When she understood the basics of weaving, little by little, she became more enthusiastic about creating more texture in fabrics. “I immediately started putting in ‘extra materials’ such as bike tires, strips of plastic, wood, etc.” But at that point she did not know about the tradition of horsehair weaving, neither had she done any particular research into the material. Her encounter with horsehair as a material for weaving appeared as a result of her eagerness to experiment with many different materials and, once she had discovered it, she could not stop experimenting the potentialities of weaving with this unique natural fibre.

The actual moment in which she was professionally introduced to the tradition of horsehair weaving was in the year 2000, when she graduated with an MA at the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London. At that time, the artist was appointed for a job at World of Interiors magazine, and the editor introduced her to John Boyd Textiles, professional horsehair weavers based in the south of the UK with whom she has been collaborating ever since.

‚Africa is large weaving which I made in South Africa back in 2003. Inspired by the African tribes in colour and pattern.

Made this on a traditional old loom‘

Marianne has a passion for textile art: “What I love the most is to create new textures into textiles. Weaving is the perfect technique, having just warp and weft threads, intertwining them and obtaining fabric as a result… so simple and yet beautiful”. For her, horsehair is an extra material which makes textiles even more interesting and which has endless possibilities. “It is a fantastic material for creating unusual surfaces and textures into fabric.

When I started weaving with this material I was not aware of the tradition. I am interested in creating something new and that is why I also work with other unusual

Photo by Judith Jockel

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017 fibres. With these materials, I can create something I have not felt or seen before. As an artist, I am most interested in the whole picture created by details, repetition and rhythm”.

Making up her own techniques in the weaving process is part of her enjoyment. She gives an extra knotting, looping or other twist to this supplemental material and magic happens, a ‘fresh’ kind of texture appears in the fabric. Often her technique is not visible, Marianne says, it takes time to go through the details of her work. “After this, experimenting the next step is to create a finished design of artwork. In this process, playing with the weaving is important, how does it move and how does it take the light? Which colours bring the best out in this design?

How to present the final piece and not forget the size and dimensionality? All these elements are important, but it all starts with the details of the weaving itself”.

Nowadays, with a strong background in horsehair weaving, Marianne produces different sorts of designs, mainly for interiors, including wall panels, lighting items or art pieces.

“A while ago I started to create fabrics specially for the body and the result was a small collection of unique fashion items” she says. The horsehair she uses comes from Mongolia and it is either cut from live working horses or offered as waste once a horse has died. On this matter she says, “It is a better option than killing the animal (as the leather industry does) or throwing the horsehair away. That would be a waste, even more when you know that horsehair is a very strong, durable material, making it very sustainable.”

Horsehair has a particular length and a unique shine.

Marianne is also fascinated about the colours, she manages a wide range of them and this makes it even more exciting to work with. The stiffness is an important factor, she highlights, because this is what creates the texture and volume. “Let it flow and keep it soft or knot it tightly and create a sturdy fabric.”

But when designing, is it sustainability that drives her creations? She only uses handlooms and the materials she employs are wool, linen, silk, horsehair and rough plant fibres; these give the most beautiful and natural look for her work which she prefers. But sustainability goes beyond materials and processes according to Marianne: “I think that by creating unique pieces such as artworks, my designs will gain meaning and value which I think is a certain form of sustainability”.

Marianne tells us that she has been recently very occupied with commissions and that she is now ready to take her weaving to the next level. Since 1999 her fundamental concept has been to “take fabric away from its flatness” not only through the creation of new surfaces or textures but also by experimenting with shapes and the possible ‘fall’ of the fabric. She exhibited her new work last April at Salone, Milano, and she is looking forward to working with a very well-known fashion designer from Paris, an ideal scenario in which her knowledge of fashion would be combined with her passion for, and knowhow of, weaving and the use of the loom. Let’s see what the future brings to this fascinating artist who knows how to keep a millenary tradition up to date.

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In this page and top right photo in the following page: commission for a modern house in Boxtel, NL Photo by Arjan Benning

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‚The owner was looking for a special ‚curtain‘ for their new home. I did weave by hand nine panels made with horsehair, each panel is about 3 meters high and width 50 cm.

Covering the whole window from left to right and top to bottom. The natural light coming through the horsehair gives a beautiful effect‘

Sticks Top is one in a series of fashion items Photo by Hay Hermans ‚I designed and made this and I have got some interesting effects in weave and pops of colour‘

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‚Herring Smile is an art piece, an open weave with waxed cotton in black and brown horsehair. An open weave transformed in an organic shape‘ Photo by Rogier Chang

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‘The Kimono is transparent wall hanging which is a transparent and open weave.

Looking at the detail it almost a drawing and the weaving technique is hardly visible’ Photo by Eddy Wenting

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 FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.horsehairweaving.com/weaving/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/horsehairweaving/ Pinterest: www.uk.pinterest.com/textilesbymkemp/

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Books That Go Against the Grain The earliest records of the Antica Legatoria Viali date back to 1891 and today they do bookbinding and conservation of books using the same methods artisans have used for hundreds of years – with local differences, improvements and innovations, but substantially in exactly the same way as ever since the book itself was first born and substituted scrolls. Viali’s Antica Legatoria is in the centre of the medieval town of Viterbo, in the Lazio region, north of Rome. This area used to be known as Tuscia, the land of the Etruscans, and was famous for its Papal Palace, the Pope’s palace from 1257 to 1281 and held the longest conclave in the history of the Church (1268-1271).

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n modern times, crafts have changed considerably with the introduction of new methods of working and industrial type production. These changes are inevitable and indispensable from many points of view, not least because they have made the final product accessible to a larger number of people, while artisanal production was local and limited. The making of books has been no exception; over the last century the manufacturing of books has moved on a grand scale to industrial “bookbinding” (the name has remained but the type of work involved and the product are substantially different). We are also now in a phase where even the book industry has to adapt to the reality of electronic books and reading online! The traditional craft of bookbinding, where all the phases of making a book are completely carried out by hand, has naturally become limited to rebinding and restoring antique books as well as working on commission for enthusiasts, bibliophiles, libraries, study centres, institutions, and historical archives needing to renovate their texts. The craft is furthermore destined to being an artistic pursuit, creating books that are themselves works of art.

For all these reasons, there are fewer and fewer bookbinders now, even in areas where they were a centuries old tradition

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017 (Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria, in particular). We really could not miss the chance to visit one such workshop to have a close up view of the work carried out there and the privilege of photographing antique tools of the trade. Lucia Maria Arena and Hans Rainer Kolb, the present owners, took over the activity nineteen years ago from Mrs Zaccaria who kept the workshop founded by Giovanni Viali. Once inside, the atmosphere and the smells are that of an age-old work place, where activities are still the same even with the passage of time.

and glue of Hervé Dugas (www.musardises.com) who came specially from Marseille to give a demonstration of his art and also the marbled papers created for restoration in Flavio Aquilina’s workshop in Naples (www.flavioaquilina.com).

So, we might have come to this workshop to write about the activity of an artisan but we come away with a close encounter with these other craft realities connected and codependant. All these artisans have to work together since they are complementary and have to face the harsh reality of existing in the modern era of mass production, while remaining faithful to their work in spite of this difficulty.

The visit confirmed in us the idea that craftwork is precious, the artisan is a real artist and their work is a work of art.

The two not very large spaces are full of the tools of the trade laid out on small or large shelves, or in drawers.

There, in perfect order, are the original characters for the composition of the text (in copper, lead and bronze), tools for decoration, materials for everyday use (leather, papers, cards, thread, needles, rulers, pencils) then there are some manual “machines”, but nevertheless machines: presses, the old paper guillotines, the frame for stabilising the book while it is being stitched, etc. Each material has its own characteristics and history: the threads, cotton for the simplest binding, linen for the more precious ones; the leather, mainly goats skin (but differing in their provenance and in the type of tanning process); paper of all kinds with an incredible variety of designs. We also get the chance to admire the papers

The story gets even more interesting: Lucia and Hans took over the activity without being experts in the sector. Their field of activity was of a completely different kind – they made decorative glass windows - and they learnt the new trade hands on: a year and a half working alongside someone who worked at the bookbinders and took on the task of passing on all his knowledge and skill. Then they took further training courses and honed their skills (at, among others, the Centro del Bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland, www.cbl-ascona. ch/it).

They tell us this story while, completely enraptured, we

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watch a book being sewn. We observe how bookbinding is carried out and have the chance to examine several different types (the French ones with a perfectly smooth cover, the hinged ones with their characteristic grooves and the Braudel technique with a different spine to the flat ones).

It is also fascinating to see the process of decorating in synthetic gold (a gold sheet made from an alloy of metals) on a leather cover.

Our visit to Legatoria Viali ends with the knowledge that this activity, along with all manual activity, artisanal and artistic, can only be learnt by working at it hands on. according to the apprenticeship model that has been valid for hundreds of years and that in the last few decades we thought we could leave behind. We have immortalised the work certain that documenting it is in itself a form of resistance, in line with the project No Serial Number, which is fundamental if we want to prevent century old traditions to fall into oblivion.

This conviction is well represented in the photo of a historical work in twenty five volumes re-bound by Lucia and Hans: on the spine you can clearly see an ink reproduction of M.C. Escher’s Metamorfosi that as Lucia says, “represents perfectly the continual metamorphosis of history”.

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 FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.legatoriaviterbo.it Facebook: www.facebook.com/ anticalegatoriaviali/

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Craft with a Higher Purpose: Hand Weaving and Social Engagement This is a story about how hand weaving can present people with disability with an opportunity for integration and engagement. It is also a story about the incredible strength of a craft which has, in many ways, been supplanted by industrial textile production.

And finally, it is a testimony to social engagement, to gradual progress and the road to independence.

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t was two years ago when my friend, Eugenia Pinna, a textile designer, got me involved in a hand weaving workshop for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder with the Association Peter Pan, a non profit organization that helps vulnerable people. Her reasons were twofold; firstly, she wanted to encourage me to revive my weaving skills, which I had neglected in favour of other activities, and secondly she wanted to use our respective professions as a force for good.

In particular, my preference for weaving on a horizontal loom, and hers for weaving on a vertical loom meant that our skills complemented each other.

Pan Association, a not-for-profit organization, through my professional work. My first contact with the association was at one of its venues in Sestu, Cagliari in Sardinia. It is a small complex that was originally intended as independent housing for elderly people, but never fulfilled this function. The part occupied by the association surrounds a large courtyard, and this is where my first meeting with the centre‘s coordinator, Rossella Barbarossa, psychologist and psychotherapist, took place. Ms Barbarossa was very keen for the weaving workshop to be established, which was also supported by the young people’s parents, who are members of the association.

