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Sara Drinkwater

Holly Edwards

Hello and welcome to the May edition of The Textile Directory newsletter. This month we have a very interesting feature about what some artists have done with plastic bags to create fantastic artworks. We also have an article about a great resource for milliners, so make sure you take a look if you have an interest in hat making.

This month The Textile Directory has set up our very own Facebook group, so if you want to come and join us you can do so here.

If you would like to get in touch with either of us then you can do so at the usual address: sara@thetextiledirectory.com or by calling 01386 760406

Best wishes Sara and Holly

Carla Mines

Carla Mines

Anna Roebuck

Anna Roebuck

Knitting with plastic bags workshop

Creating Artworks from your Rubbish!

Recycling is all the rage in our modern society so The Textile Directory has done some research into a few artists who create artwork from plastic bags, to show you what can be done with our rubbish!

One such artist is Anna Roebuck, from Bags2Riches, who makes jewellery from recycled plastic bags. Anna told me, “I have always worked with recycled and found objects ever since college. They encouraged us to use less traditional materials and this has had a big influence in my work.” Anna’s original intention was to make bags from recycled carrier bags, but she then developed this to jewellery and lighting, which is now the focus of her work.

Currently Anna makes her chains using sterling silver, or gold on request, but she is working on a range of jewellery that uses aluminium cans instead. She enjoys holding workshops for schools, guilds and groups so if you would like to book her for your event please visit www.bags2riches.co.uk for more information.

Another artist who has incorporated plastic bags in their work is Carla Mines, a member of Wessex Textile Artists. Carla’s work aims to demonstrate the damaging nature of plastic bags and the dioxins that incinerating them produces. She says, “These dioxins are invisible to the eye and I believe that it is the artists job to make the invisible visible.”

Carla makes cards using images from her artwork, rather than selling the actual pieces. She says, “I think plastic as a material is quite ugly so I can’t imagine people wanting the pieces on their wall!” One piece that Carla has produced was made from plastic bags melted together, which she titled ‘More’, representing the notion of ‘how much more can we take?’ Carla is also exhibiting some of her recycled artworks at an exhibition at Nature in Art Museum, Walsworth Hall, Twigworth in August this year for those of you who would like to see her work. For more information about the event please click here.

For those of you who would like to have a go at making something using plastic bags there is a ‘Knitting with Plastic Bags’ workshop being held at Camden Green Fair on Sunday 1 June. The workshop is run by Barley Massey in the eco-fashion tent and is free to take part in. Barley told me that the workshop “shows you how to cut up the plastic bag so you get a continual strip of material. You will also leave with a small object such as a purse or mobile phone cover.” If you would like more information about Camden Green Fair please visit www.camdengreenfair.org.uk, or you can find out more about Barley Massey’s work at www.fabrications1.co.uk

There are lots more examples of fabulous work that has been produced entirely from plastic bags, which you can have a browse through here. Everybody in The Textile Directory offices was particularly impressed by the raincoat!

If all of this has inspired you to have a go at creating something yourself then you can find a pattern to create a bag from recycled plastic here. If you do create your own artworks then make sure you email some pictures to us so we can share them in the newsletters next month! Any images can be sent to sara@thetextiledirectory.com

Alison Yule Textiles

Jane Callender

Susan Cutts

What Can The Textile Directory Do For You?

Are you looking for new ways to promote yourself to potential buyers, galleries and exhibition organisers? The Textile Directory website is well established within the textile community, which makes it a great vehicle for artists and designers to promote their work to these people.

We have a specially designed section on our website to showcase your work, which now gives you more space than ever before. You can include 150 words telling potential customers about yourself and the work you do, display four images of your work and include details about your upcoming events. All showcases also include your full contact details.

There are also other benefits to coming on board with The Textile Directory. We have a second monthly newsletter, Design Matters, that is sent out to gallery owners, interior designers, exhibition organisers and the press, which all showcase artists will have images of their work included in.

Our current artists have found the showcases very effective. Since we have redesigned the showcase pages to give each artist a full page to display their work, several of our artists have told us that they have received leads from a gallery in Spain, while others have gone on to sell items of work.

Showcase windows are available for just £99 plus VAT per year. For more information or to book your space please give Holly a call on 01386 760406. You can take a look at the current showcases here.

Hat designed and modelled by Charlotte Harris

How2Hats

Millinery is becoming a dying art these days, with fewer and fewer courses to teach the craft. So The Textile Directory was thrilled to discover a fantastic website for everybody interested in hat making. The website, www.how2hats.co.uk, is a mine of essential information for milliners and would-be hat makers produced by the family team of Ann and Guy Morse-Brown and two of their sons; John who looks after the website, and Owen who is in the process of taking over the manufacture of the hat blocks.

Ann told me, “My husband, Guy, started making hat blocks for milliners about 15 years ago. A lady opened a millinery shop nearby and asked him to make her a few hat blocks. He realised there was a market for hat blocks so made a small brochure, which we sent out to all the milliners we could think of. As more and more milliners began contacting us for the hat blocks we began to realise that there was a need for more information about millinery, and so we opened The Wombourne School of Millinery.”

Although the school, which ran successfully for seven years, has now closed down, Ann has developed an alternative teaching method. She has written more than twenty e-books teaching a range of millinery skills, many of which are suitable for complete beginners. Included in the range are Easy Sinamay Hats, Fresh Flowers on Hats, How to make Silk Flowers, Setting up a Millinery Business and Double Brimmed Hat, all of which are available on the website.

Two years ago Ann also launched her online magazine, HATalk, which is full of articles about working with hats, a feature on a particular hat, step-by-step instructions for making your own hats or accessories, as well as problem solving letters, puzzles and giveaways. A subscription to HATalk costs just £2.95 per month and is a fantastic way to get into millinery, as well as being a great resource for established milliners to keep up to date with the latest news. The website also includes a directory of milliners for those of you looking for somebody to make the perfect accessory to that special occasion.

If you are interested in hats why not subscribe to How2Hats free email newsletter and get a free e-book about hat making? For more information please visit www.how2hats.co.uk

Woolfest

By Gillian Thorniley

Woolfest, the international celebration of nature’s finest fibres organised by Wool Clip, is now in its fourth year, and each year the event seems to attract more interest.

‘Last year there was a constant stream of visitors throughout the two days,’ says Pam Hall, one of the Woolfest organisers. "The combination of rare breed animals and a fleece sale with workshops, ideas and supplies for all sorts of wool and other textile crafts is really popular."

This year with contributors from Canada, Norway, Finland, France, Estonia and Lithuania, the programme of workshops and lectures covers knitting without patterns, rug hooking and hand spinning. Booking for these opened on 1 March 2008 and, given the demand in previous years, is strongly recommended.

This year there is a unique exhibition of woven tapestries from the Rameses Wissa Wassef Art Centre in Egypt. These tapestries are the result of a creativity project with children in Egypt, and there will be a workshop of ideas for people wanting to run wool textile projects with children.

There will also be an auction of knitted sheep created from a knitting pattern from Ruth Strong, one of the Wool Clip members. The pattern is available online for anyone coming to Woolfest to bring along a knitted sheep to be auctioned in aid of Farm Africa.

Diary Dates

For more information about any of the events listed please click here.