This two day conference tackled the topical and challenging area of new textile technology and look at future textiles with a conscience. How ‘Slow Design’ focuses on ideas of well-being.

"Slow design outcomes encourage: designing for space to think, react, dream, and muse; designing for people first and commercialisation second; balancing the local with the global and the social with the environmental; demystifying and democratising design by re-awakening individual’s own design potential; and catalysing social transformation towards a less materialistic way of living."


Workshop

Before this workshop I had been reflecting on the idea of textiles and sharing and understanding for myself, that the process of my making is where the true value lies. By facilitating workshops I hope to give participants a space to share and enjoy the process of making.

I began to get excited about this workshop as participants arrived and settled down, taking out their sewing box and collection of textiles. I could sense that each person had taken time to look through their ‘stash’ and had come across forgotten fragments or tiny precious scraps that they had been too scared to use. As we went round the group, each person spoke very evocatively about the textiles they wanted to work with. It seemed that the session had given them an opportunity to rummage through their collection and embark on an emotional journey of memories.

It is very emotive looking through someones sewing stash and gives you a little sneak in to how they might approach their making. I reminds me of a beautiful wooden sewing box I found at Greenwich market, which was full of jars of buttons and name labels…. It makes me think of a Mum, prepared for sewing emergencies, ready to replace missing buttons and add on uniform name labels. An organised and functional tool kit.

I am realising that through my workshops I am giving people the tools to unlock memories and emotions, in a space that feels safe for them to share this process.