The workshop was not for beginners, but instead was an educational project aimed at those already in possession of some basic weaving skills. The aim of the workshop was to

What was certain was that we would set up a workshop for people with special needs. I was already aware of the Peter

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develop proficiency in the craft, with the goal of producing high-quality items. The new workshop began in May 2015; it was an educational project that evolved out of a meeting with instructors from the Cascina Rossago, a farmstead community which cares for adults with autism and learning difficulties. A weaving instructor from the farmstead donated a rigid-heddle loom that was crucial to the project.

The name that we chose for the workshop - Teladoiolatela - is a wordplay in Italian (1) and is our way of saying that by continuing to use traditional weaving techniques, great changes would be reaped by everyone: both our students, unaware that the work would help them moderate their particular behaviours and beliefs, and us educators, who would need to do the same with our own.

textiles that are of a quality that can be sold to raise money for the association. The workshop produces finished goods such as scarves, and fabrics which are tailored into clothing accessories in the students‘ “mothers‘ workshop” (Asso-Lab).

The production phase is still a work in progress and we do not have a proper catalogue yet, but the association has decided to invest in the necessary equipment and materials with this aim in mind. As well as being of a high quality, the yarns that we use need to work in various arrangements within a defined colour palette. We work with cotton, linen, merino wool and shortly we will begin using alpaca wool.

The weaving is executed on a four-shaft table loom and two rigid-heddle looms. One of these is used exclusively by our official sciarpista or „scarf maker“, the only person who is capable of carrying out the entire production process, from warping to finishing, almost entirely independently. The other weavers, who need further assistance and supervision, share the loom and work together as a team. The patterns are mostly striped, either with a warp faced weave or a weft faced weave, often with a high colour contrast. This is a design quality which responds to some of the difficulties experienced by disabled people, difficulties which we aim to alleviate but are always in the background.

There are currently eight of us in the workshop on a permanent basis: six students between the ages of 23 and 40, Barbara Cardia (Eugenia‘s successor), and me.

The first phase of the project was spent getting to know the students and vice versa. During the course of the work, any interruption to the rhythm of the weaving and the order of how things were done and any correction of inevitable mistakes could give rise to feelings of disappointment, as is typical of our students‘ communication sensitivities.

After two years of working together, we are beginning to see progress. Cries of, “we are penelopising!”(2), which would arise whenever incorrectly executed work needed to be unravelled, are becoming less frequent. As a matter of fact, correcting and accepting mistakes is fundamental to the workshop, where the students‘ work is intended both as a way to develop their skills but also to help them produce

1. “Te la do io la tela”, which roughly translates as “I’ll give you some cloth, alright!” plays on the similarity of the Italian word for cloth, “tela” to “te la”, or “to you”. It also brings to mind the word for loom, “telaio”.

2. The verb `to penelopise‘ refers to Penelope, Ulysses‘ wife in the Odyssey. Penelope would weave her fabric by day only to unravel it by night.

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Peter Pan Not-for-profit Association The Peter Pan Not-for-profit Association was set up in May 2000 by the families of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or other debilitating neurological illnesses. In the first eight years, its work mostly consisted of organising courses and conventions with internationally-renowned specialists, with the aim of providing information and adequate training on scientifically-proven interventions. In 2009 it took on the greater goal of responding to the needs of those children, who by then were adults, in an area where there are few opportunities for integration into work. And thus the Peter Pan House was born. There are many activities on offer including art, ceramics, weaving, making recycled paper and sweets, gardening and allotment cultivation, daily tasks, housework, motor skills and cookery. These activities are all organised by the psychoeducational team - comprised of nine professionals with specific Autism Spectrum Disorder training in collaboration with art teachers - and are shared with the families.

ď ¨ď § FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.peterpanonlus.it Facebook: www.facebook.com/teladoiolatela/ Twitter: @PeterPanOnlus94 YouTube: Peter Pan Onlus

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Drap-Art: Not to Waste, Not to Miss

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rap-Art organised its first festival of artworks created from waste 20 years ago. Their Creative Recycling Marathon of Barcelona, held in 1996 and 1997, received around 30,000 visitors. Within their own headquarters since 2010, they have been organising several markets of recycled art and sustainable consumption, spreading knowledge and awareness on how waste can be transformed into art and awareness.

box and find more creative uses for waste.

“What I like most about Drap-Art’s exhibitions is that people leave the shows with a smile on their faces. They observe the creative uses that artists give to the most varied waste materials, often with a clear message about the problems caused by them, such as Ritchy Ruiz’ utilisation of textiles to talk about the toxicity of the chemicals involved in the dyeing processes of the fashion industry“ says Karol. The key aspect of these exhibitions is that they provoke a reflection about the problems caused by excessive consumerism while being at the same time entertaining. “In the face of a very discouraging historic moment, in which it seems that we are heading inevitably towards self-destruction through environmental pollution, we are showing in a fun and creative way that one can try to solve problems by giving people a positive example” continues Karol.

Drap-Art is a non-profit organisation, born in Barcelona, promoting artists, designers, hand-crafters and all creative professionals who use waste materials as a resource. It is a platform for bringing them together through art exhibitions, festivals and markets, in order to tackle contemporary environmental issues which have grown exponentially since the last decade. Their artworks try to solve or ameliorate these problematics by making use of waste materials, converting them into resources, creating awareness and encouraging us to prevent waste production by reducing the amount of materials that we dump. Consuming in a more responsible way, reusing everything we can and recycling only what can no longer be reused are the key principles of the eco-friendly philosophy of Drap-Art.

The Trash People by the well-known HA Schult is a good case in point to illustrate the power of this art. As the members of Drap-Art explain, this artwork consists of the artist placing a thousand life-size human sculptures entirely made from trash in significant places of human culture, such as the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids in Egypt, Piazza del Popolo in Rome, Plaça Reial in Barcelona, etc. Its visual impact and significance obliges us to at least consider and recognise the problems created by the proliferation of trash.

As this is a very dynamic project, questions regarding the aesthetic value of waste always arise. However, Karol and Tanja are very clear and make a strong point on this: “The great potential of trash for art lies in the fact that it is not new, that it already tells a story and has a significance. Artists can make ironic, iconic or poetic use of waste materials by taking them out of their original context, perverting or playing with their meaning and significance, as Andy Warhol did with his famous tin of Campbell’s soup.”

But do artists actually have a role or responsibility towards the environment? Do they have to take a position? “I think artists, but also all other human beings, have a responsibility towards other people and the world they live in” argues Karol. “Little by little we are hearing more about artists who have an ecofriendly oriented approach to their work. I don’t think we need to enhance this tendency, what we need is to make it more widely known and give people working in this field the credit they deserve”.

Having artists react to what happens in relation to our environment is not a novelty. As Karol and Tanja explain, since the beginnings of mass production, the 20th century has seen the proliferation of objects but also the response of artists to this phenomenon. “Many of the avant-garde artists of the 20th Century have experimented with worthless objects and trash: Picasso’s sculptures of dry bread, Duchamp and his Ready Mades, Pistoletto and Arte Povera, and Armand with his ‘Accumulations’ and ‘Pubelles’”, says Karol. And it was actually the great Pistoletto who stated that humankind has created more objects in the first 50 years of the 20th century than in the 2000 years before.

Yomismadesign Ring from pieces of broken toys.

Yael Olave aka yomismadesign. com is a jewelery designer and handcrafter, mixing valuable materials and trash in accurate contemporany designs.

Nowadays, with increased levels of consumption, trash is proliferating as never before, and Drap-Art tackles exactly this phenomenon. In this sense, as Karol reminds us, the German artist HA Schult sounds most accurate when he says: “We make trash, we are trash and we live on the Trash Planet”. But the good news comes in relation to the levels of awareness that creative agents and organisations like Drap-Art generate.

Through the exhibitions that Drap-Art organises throughout the year, they stimulate general audiences to think outside the

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Jana Alvarez_L’Art Mixed technique, acrylic painting on cardboard, old brushes and tubes, electronic waste materials and plastic.

Jana Álvarez’ piece L’Art which travelled to Pittsburgh with the Drap-Art’s American premiere.

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SolCourreges Vinyl records cut and heatdeformed on car’s door.

Sol Courreges piece Still Music has travelled with Drap-Art to Stockholm, Montevideo and Pittsburgh, as well as taking part in many local shows.

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Javier Mariscal Vespas. Small wood carving on metal bar.

The famous designer Javier Mariscal participated with his Motos Vespa at the Drap-Art show in Barcelona in 2014 and Pittsburgh 2016.

Caroline Secq Tape à l’oeil.

Assembly with objects found on beach.

The french artist Caroline Secq participated in Drap-Art Festival in 2016 with the piece Tape à l’oeil.

Do you want to see what Drap-Art is about?

The Drap-Art Market in Plaça Reial, Barcelona, took place every Saturday from April 2017 until the end of June, and then will take place from September to December 2017. They will be also participating with an exhibition in the Three Rivers Art Festival in Pittsburgh, USA from the 2nd to the 11th of June and in the second edition of Sitges Recicl‘art, from the 9th of June to the 23rd of July 2017. But Drap-Art is ready for more and during July they will organise a Marathon of live creation with trash at the art factory Fabra i Coats, in Barcelona. In the second half of the year, the organisation will be having their annual festival, which might take place at the Maritime Museum, Barcelona, and we will also see the beginning of a research project, in collaboration with other artist groups and municipal initiatives, about materials that are dumped and their potential uses.

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 FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.drapart.org/en/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/drapart/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/drapart Blogspot: www.drapart2012.blogspot.co.uk

SUSTAINABLE FASHION

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Dress with Flowers

Michela Pasini (Rosso di Robbia) grows all the flowers used for printing the garments shown in these photos organically, without the use of any kind of synthetic substances, in the garden surrounding her workshop in Poggio Berni (Rimini). The printing took place between May and June, a time when the garden is full of flowers. She picks the ones she needs to decorate a particular piece of fabric with the arrangement she has in mind. The silk she uses is manufactured in Italy while the vintage items come from a local antique market, a must go for finding fabric and traditional antique work to embellish and upcycle.

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Handmade and eco printed dress by Michela Pasini Shoes eco printed by Michela Pasini Venue: Cody Dock

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Dress eco printed by Michela Pasini Venue: Cody Dock

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Dress and shoes eco printed by Michela Pasini Venue: Cody Dock, Sensory Garden

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Vintage dress eco printed by Michela Pasini Shoes borrowed from Oxfam, charity shop Venue: Cody Dock

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Photo page 33 and 35: Trapeze dress in pure shantung silk, printed with Coreopsis grandiflora and Solidago canadensis flowers.

