Water - Colour

It's London Design Festival time again! Last night I attended the opening of Katherine May's 'Water-Colour' installation at the new Precinct space at the 'Arthouse' on Richmond Road in Hackney and what a special experience it was. I'm looking forward to seeing how the installation evolves over the next few weeks and beyond....

The installation brings together Katherine's sustainable textile practise which focuses on cloth and community , her recent MA research and cleverly references Arthouse's past life as a laundry.
Up above in the tall atrium, dyed silk cloths gently whisp about from a series of washing lines, while below a series vats of blue liquid covered in bubbles await the next submerge of white cloth.

Here is Katherine and blue was definitely the colour of the evening! The vats contain the natural dye 'Indigo' produced by the plants leaves. The process is truly magical as the cloth goes through a range of shades during the dying process from green to deep blue as the dyed cloth oxidises with the air at the drying stage.

Over the course of the installation time frame, cloth will be dyed daily until the dye vats are exhausted. The washing lines will fill up with cloth journeying through slow graduations from dark to light blue. The Dye vats will then get replaced by a sewing work space and the making of the cloth into quilts.

The Water-Colour installation has been designed to raise awareness of water consumption in the production and use of textiles and aims to reconnect us physically to water through a direct experience of handling water in a dye vat. As the space filled up with visitors, it was certainly mesmerising watching the dyeing process, which was attracting quite a crowd!

Over the next 2 weeks there is also an exciting programme of talks, workshops and events taking place within the installation. I've got my eye on the following:
Emma Rigby's  (co founder of the Dalston ethical fashion store 'Here Today, Here Tomorrow) 'Garment Polling Station'.
Emma Neuberg's (Slow Textiles Group) workshop on Sashiko, a decorative reinforcement stitching from Japan.
Katherine May's patchwork and mending workshop inspired by the Japanese technique Boro.
To find out more and book visit Precint's Eventbrite page.

Open house, Open City

The Open House event has closed it's doors again this year. For those of you not familiar with the event, it has taken place every September across all the boroughs of London for the last 25 years. I discovered this year that it has become a global phenomena, stretching to other major cities such as New York and Tokyo.

 

Notable buildings, dwellings and other construction projects both large and small host tours and presentations for 1 weekend only to give visitors more insight into the history, architecture, construction and ethos of the space. Many of the places on the Open House trail are not usually open to the public, so the event encourages our natural curiosity to 'nose around' and gain an 'access all areas' pass!

What I think is wonderful about the event is it also provides the space to appreciate the diversity of buildings that make up our city, each has a special story to share and over just 1 weekend 1,000's of people are united in looking, listening and experiencing living history.

I decided to apply and put forward Fabrications new 'Imaginerium' craft space to be part of this year's event. The organisers came to visit and were keen for Fabrications to be on the Open House map. This year they were also encouraging hosts to put on 'late night' events to take place on the Saturday evening. After talking to my architects Eric Martin and Nikolai Delvendahl (DM Architects) we decided on hosting a good old fashioned slide show all about the making of the new space followed by a Q&A session with the team.

I decided to weave in some of my own buildings history into the slide show, pictures of the shop when I first discovered it in 1997. Back then the shop was in a bad state of disrepair and dilapidation as were a majority of shops on Broadway Market at that time. Preparing for the slide show and our daily tours (with myself and DM architects), made me realise the journey I have been on with the fabric of my shop building and how much I have achieved and improved. When I got the shop, the name on the front was "All Well" - Appliance Rescue Centre - a reoccurring theme in Fabrications story!!

For the tours and the slide show I wanted to promote the people and organisations that have contributed to creating the new space and my collaborative / community approach. One of these organisations is 'Out of the Dark' an inspirational social enterprise who "uncover the hidden potential of old furniture and young people by training and employing dissadvantaged youths to recycle and restore vintage furniture" (this quote came from a recent review of The Imaginerium by Inhabit ) Out of the Dark got stuck in with reworking old lock wood, fruit crates and a G Plan wardrobe to provide a kitchen and storage area for The Imaginerium. They also suggested curtaining across the front to hide workshop resources and a creative way to incorporate and showcase my own upcycled textile work.

On the previous weekend, for the London Design Festival, Out of the Dark ran a special workshop here 'Revamp your old furniture' which was so popular and well received, we've decided to run another workshop in December.

