I have been thinking, wondering, pondering for a while about
my practice and where to go from here. handweaving is an incredibly time
intensive process and it takes a lot of skill and effort physically.

The first thing I have considered is this. During the past
year I have been in recovery from 2 herniated discs in my spine, which meant
that I couldn’t weave for the majority of 2024. This of course meant I had to
think about what would happen if I couldn’t weave again. Or at least take into
account the fact that I won’t be able to weave forever.

The second thing was that I have championed using sustainable
and ‘natural’ materials for years. When I have not used natural yarns or
fibres, it is because they have been second hand. I have found this limiting at
points and frustrating at others if I wanted a certain property from a piece I
am making.

The third issue is production. How can I continue to make
things when I know that the world if FULL of things and stuff- enough clothes,
enough bedding, enough STUFF for us all for an age and beyond. But so much of
it gets wasted. And yet here I am making and producing more stuff to add to the
mix. Yes handmade, yes ethically and sustainably made, but still amounting to NEW
stuff.

The fourth thing is that I have been struggling a lot with
reaching people regarding my work. How do I continue to make when I am not
really making anything as a maker? What is the point? It’s souring my relationship
with my practice.

The fifth and last thing, is how to ensure my interest,
compassion, passion and love of the environment and ecology, particularly
woodlands, can be used in my practice. Can it be used at all? Or is it- as I
have viewed in previously, just too separate?

So I have made decisions in response to these issues.

The first thing is that I will not just be weaving but am
going to branch out my practice and include sewing, patchworking and embroidery
in the mix. This means that, just as I have been during my recovery, I can make
without being limited to weaving. I will be trying out new skills and seeing
what I like and what I don’t, what works and what doesn’t.

The second thing. I will now try not to use any new
materials at all and use mainly materials which I have sourced from charity shops,
freecycle, family, acquaintances, freebies, scrapstores, you name it. Some of
these materials will not be natural. For example I have just got a massive
spool of nylon yarn. But this nylon was destined to go into landfill before it
was taken in by the scrapstore and sold to me. This material isn’t natural, it
is a human made fibre. BUT it is being used because it is THERE. It has already
been produced. I am not driving manufacturing or production of it; I am using
some of the waste that has been created by our incredibly wasteful selves and
saying “you see this that was going in the bin? Well look what I made from it…”.
The materials I use will be reclaimed, however, if I need to use something for
example a specific yarn for a warp for example, THAT material will be natural and
sustainable. I will NEVER buy brand NEW oil based or derived products.

The third thing relates closely to this. My work isn’t going
to be about generating brand new stuff. Things to fill a life. Instead, my work
with focus on really well made, handcrafted pieces which have been created from
mainly WASTE materials. This way, I can do something about the wasteful world
out there, carry on being creative, and also demonstrate that this ‘waste’ this
‘rubbish’ that so many of us throw away, can actually be used again in another
life. There is nothing wrong with it.

The fourth thing. Reaching new people. This one I am still
stuck with but I think I have relied a tad too much on social media. I have
thought that would be the way to connect to people because I was taught by my university,
by others that that is how to reach people. But I have realised that in the
community in which I now live, it may be of more benefit to reach out to locals
and members of the community and businesses myself and not have social media as
a crutch. I HATE social media, I really do. It can of course help connect to
ideas and things you could never in the past, but it is also a pit of despair
you can spiral fast into, sucked into a hole full of comparison, filters, lies
and unethical standards. Not to mention, a vast majority of these platforms are
now owned by individuals with morals and values which completely contrast with
my own and I do not want to play a role in their success. So, I will be trying
to reach out more in person with things, which will be scary, but worth a try.
If in the end I feel like social media is redundant, I will leave it. Until
then, I will just not pander to the standards and algorithms that are so
tiresome. I also think that with my focus on WASTE, I can connect to people in
how they can work with waste themselves. If people notice the waste around
them, it may spur them to do something about it. People power drives change.

The final thing is that now I have a degree in
sustainability and ecology, I feel that I have a right to say things which before
I felt maybe unable to because of the lack of ‘accreditation’ on the subject. This
is flawed thinking, I know. My experience in ecology and certain areas such as
woodlands existed before I had a piece of paper, but now I have both, I have
the knowledge, experience and understanding that I can use to educate people on
the subject of sustainability.

These things are NOT SEPARATE. To be a maker nowadays comes
with the responsibility that you are working within a series of ecological systems
which are on the brink of collapsing. You cannot design without taking into
consideration the role your work will play in this. This is how we have reached
where we are now. As a maker, we, I , have an ability to use my creativity to
reach people and educate them or help them play their part in protecting our
precious Earthly resources. For my part, this may be using natural dyes from
plants in my textiles, it may be leading craft sessions in natural environments
to show a connection between SLOW craft and nature. It will be using the pieces
I make to show the importance of the use of materials and the importance of
considering our production and consumption of them in our everyday lives and choices
we make.

All in all, my process will be more a part of the SLOW
movement.

SLOW

UNIQUE

SUSTAINABLE

TRANSFORMING WASTE

TRANSFORMING PEOPLE’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH MATERIALS

TRANSFORMING PEOPLE’s RELATIONSHIPS WITH ‘NATURE’

Now it’s time to see if doing all this reignites my interest
in textiles…..

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Posts tagged with SLOW-craft

5 problems, 5 solutions and next steps