Photo page 34: Pure silk dress printed with Coreopsis grandiflora, Cosmos bipinnatus and Solidago canadensis flowers. The ballet pumps are handcrafted from one piece of a vintage fabric from the Emilia Romagna region. The fabric was woven on a hand loom with a linen warp and cotton weft and printed with Coreopsis grandiflora and Solidago canadensis flowers. Both creations were made in the craft workshop La bottega di Lucina, in the Marche.

Photo page 36: The dress is actually a vintage cotton nightdress with broderie anglaise and smocking, found at an antiques fair. I printed it with Coreopsis grandiflora and Dimorphoteca flowers (‘African daisy’).

Photo page 37: Two metres of pure silk fabric printed with Coreopsis grandiflora and Dimorphoteca (‘African daisy’) flowers, perfect as a sarong.

 FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.colorinaturali.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/rossodirobbia Pinterest: www.uk.pinterest.com/rossodirobbia/ Instagram: @rossodirobbia

Eco printed fabric by Michela Pasini Shoes borrowed from Oxfam, charity shop Venue: Cody Dock

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Malaterra (= wicked earth), the story of a bag

T

he story of Gina Malaterra’s bags began one day among the stalls of a second-hand market. Gina, who had not yet become Gina Malaterra, was bewitched by a particularly well made bag and wanted to try her hand at making one for herself. From that moment began a spell of trial and error as she tried to craft an item that was above all possible criticism. Behind this adventure lay her passion for vintage patterns, her desire for a challenge, not only for herself but also one involving her native territory, and a fifties Singer sewing machine, in perfect condition, gifted to her by her seamstress grandmother. Her grandmother now checks her work with the critical eye of one who has spent her life in front of the sewing machine, a true ‘quality control’.

The most important phases of her journey were of course related to studying patterns (casting a ‘vintage’ eye over the last decades of the twentieth century), her approach to materials and the development of her cutting and sewing skills. Once an item is created, Gina opts for selling directly, either in person or online, because this is something she wanted to experience first-hand, and because she wanted her product lines to be only those that she could produce herself, sat at her precious Singer. Her workshop is a stark white room in a wooden house situated among the hills of Cosenza in Calabria. The alias that she chose, Gina Malaterra, now the only name she is known by, reflects the difficult situation in the south of Italy, in Calabria, and her grit in continuing to pursue this adventure in spite of possible adversity. Gina tells us: “The future tense does not exist in my dialect; it was difficult enough thinking about the present and so speaking about the future would have seemed abstract. I find it extraordinary. I am here now, and this is my opportunity! I threw myself into this wonderful adventure, with the clear feeling that I was riding a wave, and this is how I understood that I am doing the right thing. My project began in the south, and it is in the south that I will bring it to fruition. If I succeed here, then indeed, I can make it anywhere. This is what I would like to give back to myself from my land, a different perspective, a kick-start to life!”

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In this page: Bag by Malaterra Top from Oxfam charity shop Trousers by Monkee Genes Necklace by Zero Più Marta Read our interviews with Oxfam, Monkee Genes and Zero Più Marta in the Spring Issue 2017

 FIND IT ONLINE Facebook: www.facebook.com/malaterra.borse/ Instagram: malaterra_bags Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/it/shop/Malaterra

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Sto r i e s f ro m a M i l l i n e r ’ s W o r k s h o p Today the word “hat” is a bit too general: there are hats and “hats”. There is the mass produced hat, the fashion hat, designed in a workshop and produced in series, and then there’s the hat made by the milliner, for a particular client, often for a special occasion. Once an indispensable accessory, now more often than not just to protect the head from the cold or the sun, the hat made by a milliner is a fascinating item, difficult to resist and, even for the wearer, it can become an object of desire or a show in itself. We first met Silvia Ronconi in Florence at the International Craft Fair (www.mostraartigianato.it/en/). Her stand was a riot of hats: we stood there fascinated, watching her work; we began to talk and we practically never stopped. We went to see her several times in her workshop at Terni (Umbria, Italy), we immortalised her precious collection of vintage shapes, we immortalised her, or rather her hands, while a hat was being born and we photographed her hats in an enchanting old building. We saw her on the stage in a theatrical performance, explaining to children how a hat is born. The truth is she has two passions: theatre and millinery, and this is her story.

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s mine an old fashioned job? Maybe!

Fashions and lifestyles change and hats have had to adapt to a world that goes so fast where style has been replaced by a fashion of… no fashion… So the hat has become a hood, a beret made in a factory as is the material it is made from.

Then there’s “the hat”.

And then, the milliner.

Few hats, but not that few.

Even fewer milliners, but there are some.

And if we use the wrong ingredients for a dish, what happens? The result will be pretty much a disaster! The same would happen for a hat!

You have to choose the right material for the final result, mainly because the materials have very different starting costs! Never confuse wool felt with felt made from rabbit or hare’s fur! Chalk and cheese! Then there are the secrets of the trade… Every cook has them: all grandmas have a secret recipe for that special occasion, cake? Do you think they are going to share their secrets? No way! You have to discover them, by tasting what they are cooking, helping them while they work, making a mental note of proportions and procedures. In other words, you have to shadow an expert and then experiment all the time. Any trade is best learnt, or used to be, as an apprentice.

So I learnt my trade through curiosity, perseverance, seeking advice and sussing out secrets, trying to find the right way to master a technique. I forget to mention something, a couple of things actually: it takes manual dexterity, a lot of strength and an appreciation of aesthetics, from the very first inspiration to the creation of my very own shapes.

And here I am: I’m a milliner and I resist time and fashion.

A milliner with a theatrical soul – ever since I used to do drama in the Seventies, I was involved in light opera and then puppetry.

But please note, I am not a hatter!

A hatter makes hats, but in a kind of industrial textile factory.

A milliner, which is what I am, is an artisan of hats, making them from start to finish.

What do you need for making a hat? Well, a recipe!

Exactly like making a dish, you have to know the ingredients, the utensils, how long it takes to cook.

1.

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NO SERIAL NUMBER Let’s start at the beginning: artisans, usually women, learn to make hats as they were once made, in the studio or boutique of an expert, learning the whole procedure from choosing the material to shaping the hat.

It all depends on the ability to manipulate the material – felt for winter, straw for summer – on being able to recognise its malleability and on being able to manipulate it perfectly.

As with many other hand crafts, a lot depends on the individual ability to manipulate, shape, smooth and constant practice till you can work with autonomy.

There’s one other important thing that distinguishes a milliner’s work from that of a hatter.

If the hat is made in a factory – even a small family business – it is not made for a particular person but for a customer who will find it in a department store and will choose it among many others.

If instead the hat is created by a milliner, the person will turn to them in person; exactly like the person who wants to have a dress made will go to a dressmaker.

So between the milliner and the person commissioning their hat, a direct relationship is born: the milliner doesn’t just make the hat, they have to interpret the features of the client too.

For every face has its hat: the shape, the style, the material, the colour have to be right. There has to be study, understanding, dialogue. There has to be an intimate rapport. Just think about it. Ask your mothers or grandmothers about when hats were important. You will discover that the milliner and the dressmaker became your friends, confidantes, allies and they got to know you better than anyone else.

A hat, and a dress too, is born for the head or the body of the precise person requesting it, for a special occasion and project. It involves a certain complicity. It involves physical contact to check its fit, its shape, arranging one’s hair in a certain way… it takes time. If you haven’t got time, just grab any old beret in a chain store, without an identity, a soul, a structure.

In other words the milliner becomes a kind of mirror, and looking at yourself in the mirror is one of the most intimate moments between a person and their image.

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The photos 1. Forms made of wood for millinery, regularly used by Silvia Ronconi for hats forming 2. Handmade straw hat, completed by hand-decorating 3. Lapin felted middle hat, made of wood 4. „Never Say Never“ Haut couture Hat in lapin felt 5. Basque felt woven and worked entirely by hand 6. Photo sequence that follows the entire forming process of a felt hat 7. Fully hand-woven lapin felt cap

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 FIND IT ONLINE Facebook: www.facebook.com/ HuauhCreazioniCappelli/

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M a k e Yo u r O w n U p c y c l e d S k i rt

by Heke Design Heke Design is a creative fashion business that was founded in 2009 by Bea Lorimer, a designer based in New Zealand. A creative drive to fight waste from the fashion industry is at the heart of the business, which uses only materials that already exist to make vibrant women’s wear, all available on their beautiful website www.hekedesign.com.

Step 1 Making the skirt panel pattern To make sure that both edges of the panel are cut on the same angle, the paper pattern is made by folding a large sheet of paper in half.

Now draw a line from fold across to a point that is ½ of the top panel measurement (for me it would be approx. 12.75cm or 5 inches. Now add 1 cm (1/2 inch) seam allowance) (Picture 1a) Follow the fold line to the length measurement and mark the pattern Measure across from this mark to the equivalent of the top measurement and add up to 10 cm (4 inches). This will make the flare in the skirt panel. (Picture 1B) Step 2 Cutting out panels Pin the pattern to the fabric making sure that the centre line (along the fold) is aligned with the grain of the fabric. This will ensure the skirt panels hang well. (Picture 2)

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1B

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Repeat this for all four panels.

Now, decide which are your side panels, back and front - if you’re not going to have a pocket, then front and back can be interchangeable.

I usually have same fabric on either side, then 2 different ones for front and back.

Now sew panels together in your chosen order (Pictures 2A and 2b) Step 3 Making the pattern for waistband The bottom edge of your waistband will measure 20% LESS than your hip measurement then HALF of that (because we cut 2) My example is 16”/40cm.

Draw a line upwards 10cm (4 inches) for the waistband depth, then angle this line in towards the top about 2.5cm (1inch) each side.

This should now be almost half your waist measurement (Picture 3) Step 4 Cutting and sewing the waistband You will need a sturdy stretchy T shirt. Fold in half lengthwise, and place the top of the waistband pattern along the fold, so you are cutting 4 layers (Picture 4) Now open up and sew the two sides together (Picture 4a).

Use an overlock or zigzag stitch.

Now fold again with seams inside, it is now ready to attach to the skirt.

Step 5- Putting it all together Pin side seams of waistband to centre of side panels on skirt. (right sides together) Mark the centre back and front of waistband and pin to centre back and front of skirt. This will stretch it evenly around. Use zigzag or overlock stitch (picture 5a) If you want a pocket or 2, cut out a piece that’s about 15x15cm (6x6 inches). Try to use a bit of fabric that has a finished edge i.e.: pant hem, sleeve edge, if not, then add another 2.5cm (1 inch) to fold top edge under. Press a small seam all around and sew in place on skirt.5b Now it just needs to be hemmed. Press and turn up about 2.5cm (1 inch)

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4 Variations and notes: You can use jeans/pants (although if the leg seam is not a straight fold then just add seam allowance and cut as 2 parts) For a straighter skirt, just lessen the amount added at the bottom line on pattern, only add 5cm (2 inches) beyond hip measurement.