I really enjoyed being part of the Open House event. I was overwhelmed and really pleased by how many visitors came along and were captivated by The Imaginerium and our stories. I'm looking forward to participating next year!

What Happened at London Design Week?

Interview by Emily Jupp for the East London Lines website at the Eco Factory opening party at the Oxo gallery. I'm talking in a very serious manner (!) about The Eco Factory ethos and my 'Remember Me' commissioning service.

Boris loves to knit

News just in! In the early hours of this morning Boris bikes in Soho have been knit bombed!

With nifty recycled yarn and messages for travellers and passers by .....

Shake yer pants! (knitted ones of course!)

Question dear reader:
which London Icon will be wearing these during the London Design Festival?

* * I look forward to your comments and sightings! * *

Oh and come on down tonight to the Eco Factory party at the OXO TOWER! The exhibition in the Oxo Gallery is up! There will be performances, hands on workshops, meet the designers....Hope to see you there!

Eco Factory in Camden + The Turning Point Festival (Sunday 19th Sep)

Eco Factory at the Tanneries, Bermondsey St Festival (Saturday 18th)

Eco Factory opens tomorrow!

Ladies + Gentleman, Boys + Girls, keep left, follow the signs..........
Tomorrow we will be in The Tanneries on Bermondsey St, Nr London Bridge for the first day of the London Design Festival! An exciting week lies ahead.

As London Fashion Week opens today, take a moment....

News in from Sarah Corbett of the Craftivist Collective, who snuck into Somerset House this week and left a little present...

To mark the start of London Fashion Week 2010, activist group The Craftivist Collective has created homemade Mini Protest Banners aimed at exposing the ugly side of fashion. Using Mini Protest Banners, they hope to make people think about the side of the fashion that is often too easily dismissed by the industry in a non-threatening but challenging way during the fashionista's calendar annual highlight. They have been tied up to lamp-posts, railings, and buildings near fashion hotspots to provoke people to care about their global neighbours on the other side of the global fashion industry including this one inside Somerset House saying:

“Lowest paid models at London Fashion Week paid £125 an hour. Majority of garment workers in Vietnam paid £25 a month”

Eco Factory at the London Design Festival

The Eco Factory Presents.....'The transcendental gypsy caravan and creativity and co design textile interventions' - this may be a bit of a mouth full but we will ensure that you have fun and hopefully a more enriched shopping experience as we encourage you to Roll Up! Roll up! your sleeves and interact the Eco Factory 's team of talented designers, as we travel around different venues during the London Design Festival (18th - 26th September)
There will also be an exhibition and series of talks and activities at the OXO Gallery (Wed 22nd September - 4th October)
Please follow my BLOG as I will updating regularly with events, happenings and mini reportage's!

What do I need to bring?
An old garment and a FIVER! Every intervention a new skill and new change will take place. Come to 1 or all the interventions with the same garment or different items!
Walk away with a transformed designer garment!

And if I'm just passing by and don't have a garment?
There will also be hands on workshops creating a stylish upcycled accessory with Me! (Fabrications) and TRAID will be running their 'Sew Good' workshops teaching basic sewing and mending skills.
We are also hoping Traid can bring along garments which can be used in the interventions.

Is there anything else taking place?
Oh yes!! There is 'Human Lace making' with Sarah Mc Phee and 'Human Decoration' with Kate Morris. Also Knitty Gritty have been knitting with old T's and plastic bags like the clappers to bring you some guerrilla knitting antics for a London icon!! (Follow my BLOG to find out more!!)
Come and 'Chalk to' Re(Design) in their low impact 'Chalky Van' (OXO Tower venue only) and enjoy music brought to you by 'Out of Bounds' musicians while you get creative!

when and Where? (Follow the signs and the crowds!)
Saturday 18th September: The Tanneries, Bermondsey Street, 10 - 6pm (coinciding with the Bermondsey Street Festival)
Sunday 19th September: Outside 'My Village Cafe', Camden, 12 - 6pm and in the Roundhouse 2.30 - 7pm (coinciding with the Turning Point Festival)
Wednesday 22nd - Sunday 26th September: In and around the OXO Tower and OXO gallery, 12 - 6pm. Exhibition continues until October 4th.
PARTY! PARTY! COME ON DOWN! At the OXO Gallery on Wednesday (22nd) evening (alongside the Designers Block party)

Hope you can make it!
Love from The Eco Factory X X X