joining with North West England Fibreshed & Patrick Grant
We are so excited to announce that we will be involved in the British Textile Biennial celebration with Patrick Grant and Justine Aldersey Williams from the Wild Dyery
The initiative involves planting a field of flax for linen and woad, a natural dye for indigo in a disused field in Blackburn in order to produce a pair of jeans. This would then be used as a starting point for a prototype to be upscaled and the jeans to be produced by Community Clothing, a social enterprise organisation. You can read more about it all in North West Fibreshed's blog here
The jeans will be made in October during the Textile Biennial celebration but on the week commencing the 31st May to the 4th June we will be creating a banner at the entrance to the field during the Homegrown Homespun Half Term Workshops
At the beginning of the week we will take our spinning wheels up to Blackburn and teach groups of volunteers to spin - anyone with experience of learning to spin will know how this often goes. For a banner though, imagine the texture that will be created with those gorgeous lumpy skeins.
The yarn will then be dyed by Justine with natural dyes along with donated T shirts and other fabric which will be incorporated. On the Friday we will then use our looms to weave the banner which will adorn the site. It promises to be a great week, covid permitting.
We will also create tapestry woven letters to spell Homegrown Homespun, the theme of the project. It's so exciting to be part of this at the beginning of something that could be amazing.
For more information about the Textile Biennial, take a look here