4A

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ď ¨ď § FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.hekedesign.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/HekeDesign Instagram: www.instagram.com/heke.design/

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NO SERIAL NUMBER

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www.fairkind.co.uk

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HOME CHRONICLES

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

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E A H

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he co rt of eather reitas

Heather is an American artist working with recycled materials and even waste. But art does not remain in the field of aesthetics for Heather Freitas, art can be an influential tool bringing awareness of the need to formulate real solutions to critical contemporary issues. In this article, she tells us about her eco-friendly practice and her sense of responsibility towards the environment.

Artist statement We live in a world today that is ever changing and evolving. Unfortunately, we are not evolving in the most important aspect of the world we live in: the world itself. No matter where you go in the world many people go on their lives day to day in a trance, having heard possibly about the effects of environmental waste and pollution but not truly understanding the impact that it is having all around us. From animals and plants to human kind, we are slowly spoiling everything that we have worked to create, and all the things around us that keep us going. I have always been drawn to look at things that many people look past. The delicate beauty of things others call trash. Realising that I could create work out of materials that are slowly destroying the world around us was a life changer for me. While I always loved and cared for everything in the world around me, my artwork has changed me even further as a person. It has brought about an even greater understanding and education of the world as a whole and the impact that our waste is having on it. My work has created an even stronger passion to help spread awareness of this issue and has affected my everyday life. It is the goal of my work to bring this passion to others. They say that one person cannot change the world, but it is with my deepest hopes that my artwork can.

Thank You For Shopping is apart of Heather Freitas of Contemporary and Modern‘s Wasteland series and is made of newspaper, paper bags, plastic bags embroidery floss, ink and acrylic paint on deep edge gallery wrapped canvas varnished with a crystal clear gloss finish to last generations to come.

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NO SERIAL NUMBER Fruit Bat Fence is a part of Heather Freitas‘ Wasteland Series The piece is made with newspaper, paper bags, chicken wire, embroidery floss, ink, acrylic paint, gallerywrapped canvas, matte varnish, crystal clear varnish

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017 “I believe within the very depths of my being that artwork can make a change. Most of us only speak one language, but a piece of artwork speaks to everyone. It can touch people, bring about action. One day my artwork will document history. I pray that it documents a response to a positive change and not that of the beginning of deterioration.”

These are the words of Heather Freitas, an artist utilising art as a way of constructing a positive change towards our relation with the environment. She started creating art ever since she can remember, though she struggled to find her own “signature” or style. But it was in 2015, when a friend commissioned her a special piece work, that Heather realised she wanted to produce art out of primarily recycled materials.

Newspaper was her first material to use, and the one that made her feel she was suddenly finding her voice and style.

Heather makes use of recycled materials to compose works which touch on modern and contemporary environmental issues. And that is why many people refer to her as an eco-

art activist: because her desire is to evoke, document and implement a change to our habitat.

At times Heather also works on standard paintings or works on paper with only acrylics and ink, but her signature recycled artworks are composed of many different materials. Almost all of them are made out of newspaper, paper bags, embroidery floss, ink and acrylic paint on canvas. And occasionally she even includes plastic bags, can tabs, cigarette butts, aluminium cans, etc. But being an eco-friendly artist is not just about the materials employed, but rather about your attitude towards the environment throughout the dynamics and organisation of your work. As Heather told us, to date she has not found any eco-friendly paints that work well on the materials she uses, but she has invested in refillable ink pens and tries, whenever possible, to cut down on waste from supplies that are not sustainable. “As much as possible I will save some of the supplies to incorporate into my work.

And I have a designated recycle bin in my studio and a filing

Ojcow Heavy Metal is created out of newspaper, paper bags, metal washers, embroidery floss, ink and acrylic paint on deep edge Gallery wrapped canvas and varnished with a crystal clear gloss finish to last generations. Apart of Heather Freitas‘ Wasteland Series „Ojcow Heavy Metal“ documents the scientific studies of correlating the levels of heavy metals in our ecosystems. Every year when deer shed their antlers scientists document the levels heavy metals within the antlers. It is thought to be a harmless way of identifying the level of heavy metals not only in our environments, but the elevens that our wildlife are exposed to as well.

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NO SERIAL NUMBER cabinet separating and organizing all materials that I save in my everyday living to use in my artwork” says the artist.

She continues, “up till now I have not located any eco-friendly acrylic paints. My choice of acrylic over oil is in part due to a lower carbon footprint and the longevity of my work. Oil takes years to fully dry thus creates cracking and faster wear than acrylic. The major environmental issue with oils is not the paint itself but the thinner needed to work with it.”

But how popular is it to utilise recycled materials for artworks? Heather would like to think this media is becoming more popular. At least she has good reasons to believe so: “Just this year I have seen calls for art around the country for recycled art shows”. However, as she recognises, there is no living artist making a huge splash with this. “Speaking with other friends in the arts they have said that I have inspired them to try and use recycled materials in their work. So maybe in time, a ripple effect will create a widely accepted and sought after art style. If I can pave the way for that then my ultimate goal will have been achieved” sustains the mixed media artist. But being an artist can be full of ups and downs. “The one thing that keeps me going is the reactions I get regarding my work. At least once or twice a month a fan or fellow artist will take the time to email me or sit down with me and tell me how my work has impacted their life” says Heather. Many of these people tell the artist that her work has generated in them an interest in recycling and an understanding of the impact that we have on the environment.

Would you like to try recycling or waste materials for yourself?

“If you are looking to have some fun and help put a dent in our waste, pay attention to everything that you throw away” recommends Heather. As she suggests, a lot of that waste could bring inspiration. Netting from fruits, coloured plastic bags and labels, receipts, aluminium cans, can all create beautiful textures, contrasts and subject matters you have never thought of before in your work. “The limits are endless!”

At the moment, most of Heather’s art exhibitions are located in her home state of Arizona, but all her upcoming shows are listed on her website www.heatherfreitas.com. So, if you would like to get to know more about her work or collaborate with her art mission, look for her online or even write to her. As she said, what keeps her going is the feedback from the public.

 FIND IT ONLINE

Transfer Station is another work that speaks about the almost seemingly acceptance of Wasteland around us: contaminated water fed to us as if it was from our mother and building nests from waste without realising the dangers and hazards. This piece is made of newspaper, paper bags, plastic bags, can tabs, embroidery floss, cigarette butts, ink and acrylic paint on gallery wrapped canvas.

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Website: www.heatherfreitas.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/heatherfreitasart Instagram: @heather_freitas

KITCHEN CHRONICLES

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Su Mruzu, an Old Traditional Sardinian Harvester’s Breakfast Annalisa has two passions: the cuisine and traditions of his land (Sardinia). Sometimes her passions blend together as in this memory of the harvest time.

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y quest is to remind people about old traditions that have now disappeared: they are the stories and memories that my parents and grandparents left me with, regular activities we were involved with on the farm. It was a simple, meaningful life and it is important not to forget. No one spoke of biodiversity in those days because each family sowed their own traditional grain: biodiversity was part of each family’s tradition.

At Sisini, a little village in Trexenta, not far from Cagliari (Italy), there are lots of little cottages. I grew up in one of these small houses, where life was measured out by the life cycle of our animals and our crops. When I was a little girl, I couldn’t wait for the birth of a lamb, I would watch how a chick hatched from an egg, I jumped up and down on the grapes to squash them, I tasted the must with my brother and cousins and I would dive into the great heaps of grain after harvesting.

Grain for farm workers was life, bread, the future. In June, when it was harvest time, it was a real celebration. Time to gather in the crop. The barn (‚incungiai‘) had to be prepared in good time: it had to be cleaned and disinfected ready to receive and store the new grain. People were brought in for harvesting: “mietitori” (su messaiu = the man who cut the grain) and “spigolatrici” (women who gleaned what fell to the ground during cutting, and collected all the ears of wheat that su messaiu hadn’t been able to cut), The gleaners were girls chosen for their skill. They got themselves organised in good time: they would prepare the shirt and the neckerchief to be given as a present to the men who harvested, they prepared the food to be served during the day’s work, they wore their work clothes (a headscarf, a huge apron with a big pocket in front to hold the ears of corn), and the manascilisi (protective sleeves, for their forearms).

It was quite a ritual: the days started at dawn and people worked till 10.30 in the morning. After that, it was too hot to work and the spikes of corn became too dry and would have broken too easily. So everyone got together for kind of breakfast snack su mruzu.

The food was simple, restorative and filling: wrapped in a snow white tablecloth there would be the bread su moddizzosu (peasants’ bread), boiled potatoes, hard boiled eggs and fresh pecorino cheese (unseasoned and with very little salt) and lots of fresh water, transported in jugs and wine flasks, containers that would keep the water at the right temperature. They ate in the shade, it was fun and traditional songs would be sung. Well-fed and rested, they would start the walk home, sometimes miles away, and start again at dawn the next day.

When all the corn of the village had been cut, threshed in the barnyard and stored in the barn, there was a big party and su messaiu the harvester, would give each woman gleaner a huge bouquet of ears of corn to wish her luck.

Cun saludi e trigu … a attrus annus e a attrus contusu! (‘With health and grain… years to come and other stories’).

In this picture: Annalisa wearing the traditional gleaner dress.

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 FIND IT ONLINE Instagram: @atzeniannalisa

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MULTIFUNCTIONAL GARDEN

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

On the Trail of Pomona, to Defend Biodiversity The Fig (Ficus carica) – fruit and tree – is typically Mediterranean. It is part of the landscape, culinary traditions and culture.

Most of the Botanical Conservatory Giardini di Pomona (Cisternino, Puglia, Italy) is dedicated to the fig. But calling it “fig” does not really do it justice for there are, actually were, 560 varieties. The Conservatory was in fact created to bring back, cultivate and save those varieties that, because of the interference of man and machines in the last decades of the 1900s, were about to be lost forever. It is the story of a passion that brought the creator of this idea - Paolo Belloni - from Milan to the region of Puglia, among picturesque fields scattered with traditional white houses (called trulli), where today you are more likely to hear people speaking English than Italian as it has become a popular destination with so many from the UK.

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nce you find the right road among the many country paths in the Cisternino area, it is easy to get to the ‘Giardini di Pomona’, Botanical conservatory dedicated to the traditional varieties of figs and, in general, to fruit trees at risk of extinction.

