TED's MA workshops

The new MA Textile group has started here at Chelsea and they have already been introduced to some aspects of TED's work. Several TED members have been running workshops with the students including Kate Goldsworthy who presented a talk on ‘Borrowing Materials, Technology and Time’ and then ran a workshop.

Another workshop was led by Hayley Newman, Fine Art Research Fellow who is taking her three-woman performance piece 'Cafe Carbon and the Gluts' to the Copenhagen Climate Change events in December. The MA students were asked to come up with some upcycled outfits for the performers.

Gucci Group fund new sustainable fashion PhD

The Textile Futures Research Group (TFRG), which TED is part of along with researchers and academics from London College of Fashion and Central St Martins, have announced that the Gucci Group are to sponsor a new three-year fully funded PhD studentship in ‘Sustainable Technology for Future Luxury'.

There will be a seminar to introduce the studentship, for MA students, on Friday 27th November, 16.00-18.00, at the Innovation Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. There will be some talks from academics including Rebecca Earley from TED who will talk on recycling polyester and Carole Collett from CSM will discuss biomimicry.

For more information on the seminar email Itamar Ferrer at tfrg@tfrg.org.uk

For more information in the studentship go to the TFRG website.

Craft and Slow exhibition opens with TED member work

What would a Slow fashion collection look like? Instead of the fast paced fast-fashion cycle of a new collection every three weeks, how can designers work against this system? Becky Earley has been working on a ten year fashion collection called Top 100, and the collection is now on show at the exhibition Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution at Birmingham City Gallery.

The work also features in a podcast interview of Carl Honore, the author of the seminal book In Praise of Slow, who is reflecting on the exhibition and the theme of Slow and Craft.

TED Postcard from India

Clara Vuletich writes: I have been in India for a week now, working with TED colleague Lorna Bircham. We have come to Gujurat to spend a few days at a block print company which has been founded by an Indian textile designer who, in collaboration with her product designer husband, has created a sustainable print factory. Even though they use synthetic dyes (and they have some interesting arguments against natural dyes), all the waste water from the print and dye processes is sent through a water filtration system and re-used. 

The skill and craftsmanship of the wood block carvers and printers here is astonishing. The skills have been handed down through their families for generations. 

We are going to be working with this company on a project to create a series of textile designs which combine traditional block-printing with the latest digital print technology. The project is part of Creative Connexions, which aims to promote the benefits of using the UK's design talent in India and China.

More on this project will follow on the blog. 

Student Workshops in Hamburg

TED recently gave a presentation and led a design workshop for textile students at HAW college in Hamburg, as part of the Ever and Again: Rethinking Recycled Textiles research project, that Becky Earley has been leading.

Becky, Kate Goldsworthy and Clara Vuletich gave an evening presentation to students titled IMPACT: The Lifecycle of Textiles and the following day a workshop which explored the design themes being explored in Ever & Again, including Upcycling, Ethical Production, Short/Long life, Systems and Services Design and New Technologies.

Students worked towards developing an idea for a 'real-world 'concept, or new business model, which combined some or all of these design strategies.

TED goes to China

TED member Professor Kay Politowicz was in China last week presenting a paper at 'Design for Tomorrow's Customers Today: ', a conference organised by Creative Connexions, who aim to promote the benefits of using the UK's creative talent to China.

Co-written with Rebecca Earley, the presentation was titled Sustainability and Enterprise:Testing the Theories with Design and explores several 'sustainability design stories' that TED has developed.

Crafting Mass Production

Bridget Harvey wrote: One of the highlights of the London Design Festival last week for us here at TED, were the events being organised at the Design Council called Greengaged . One of the days we attended was 'Crafting Mass Production', which proposed to look at "how craft sensibilities and values can be brought to a mass production scale". Basically, they argued that craft is bringing the love back into design!

One of the best speakers was Kresse Weslin of E&KO who make beautiful, upcycled bags from dis-used fire hoses, produced by a combination of craft techniques and a larger production model. An inspirational speaker, Kresse spoke about her passion for diverting waste from landfill and that she sees herself as a problem solver rather than a designer.

She ended her talk by paraphrasing Michael Braungart who says "if you've got something good, do it big" - which is exactly what she is doing with her innovative, successful company.

Also speaking was June Hill from the Schiffli Project, a textile research project based around the last remaining working Schiffli embroidery machine in the UK at Manchester Metropoliton University. The machine works by embroidering the marks and lines made by a hand-manipulated 'stylus' and was invented to quickly and efficently produce embroidery designs. The University were threatening to replace the machine with newer technology, but it was saved by staff members who developed the idea of an exhibition which saw over ten artists using the machine to make new work.