The notice at the entrance is rather small, inversely proportional to the importance of what is to be found in the garden, named after the Roman goddess of fruit, Pomona (the Latin poet Ovid describes her in his poem, Metamorphoses, XIV, 623 - 636): more than a thousand different varieties of fruit brought back from the brink of loss and oblivion. The plants are scattered over an area of some ten hectares within which, apart from the agricultural centre itself, it also has three of the Trulli houses for accommodation. Those interested in understanding what is cultivated in the Conservatory, and how, can decide to stay for a few days: they will be living in direct contact with the typical landscape of these places in the South, where every field is separated by a dry stone wall and where the view changes according to the row of trees you are looking at, and of course the season.

The founder of Pomona, Associazione Nazionale per la valorizzazione dell’agrobiodiversità, (national Association for the promotion of agrobiodiversity) Paolo Belloni, moved here permanently from Milan in 2004 to work on the farm organically. He is passionate about the teaching side and takes us personally on a journey to discover the incredible variety of plants that he has managed to collect and cultivate. We go further on to discover the farm itself where we can have a close-up view of unfamiliar or unknown plants. With the confidence of his knowledge he shows us the different

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NO SERIAL NUMBER varieties, with a wealth of details and stories, going from one field to another till we reach the collection of fig trees. We move on through the trees till we arrive at a special place consisting of a densely-planted area of local plants, herbs, flowers, shrubs, trees that form a kind of natural amphitheatre.

This is his classroom where he brings groups, particularly children and youngsters, to explain in situ what biodiversity is: the importance of maintaining it, reclaiming it so that we do not risk leaving a completely homogenised natural world.

We let ourselves feel quite emotional as we walk through dozens of fig trees, all completely different, tasting the fruit here and there, picked directly from the tree, each different in taste and degree of ripeness, Biodiversity is immediately recognisable all around us and we can see it and taste it.

Walking from one tree to another, the conversation turns to the question of homologation. This relatively recent phenomenon (about a century old) has managed to take hold very efficiently for it responds perfectly to the logics of the market and to wide distribution. It has caused the definitive loss of numerous varieties and has convinced consumers that apples are, and have to be, just the ones we see on supermarket shelves, all in a line, all the same size and often all rather tasteless.

The same can be said for pears, apricots, plums and of course figs. He lists some of these varieties of figs while giving the unique characteristics of each: Vucre Vert, Alba Nera, Pastilière, Violette de Solliers, Rigata del Salento, Mattepinta, etc. While he names them, I surprise myself thinking about those huge fig trees on my grandparents’ land when I experienced biodiversity without knowing it, simply because my cousins and I knew that the fruit would be ready at different times: how many we ate, climbing up those trees! How things have changed in some sixty years!

Walking back to the farmhouse, we find ourselves passing by a corner of forgotten fruit, those you never see on the supermarket shelves: jujubes (or Chinese dates), medlars, rowan berries, many different citrus fruits (amongst which the variety citrus digitata, fingered citrus or Buddha’s hand), and so on. It is impossible to leave without hoping to return for another visit, maybe during a different season, for a landscape such as this, if you look properly, is never the same. You can look at it time and time again without ever getting tired of its biodiversity!

 FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.igiardinidipomona.it Facebook: www.facebook.com/ igiardinidipomona/

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TRAVEL CHRONICLES

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Maine, Ocean, Camping:

An Eco-Friendly Experience

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acations and leisure time are a vital part of life for Astrig Tanguay, the director of Searsport Shores Ocean Camping. Though being trained as a textile artist, she decided a long time ago to open a camping site in Maine, United States. “What better entrepreneurial adventure than to host people who want to relax and experience something different? My goal has always been to live in rhythm with the seasons, in harmony with my natural settings and to be surrounded by people who were actively engaging their lives” says Astrig. And her coastal Maine camp site with an integrated art studio, dye garden and spinning flock is actually a perfect family enterprise.

The campsite is extended throughout 60 hectares of land that span from the shore to the top of a mountain.

But Searsport Shores Ocean Camping stands out from the rest beyond its beauty; this was the first camping site in the state of Maine to be certified “green” 20 years ago. The recycle, reuse and redefine approach has been central to it as it has been the endeavour of its owners to steward it responsibly. And this commitment towards the environment is visible in different ways: many of the building projects and gardens have been designed

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around and built with salvaged building materials; the size of the tents in the most fragile coastal land has been limited to protect the delicate soil structure and preserve the vegetation; timber is harvested from their own woodlot to build platforms, micro cabins and bridges that further protect the wooded habitat; waste from their lobster bakes is composted to enrich the soil; and they make use of the spinner’s flock to control the weeds and overgrowth rather than herbicides and excessive mowing.

For the ones who live or have visited Maine before, it’s easy to understand why we should all travel to this area.

As Astrig reveals, there is a common quip about Maine: “If something happens anywhere in the world, it will get to Maine in another 10 years.” Since time forgotten, Maine has been blessed with abundant natural resources and landscapes that vary from sandy beaches in the South, high mountains in the North, and 1000’s of miles of rocky coastline dotted with evergreens and islands.

“Come to Maine because there is still so much authentic life happening here in the villages, farms, working waterfronts and small cities. When you come to Maine, your choices are between excellent tiny restaurants

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Map of the camping sites, by children‘s illustrator Lisa Griffin

Quilts & Students on the Beach, results of a 2 day workshop with Gee‘s Bend Quilters at Fiber College, Photo by Seeger Solutions

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017 and microbreweries; spending the day paddling a kayak to a remote island for a picnic or dallying in gallery shops that specialize in handwork created by artists living above the shop.” Astrig has convinced us.

So, are you wondering if this sort of holiday is for you?

Searsport Shores Ocean Camping guests tend to be active couples and families looking to spend time together, enjoying an authentic experience. A wide range of activities is offered to all visitors including clamming, kayaking and fishing. Astrig and her team also provide outdoor sculpture maps, microbrew trails and personalised itineraries. But their ultimate priority is to be good hosts and provide a structure for a wonderful vacation. And in this sense, what is key for the camping site is to celebrate the intangible but clear power of feeling good through learning in the natural environment. On this Astrig comments “When guests are exposed to the magic of Indigo dyeing (harvested from our gardens) during an art project, we’re able to introduce the concept of nourishing the soil through planting legumes, upcycling old sheets and t-shirts that would normally find their way into the dumpster and creating a quilt that keeps them warm at night. All under the guise of an art activity during summer vacation at a camping ground… isn’t that wonderful?”.

We think it is! So, what is the best time to visit? The camping site has three distinct seasons to offer: spring flowers, warm summer and fall foliage. All of them are colourful and relaxing. As Astrig recommends, “this is a place with unlimited opportunities to dawdle, wander and explore. Bring casual clothes, dress in layers, shoes for walking and art supplies or a fishing pole. The food is wonderful so bring an appetite and don’t overplan… your most precious memories will come because you take the time to travel the backroads”. Got it? Now you are ready for your eco-friendly holiday!

Dyeing with Indigo grown in the dye garden at the campground, photo by Seeger Solutions

Indigo Shibori with Amelia Poole of Ecouture Textile Studio, at Fiber College, 2015, Photo by Seeger Solutions

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Soft sculpture class with Amy Felske, 2016 at Fiber College, Photo by Seeger Solutions

Eco printing class with materials gathered from the gardens, shore and woods of the campground Photo by Seeger Solutions

The Frog & Faerie cabin is one of many available. Playing is always encouraged. (There are two music festivals at the campground every fall: Vacationland Bluegrass Jam September 15-17, 2017 and the Old Time Music Campout September 22-24, 2017) Photo

by Seeger Solutions

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Why do we choose Searsport Shores Ocean Camping?

coal fire.”

They even have an annual fibre festival

They have amazing organic and edible gardens!

The gardens are a major feature in their park. “We plant raised beds to create habitat for birds and pollinators. We grow organically so there are no worries when children “sneak” into the garden for a nibble or are tempted by the strawberries. We also serve a lobster bake down at the ocean and rely on the seaweed we harvest sustainably. Food tastes better steamed in fresh seaweed and we use whatever is best in the garden as our appetizer that night. In addition to the vegetable gardens, we plant a dyer’s garden to colour the wool we weave into clothing, rugs and blankets, and a wildflower garden that highlights the beauty of the beehive activity”.

Called “Fiber College”, this annual festival invites everyone from the community and the camping site guests to celebrate Maine’s rich heritage in wool processing, fabric arts, woodworking and Native American basketry with classes and local foods. “Twelve years ago, we were sitting in the middle of our park during the absolutely gorgeous month of September. We had few guests because school was underway and people were passing us by for more well-known destinations. Coming from a family of artists, educators and party planners, we knew our strength would lie in a weekend festival. Defining “college” as a gathering of like-minded individuals in the pursuit of knowledge and exploration, we had hoped to offer 25 classes and host 100 students. To our delight, each year the College has grown and now we welcome 1000 people over 5 days and offer close to 75 classes and evening programs. Attendees range from those who have never tried their hand at making something to those who devote their lives to creating objects that are both useful and beautiful. Some of the classes are 12 hours of intensive study and others are “drop in” projects for just an hour or two. Last year, we hosted our first Old Time Music Campout as a natural extension of Fiber College. We have found that those who make beautiful objects often play or appreciate music around a campfire.”

They offer an artist in residence programme “Every week in the summer, our art studio is inhabited by an artist who comes to focus on his/her own work and shares an art project for an hour or two each day. By having artists in the park, we are able to create a sense of shared family/ couple time that results in souvenirs that don’t simply rest on a shelf when guests return to their daily lives. We’ve hosted woodworkers and landscape painters, quilters and natural dyers, story tellers and weavers. We’ve also had a chef who cooked every meal outdoors (a couple of years ago we built a clay oven from clay we excavated to create a frog pond in the garden) and a blacksmith who made pub games over a

Artist in Residence Russell Kahn making pottery with clay dug from the garden at the campground, photo by Searsport Shores

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Amelia Poole teaches Eco printing in the mist at Fiber College using plants gathered from the shore, gardens and woods of the campground.

Photo by Seeger Solutions

 FIND IT ONLINE Website: www.maineoceancamping.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/maine.ocean. camping Instagram: @campingwithart Gee‘s Bend Quilter China Pettway‘s quilt at Belfast Harbor, Maine Photo

by Seeger Solutions

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S

ocial projects & biodiversity

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Following a precious thread‌ (Processing Alpaca fibre in Bolivia)

In the March edition of No Serial Number Magazine we shared an account by Patrizia Palonta, President of CDM (the Mountain Women’s Organisation) with which she has been working in the Lake Titicaca area of Bolivia for some years now, on the Sistema Titicaca (Titicaca System) Project. The main aim of the project is to save the local biodiversity, reintroduce ancient seeds while at the same time developing products and reviving traditional crafts with the opening of a centre for working with wool. The objective is to guarantee the self-sufficiency of the women through their work and to promote correct nutrition for the women and their children. In this issue, we asked Patrizia to tell us first of all about Alpaca fibre and its valuable characteristics.

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heep rearing was introduced with colonisation, but rearing the camelids, alpaca and llama and transforming their fleece into yarn, then weaving or knitting textiles, is traditional work in the daily lives of the Andean population.

Every family possesses at least a few animals allowing them to produce textiles both for their home and to sell at markets or local fairs. Today, as in former times, rearing the animals and managing textile production is almost exclusively done by the women and takes place locally. Their children help them in these activities and learn everything they need to know when really young. They watch their mothers in every phase of the production of wool; shearing, selecting, washing, spinning

and dyeing; the older ones even help their mothers to look after the flock, moving the animals out of their pens and from one pasture to the next. Growing up alongside their mothers and grandmothers, they learn to produce the yarns used for the various textiles.

Fibre from camelids is more valuable than that from sheep; it has a characteristic cellular structure giving the hollow fibre that makes the yarn very light. A lower lanolin content also makes it very soft and thus suitable for those allergic to wool.

Each alpaca is sheared (chuhchanay in quechua language) by hand between October and November and yields

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two or three kilos of fleece. Once sheared, the fleece is selected and washed in cold water: in the rural areas of the Bolivian highlands, all this is still done strictly by hand. The fibre is then carded and made into skeins by winding the wool round the left wrist or onto a wooden distaff, to hold them still during spinning. Often the women work standing up with the distaff under their arm or inside the waistband of their skirt or apron and spinning can also be done using traditional spindles. The yarn is then wound and the balls of wool are prepared.

Alpaca fibre has a similar thickness to cashmere (between 18 and 22 microns), it has a sheen similar to silk and it is three times stronger than wool. Alpaca fibre also comes in more than 22 natural shades of colour, from white to greys and browns, making dyeing unnecessary. This is why it is considered a luxury fibre, used mainly for shawls, scarves, blankets particularly soft and pleasant to touch, woven on traditional wooden looms in various patterns and with good commercial value. Typical aguayo, Andean cloth with horizontal stripes and traditional Incan and pre-Incan motifs, is characteristically so tightly woven as to be almost waterproof. These cloths are made from the less valuable sheep’s wool, in other words the product “imported”

by Spanish colonisers.

At the moment, the way the fibres are dyed is deplorable.

To obtain the colours of the vast array of natural shades, the women traditionally used natural pigments, imparting these excellent Andean handicrafts vibrancy and variety. Leaves of indigo and walnut, cochineal, charcoal powder, lichens and other natural materials are still used in certain highland areas.

However, with so-called progress there has been a massive influx of aniline colours, harmful to people, polluting the environment and seriously pervasive at high levels with a closed water system (that of Lake Titicaca). The chemical industry has also introduced synthetic yarns that risk taking the place of traditional fibres and textiles.

The CDM project is opening a centre for wool production in the Lake Titicaca area with the aim of encouraging the sustainability of ancient techniques for the production and colouring of yarns and the rediscovery of natural fibres. Introducing partial mechanisation for the processing of wool and alpaca will make the work easier while dust extraction systems in work spaces will safe-guard their health. The purpose of the project is twofold: to promote women’s work and guarantee their economic selfsufficiency, and to bring back appreciation of Andean alpaca that, when processed on site with knowledge passed down through the centuries, maintains its unique characteristics which cannot be found in fibres produced elsewhere or industrially.

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 FIND IT ONLINE Facebook: www.facebook.com/Sistema-TiticacaDonne-per-la-casa-comune-1513397728965233

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Lotus Bag by Little Hands Design Sew along with one of our 11 year old students This handy lotus bag is perfect for keeping trinkets or small items safe, it is versatile and can be made in any thin fabric, here we have recycled some jersey offcuts.

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You will need: •

2 squares of fabric (Ours were 50cm x 50cm but you can do any size!)

•

Drawstring or ribbon

•

Thread

•

Sewing machine

•

Safety pin

•

Iron

1. With right sides of the fabric together pin all the way around your squares. Leave a small gap in the middle of one side.

2. Sew around the outside with a 1.5cm seam allowance.

3. Cut off the corners, be careful not to cut the stitching.

4. Pull the fabric through the gap to turn the square the right way around, make sure you poke out the corners and iron flat.

5. Turn your square at an angle so that it looks like a diamond. Fold each corner inwards until they are touching the centre.

6. Pin each of the 4 seams together and sew about halfway up the line.

7. Take the unsewn flap ends and fold back this creates the petals of the flower. Iron.

8. Pin the flaps in place along the top edge and sew along 2-3cm from the edge to make tunnels.

9. Take your cord or jersey drawstring and thread through the tunnels using a safety pin. Go around tunnels twice then knot ends together.

10. Pull your bag and it will look like a lotus flower!

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Little Hands Design CIC is a non-profit making Community Interest Company based in London’s Belsize Park. We are a design mad team running a small fashion design and dressmaking school in NW3 since 2001. We run classes for children, teenagers and adults from very young (6+yrs) to very wise (no limit!) teaching dressmaking, fashion, crafts and all things textiles. In our team there are fashion designers, dressmakers and a Design and Technology teacher.

We also run a bursary scheme for disadvantaged kids and adults. We also work with refugees in collaboration with the Helen Bamber Foundation and have many links to local schools in the area.

To find out more about please visit www.littlehandsdesign.com

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ZERO WASTE HANDMADE

NATURAL PRODUCTS SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE

Stories Behin

Itty Bitty Bums In this new regular section, we aim to explore the relationship between crafts and the environmental movement by looking at the making of everyday objects as an alternative to disposable items. In this issue, we explore “zero waste” philosophies and lifestyles by listening to the stories of a diverse range of people who own small online businesses selling ‘zero-waste’ products.

The products featured in this section were initially created almost by chance, to solve personal everyday problems, such as finding ecological alternatives to commercial dish sponges or paper towels. These ordinary people, who turned artisans and entrepreneurs, were driven by their desire to act upon their concern and sense of responsibility towards the environmental crisis that we are experiencing today. At No Serial Number Magazine, we call

Tiny Yellow Bungalow

The Mama of Coghlan Cottage

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nd Everyday Objects

e Farm

Make Life Green this phenomenon “grassroots crafts”. We believe grassroots crafts are slowly taking us back to the roots of what “handmade” really is.

Doing crafts does not mean only doing decorative things, the practice of craft involves a very mundane, yet fundamental, aspect of our lives. It is rather the first, almost instinctive response to our needs (we all need bowls, containers, sponges, towels etc). In the age of convenience, we may have forgotten about the crucial need for craft, but we are now slowly rediscovering it, often by looking back to our grandparents and then taking insight from the latest technologies to check the materials we use are sustainable. By rediscovering tradition of doing our own, these everyday grassroots crafts turn into activism, and sometimes, as we show here, small business.

Reel Red

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The Mama of Coghlan Cottage Farm

Everyday life

I‘m Stacey Langford. I‘m The Mama of Coghlan Cottage Farm + Mercantile, located on a historic homestead about an hour east of Vancouver, Canada near the birthplace of British Columbia, Fort Langley.

I‘m originally from Vancouver Island on the West Coast of Canada. I grew up among lots of hippies with a deep-seeded love of the stunning natural environment of islands, oceans and old-growth rainforests. That combined with first-hand experience of clear-cut logging sites cultivated an eco-conscious mindset from a very young age. My interest in “zero-waste lifestyle” was amplified when we moved to the country and had to begin hauling our own household trash to the dump. You realise in a hurry how much garbage even a mindful household produces when you have to carry it all away on your own! Our ecological approach to farming has complimented and encouraged our zero-waste goals. Nothing in nature is wasted, and so we strive to waste nothing on our farm. We rescue food from local bakeries and farms to feed our livestock, take waste wood chips from tree-trimming companies for our barnyard, which is then turned into compost, and back again into food for our plants. Living this way, it is easy to see that aiming for a zero-waste lifestyle simply makes sense. We are not there yet, but we are always striving. We have two small children and of course we can see that it will take drastic change if they have any hopes of a bright future for their children.

Focusing on reducing our waste makes what can sometimes seem like an insurmountable challenge a little more manageable and so much more hopeful. Living on a farm with two young kids and a hubby I can‘t say I have much time for hobbies! However, the daily activities of life on a farm provide us with pleasurable tasks, which yes, revolve around our goal of a life with More Joy and Less Waste. Whether that is hanging laundry on the line, mending torn jeans with beautiful Japanese Sashiko visible mending, raising animals on other people‘s waste - we are always mindful to waste not, want not. We produce most of our own food on the farm, which is the number one way we keep our waste down. Fresh milk from our goats is turned into cheese and yogurt, we can our own preserves and pickles in reusable jars, put by veggies, make ferments like kombucha and sauerkraut, brew beer and wine, make stocks with leftover veggie trimmings and bones, bake sourdough bread, and always cook from scratch using whole foods. We always, always eat every part of our animals, even the odd bits. This simple habit saves us a ton of trash. From plastic milk jugs and yogurt tubs to all the boxes and packets and plastic that come with a trip to the grocery store, we avoid it all. Any waste from the kitchen, meals or cooking go straight back out to the farm in the form of treats for the chickens, dinner for the pigs or goodies for the compost. Nothing goes to waste.

The business

My soap business came about because food waste really ticks me off. I was a vegetarian for many years before becoming a pig farmer, so when I learned that my customers were throwing much of the fat from my beloved pigs away I couldn‘t bear it. Lard is a traditional ingredient in old-fashioned cold process soap. When sourced from healthy pigs raised outside on a natural diet and lots of sunshine it is incredibly nourishing for our bodies and skin. It also perfectly replaces environmentally harmful Palm Oil in soap formulations. So now, instead of heading for the landfill, my pork customers leave their unwanted lard with me in exchange for a few bars of handmade soap. I render the lard by hand in the kitchen of our 125-yearold farmhouse. Then, together with organic oils, botanicals from the farm and fresh raw milk from our goats Clover, Clementine and Lucky, I turn it into beautiful and useful soap: from trash to treasure. I think

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that‘s kind of lovely, and it does my pigs proud. Our commitment to waste reduction continues into our packaging, which is as minimal as possible, recyclable and avoids plastic wherever possible. Our motto is More Joy, Less Waste. We aim to infuse joy into the necessary tasks of daily life without producing more unneeded ‚stuff‘. To remind people that we don‘t need more to be happy, we simply need enough.

The Soap

Old-fashioned lard soap is a time-intensive process. First I render the lard by hand slowly on the stovetop over the course of an afternoon. Then that lard is combined with other oils, natural botanicals from the farm, essential oils and excess raw milk from our goats. This chemical process takes 24 hours to turn into soap. Then the soap is unfolded, cut and stamped, all entirely by hand. This cut soap then cures and ages for 6 weeks to ensure a nice hard, long lasting bar of soap. I make my soap in tiny 5 pound batches to ensure freshness and quality. It is a long, but extremely enjoyable process. As with anything, quality takes time! We do not have any vegan products in our soap line. There are plenty of vegan options in the handmade soap world for those who want them. Most vegan handmade soap includes Palm Oil. Many people now know that Palm Oil is ecologically destructive. I doubt many vegans would knowingly want to contribute to the extinction of the Orang-utan, but that is what happens when you purchase products that include Palm Oil. Using Lard in soap avoids the need for Palm Oil.

Animal-farming and biodiversity

I was vegetarian for many years because I found it difficult to source protein from animals that I was sure had healthy, happy lives. Our animals live a happy life of sunshine, fresh air and lots of belly rubs. They play with my children, root in the muck and enjoy mud baths on hot days. They live a good life. We exclusively raise endangered species of pigs, helping to protect the biodiversity of our food system that is under attack from major corporations and the industrial food system at large. Although it seems counterintuitive to eat endangered species, the Rare Breed saying goes „we have to eat them to keep them“. If people do not eat these animals, farmers will not raise them and they will disappear from the earth, taking their genetic diversity with them. With a changing climate these genes are like a Noah‘s Ark for our children‘s future.

We must not take them for granted. As a farmer, I know that mindfully managed livestock are essential to regenerative agriculture. Without animal manures on the farm we would rely heavily on industrial inputs, which are extremely harmful and wasteful in both their use and production. By raising animals on pasture, we have the ability to produce food AND build, rather than erode our precious soil. It takes nature 100500 years to produce just one inch of topsoil, yet industrial agriculture for annual crops like vegetables and grain are causing us to loose topsoil at a rate of 10 to 40 times faster than the rate of replenishment. That is a long answer to a simple question but it‘s important to explain why I am doing the opposite of many in the zero-waste movement. It is counterintuitive to think that animal products can help the environment, but we support the values of Slow Meat. Eat less, eat better and for heaven’s sake, don‘t waste it!

Website: www.coghlancottagemercantile.com

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

Make Life Green

UNPAPER TOWELS What‘s your name and where are you from? My name is Brianna Wander, I‘m from The United States but we are a military family so I‘m currently living in Germany.

How did you become interested in zero-waste alternatives, and especially in making and selling unpaper towels?

I‘ve always considered myself ‚green‘ but really had no idea what kind of impact all of the disposable items had on the environment until I stumbled across “Zero Waste Home” on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/ZeroWasteHome).

That kind of set me down an entirely different path and I immediately started to look into what disposable things in my life I could eliminate or replace. One of the big items I noticed was paper towels. We had one daughter and I was pregnant with baby number two so it was all about convenience around the house. I wanted something that was just as neat and easy to use but didn‘t require more waste just to clean up a spill. At the time I had a small business making baby wearing accessories so I had most of the materials on hand, I went to my sewing room and messed around with materials, absorbency and size until I found what worked. I loved that they looked like regular paper towels in that they went onto a roll versus being shoved into a drawer. They were not only better functioning than disposable paper towels but also better looking. I started to carry them in my shop within a few months but that just wasn‘t enough for me. In January this year, I officially opened Make Life Green so I could offer a wider variety of reusables to make it easier to switch to a greener lifestyle. I‘m a firm believer that going green shouldn‘t be a hassle, it should simplify your life and that is our whole goal.

“Unpaper towels” is an interesting name for the product, do you know how this name came about? When did it become more popular? As for the name, I‘m not entirely sure. As witty as it is I‘m not the first person to make them or call them that, but I do like to think I improved on the idea. When we first started to carry them back in 2015 they were the only ‚green‘ item I had in my shop. They did surprisingly well and I found that other people were just as excited with the concept of zero waste as I was so I decided to move completely into the area that I was extremely passionate about, making life green. Once this shop opened they boomed, unpaper towels are a really easy first step in many people‘s journey to zero or low waste.

What fabric do you use to make the towels and why did you choose this type of fabric? I use 100% cotton and cotton terry for my unpaper towels, I try my best to only use natural fibers in my own life because it has been found that synthetic fibers release micro plastics into the water when washed so I wanted to make sure that anything I carried would meet my own personal standards. If I wouldn‘t use it why would I expect my customers to?

Where do you source the fabric from? My fabrics mostly come from Germany or Europe but I do have a few that come from the US. Fabric tends to be a little more inexpensive in America so to make sure I can offer the best prices to my customers I always comparison shop.

Who makes your unpaper towels? Everything in my shop is handmade by myself, including my unpaper towels.

Occasionally I‘ll task my husband to help me iron but all the sewing, pinning, topstitching, etc is done by myself.

Do you incorporate your zero-waste practices in other aspects of your life, e.g. your creative hobbies etc? Give us one example Zero waste is a huge part of our life, for example: any fabric/thread scraps I have left from my sewing gets saved. I keep all of it and use it as stuffing for dog beds that I make to donate. I love to sew but I couldn‘t stand to throw away all of those leftovers.

Do you have a creative hobby that inspired you to start a zero-waste business? I love to sew, for a while I just talked with people about zero waste but eventually I wanted to actively do something. I heard so many times ‚oh, that‘s cool but that‘s too much of a hassle‘ so I decided to use my passion for zero waste and sewing and make it easier for people to make the switch.

Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/MakeLifeGreen

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Reel Red

CUTLERY What‘s your name and where are you from? Tahlee Scarpitti from Kentucky currently living in Los Angeles

How did you become interested in zero-waste alternatives? Growing up on a farm, we repurposed several things. I became most interested in zero waste after moving to Los Angeles and seeing the mass consumption and waste.

How did the idea of the Crafty Cutlery Kit Bamboo Utensils come about? I started making them as wedding gifts for friends and family as my little way of reminding people to be aware.

Where is the bamboo grown? The bamboo is grown in China. I buy from a US distributor out of Minnesota. It is all FDA approved, vegetable oil sealant.

Have you seen an increase of people looking for zero waste alternatives in recent years? I have seen more people interested in zero waste. I think every little bit helps. As more people do a little at a time it adds up. You can make a difference one less plastic fork at a time!

Do you incorporate your zero-waste principles in other aspects of your life? Being raised in the farm you reuse and remake many things. I love thrift store shopping and tailoring clothes to fit me. I love sewing and I can‘t stand wasting fabric. I make rag rugs and quilts to use up the scraps. I have a can my grandmother turned into nutmeg grater that reminds me to reuse and use up!

Do you have a creative hobby that inspired you to start a zero-waste business? I started with the rag quilts and then the kits. I use old pallets to make garden boxes. I try to be conscious of what I might be throwing out and ask myself ‘can it be useful for something else’. Less is more! I also work with an organization „Days for Girls“ that makes reusable sanitary pads for girls so they can attend school. The kits are distributed around the world where there is need. Instructions on how to use them and education of female menstruation is part of the programme. As of late some island countries have requested them as a way to minimize their landfill. The next step is to get sewing machines and fabric to women so they can make them for themselves.

Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ReelRed

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Tiny Yellow Bungalow

KITCHEN SCRUBBER What‘s your name and where are you from? My name is Jessie Stokes and I‘m from Athens, Georgia, USA.

How did you become interested in zero-waste alternatives? A couple of years ago, I started the Tiny Yellow Bungalow blog mostly as a way of documenting and sharing my own experiments in natural living and sustainability. I happened upon the zero waste lifestyle as I was researching for my blog and slowly began incorporating the concept of reducing waste into my own eco-conscious lifestyle.

How did the idea of the loofah kitchen scrubber come about? I brought the loofah kitchen scrubber into my online shop pretty early on, because I was hunting for an alternative to the conventional kitchen sponge. I tried using wash cloths for a while and considered bamboo kitchen scrubbing brushes at first, but washcloths weren‘t very effective in removing cooked on grit and bamboo brushes seemed expensive. I was really excited about the loofah scrubbers, because they are not only affordable and effective, but the added bonus that they are compostable! It just seemed like a no brainer to me.

Where do you source the loofah from? The loofah is ethically sourced from small farms in India where loofah is grown as an agricultural crop. So in purchasing these kitchen scrubbers, you‘re not only helping this girl afford zero waste groceries, but you‘re also helping support farmers in India put food on the table as well! :)

What was the loofah traditionally used for? Loofah is actually a vegetable that you can eat in its young stage of development, commonly consumed in China and Vietnam. As it matures, it becomes fibrous and that is what we use for scrubbing dishes and exfoliating in the shower.

Have you seen an increase of people looking for zero waste alternatives in recent years? Yes, people are definitely becoming more interested in zero waste alternatives! That was the main reasoning behind starting my zero waste online shop. I was struggling to find zero waste and plastic free alternatives on my own so I decided to make a one stop online shop to make living zero waste a whole lot easier. I did all the research and experimenting to find the best zero waste products and compiled them in one place. I wanted to make eco-friendly living so simple that everyone would want to do it!

Do you incorporate your zero-waste principles in other aspects of your life? Yes, zero waste isn‘t just limited to my little eco shop. I try to reduce waste in my personal life as well. For example, I am a book worm and for years I would purchase books regularly on Amazon. Now, I borrow books from the library. It‘s really just about being conscious of daily decisions and making the effort to reduce and reuse regularly.

Website: www.tinyyellowbungalow.com

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Itty Bitty Bums

NAPPIES What‘s your name and where are you from? Cassie Gibbs, Sunshine coast Queensland, Australia

How did you become interested in zero-waste alternatives? I was brought up to be very environmentally conscious from my father, he made me very aware of our impact on our beautiful planet and what we can do to reduce our waste and help our environment. I have always lead a life where we (my family and I) have minimal waste (not zero unfortunately!) and we are always looking for new ways to improve our impact on the environment. When we became pregnant with our first child, it wasn’t even an option for me to use disposables. After researching and with a bit of common knowledge I knew we would use cloth nappies. As I am dressmaker by trade, Itty Bitty Bums was then born in 2010.

Where are the nappies made? Our nappies are proudly made in Australia, we also source 90% of our supplies locally.

What fabrics do you think work best for nappies? This is a very hard question to answer as all babies are so different with their needs and sensitivity. After researching and researching when we first started the business we chose the fabrics used in our nappies both for their quality and environmental impact. Bamboo – very easy to grow, requires minimal water and grows fast, this what we use as the absorbent part of our nappies. It is extremely absorbent and can hold a lot of output.

We also use PUL (polyurethane laminate), this is the waterproof part of the nappy which has come a long way since the old plastic pilchers. It is breathable and very reliable if treated properly and the perfect choice to keep all that mess in! There are many other fabrics used for our different nappies.

What’s your personal favourite? Our most popular nappy is the snap in multi fit, this nappy is very economical as you can reuse the outer cover and just replace the absorbent pad. My personal favourite is the all in one multi fit, it is so easy!

With a sewn in pad and adjustable leg elastic, you simply put it on baby and that’s it.

Have you seen an increase in people looking for alternatives to disposable products in recent years? Again a very hard question to answer, as I am now a part of lots of cloth communities and zero waste groups I would like to say ‘yes’ but it may be due to my increased interest in it. I would love to think that people are becoming more aware but I think it is very hard for people as everyone lives such busy lives now (both parents working etc. ) that unfortunately convenience will win most of the time.

Do you incorporate your zero-waste principles in other aspects of your life? Absolutely! We live on a farm out west of the sunshine coast which makes it very easy for us to have very minimal waste, for example we are able to have fruit trees and vegetable patches thus reducing the amount of plastic wrapped products purchased from the supermarket. We are also able to have livestock but this is something we plan for the future. We of course used cloth nappies on both of our children. And as I am dressmaker it helps with reducing waste as well with the ability to fix clothing, make reusable products for the house that would normally be bought as a disposable product.

Website: www.ittybittybums.com.au

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#ZEROWASTEWEEK

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

WHAT IS ZERO WASTE WEEK? Zero Waste Week was established by Rachelle Strauss in September 2008. It is an annual awareness campaign which takes place the first full week in September (for 2017, it‘s 4-8th). The aim is to encourage participants to reduce landfill waste. Each year there is a theme or topic and participants can take part as individuals, businesses, schools or community groups. There are daily emails to keep people motivated and lots of social media activity. The hashtag is #ZeroWasteWeek Website: www.zerowasteweek.co.uk

Photo by Reel Red

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WEBSITES & BLOGS

BOOKS

ZERO: OUR JOURNEY TO ZERO WASTE

Zero waste home, no

www.zero.debralwallace.com

impact man... A year

‚Debra grew up in Ithaca where she was brainwashed

without money

to be eco-conscious at an early age despite the best intentions of her parents. She started her first compost

A practical guide to

pile when she was in middle school which was met with

generating less waste,

lackluster enthusiasm. One fateful day she watched

featuring meaningful and

a documentary by Morgan Spurlock on garbage and

achievable strategies from

recycling and her passion was rekindled. This blog is the

the blogger behind The

documentation of her family’s journey toward zero waste‘

Green Garbage Project,

MY ZERO WASTE

a yearlong experiment in

www.myzerowaste.com

living garbage-free.

‚The overall purpose of my zero waste is to help householders reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill. We show on a daily basis HOW we are reducing

“Be an agent of change:

our own landfill waste by highlighting the pitfalls and

the green man’s guide to

sharing our mistakes and successes!‘

green living & working”

PLASTIC IS RUBBISH Is a book with practical

www.plasticisrubbish.com

ideas and tips on green

‚Don‘t wait for governments to act, the clean up bill to

living and working. it’s an

increase or more animals to die, join me, NOW, in a plastic

action-based guide for

boycott. Living PLASTICLESS since 2006‘

adopting a green lifestyle

LITTLE URBAN GREENIE

for your life, home,

www.littleurbangreenie.blogspot.co.uk

family, work, business and

‚Journey of one woman, her husband, their daughters

community.

UG1 & UG3, mouser cat O,8 chicken hens, and a bin with some worms to obtain a zero-waste, plastic-free urban homestead‘

Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste

NO HARM NO WASTE www.noharmnowaste.wordpress.com

Part inspirational story of

‚I’m not living completely Zero Waste yet. In fact, I’ve

Bea Johnson and how she

started this week. I’m doing research as I go, I’m planning,

transformed her family’s life for

I’m figuring this out. Therefore, I’ve decided to document

the better by reducing their

my journey, and to share what I’ve learnt as I go along‘

waste to an astonishing one litre per year; part practical,

TRASH IS FOR TOSSERS www.trashisfortossers.com

step-by-step guide that gives

‘I have been living a Zero Waste lifestyle for four years now

readers tools and tips to

and all of the trash that I have produced fits in one 16oz

diminish their footprint and

mason jar’

simplify their lives.

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SOME OF THE PR

Workshop Station : AVIVA LEIGH, UK www.avivaleigh.com Open access dye sessions in the ‘Colour Kitchen’ (by appointment) Summer weave project - get creative with cotton ‘Souks, Spices & Sunshine’ Creative Experience in Essaouira, Morocco

FELT MEETS CLOTH, UK www.feltmeetscloth.weebly.com Beginners Basics - Intro to Feltmaking Friday Felt Along

MARINA GEORGIADIS, Canada https://www.smore.com/awajq-exploringeco-print Botanical Print Arts Intensive Workshop

KATHY HAYS DESIGNS, USA http://www.kathyhaysdesigns.com Eco Printing and Natural Dyes Eco Print and Sew 5 Day Immersion Workshop Eco Print and Indigo Workshop Intensive If you wish to feature your workshops in this section send us an email to info@noserialnumber.org

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ROJECTS SHARED ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP ...

CAROLINE NIXON Upcycled french linen tablecloth, dyed with woad and embellished‚ boro style with ecoprint and shibori patches

MICHELA PASINI Acer palmatum and Haematoxylum campechianum

TRACY WILLANS Mixed media on paper

ANN PANGBORN Felted business card cases, made of merino, alpaca, camel, yak and silk fibre.

SOO TOWN „This kimono style jacket was made from linen table napkins which I bought from the local market. I dyed them with tea and coffee and stitched them up, including bits of left over lace from other projects. The lining is made from an old table cloth.“

RITA SUMMERS „This handmade book is handstitched with traditional Coptic binding. I upcycled a map for the cover, with eco printed used brown paper grocery bags for the pages.

I stamped the leaf with paint on some vintage pattern tissue; some stencilled bronze paint here and there and a bit of collage on the cover provided the finishing touches.“

FRANCES TAYLOR „I snow-dyed the silk (which was gleaned from a wedding dress designer), made a stencil from neighbourhood oak leaves, printed with Pebeo fabric paints. I made a stencil using oak leaves from a neighbourhood tree. I laid the stencil on the fabric and using Pebeo fabric paints, brushed paint from the stencil edges onto the fabric to make outlines of the leaves.“

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WEBSITE REVAMP

We decided to celebrate our first year anniversary and new website by featuring here one of our most popular blog posts.

Eco Printing on Paper by Hilde Wolleboom Since a very long time I’ve been addicted to dyeing animal fibres (wool, silk) with plants. This knowledge combined with felting, creating cloths and eco printing (or botanical-contactnatural printing) opens a world of possibilities, including the use of cellulose fibres (hemp, cotton, viscose…) and recycled fabric.

part of the fun.Learning to make art with useless objects is priceless and creates a Zen moment.

Giving workshops means sharing techniques and methods with others in a clear way, so participants can carry the knowledge and make it their own. It’s heart-warming and satisfying to see the astonished look on the face of the participants the moment we open the stack of papers after cooking or steaming. Never can the results compete with chemical colours.

When I’m creating I totally forget the world around me.

Knowing the techniques, I let them go while working. It’s all coming from my gut like a meditative flowing passion.

It is as if the colours speak. Working with leaves connects us with nature. Every time I go for a walk I can’t help but search for different weeds, flowers, forms and I love taking care of them by drying and cherishing them for later experiments.

Eco print on paper has to do with binding leaves in a stack between tiles combined with rusted iron objects. Looking for those objects, found on the street or between rubbish is a big

Printing on paper is a very enjoyable application of what I do, being much easier than printing on textiles. There are many more leaves that give good pigmented results. Especially in Spring I use all kinds of outcoming plants, leaves and weeds from the garden and I look for different patterns and coloured flowers.

The process All botanicals can be used fresh or dried.

You need watercolour paper of different qualities, on which you can experiment.

When you fold it by half it’ll be much easier to make a booklet or postcard later.

The paper must be wet using a solution with water and alum/ iron/soy/vinegar…

Take a flat wetted tile and lay down the leaves in a nice composition on the back and front side using rusted iron objects between them.

Make a stack of paper and bind it very strongly together with a second tile.

Many more techniques of printing on textiles are applicable, like using an iron or colour blanket.

Take the leaves out, using running water when they stick together.

Dry and press them in a pile of newspapers.

With the results, we make a postcard or a booklet. The leaves inside can remind you of a fine moment or conversation on a walk with friends. So the leaves can make a statement or memory.

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SUBSCRIBE

ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

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 subscribe today and help us grow and reach more people! www.noserialnumber.com/subscriptions

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OUR ONLINE SHOP DIRECTORY IS GROWING!

Sat-su-ma: from beautiful plant dyes to outstanding garments

The Wild Dyery: eco-conscious and mystical natural dyes

Alison Faith Kay: intuitive, honest and eco-friendly art

Simple Shoemaking: learning how to create your own eco friendly shoes

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Issue ten on sale  SEPTEMBER 2017 

IN THE NEXT ISSUE: Slow Stitching (UK) Botanical Colours (USA) Painting with Wine (IT) Ceramic Patchwork (UK) Sustainable Home Decor (Sweden) And much more...

Subscribe: www.noserialnumber. com/subscriptions If you would like to help promote the magazine or feature in the magazine write to Francesca: info@noserialnumber.org

Photo: Yarns and fabrics „naturally“ dyed

By Michela Pasini

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ummer Competition

A special treat for your Summer?

For a chance to win artist Alison Faith Kay’s new digital book ‘Explorations in Natural Paint, A Guide to Making 100% Natural Art’ follow the link to our seasonal survey ...

The information in this inspiring and practical book includes: 4 How to set up a natural studio 4 Everything you need to know about natural pigments 4 Options for making your own paint 4 Step-by-step guides to making natural paints with binders like milk, egg and

animal-hide glue 4 Where to source materials 4 How to embrace the natural world in your creative practice

www.noserialnumber.org/summer2017

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ISSUE 9 SUMMER 2017

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 human creativity, nature and activism 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 • kitchen chronicles • grassroots environmental movements

No Serial Number Magazine

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Printed on recycled paper at UEL Printers