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.

Textile Collective launches

TED member Clara Vuletich is part of a textile collective called bricolage which launched last week at Tent London, part of the London Design Festival. bricolage specialises in contemporary bespoke textiles products for interiors and their expertise covers a range of traditional and innovative textile skills including screen printed wallpapers and textiles; hand and machine knit; crochet and upcycled quilting.

The collective has been formed by five textile graduates from Chelsea, whose creative 'make-do' attitude has inspired them to join together to create unique and considerate textiles.

They are also passionate about passing on their textile skill and knowledge and are developing a series of 'pop-up' workshops.

TED member and Senior Lecturer in Digital Print at Chelsea, Melanie Bowles, has launched her blog, Make It Digital which explores the creative interaction between traditional textiles and digital technology within fashion, textiles, craft and 'do-it-yourself'.

Mel's recently published book Digital Textile Design, offers tutorials and step-by-step guides in designing digitally for textiles. Since the publication, Mel has started to develop an on-line network of readers and makers who are inspired by the book and are sharing their creations and expertise with her.

Conversations on (a) Slow Craft

The TED team recently took part in a small research project devised by Becky Earley, to coincide with the Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution exhibition which is opening at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in October.

The idea behind Conversations on (a) Slow Craft was to take a group of textile designers and send them on a barge trip along a canal, while they discussed Slow and what it means to them and their practice as textile designers. The TED group were also joined by wallpaper designer Linda Florence, furniture maker David Gates and the whole conversation was audio recorded by artist Russell Martin.

The group were then led through a workshop in Japanese Sashiko embroidery by Emma Neuberg, which is part of her Extended Life textile workshop series.

The idea is for the format to be repeated at the different cities where the Taking Time exhibit tours to. A group of jewellers may all travel together on a horse and cart and talk about Slow or a group of ceramicists on bikes.

The audio recordings and transcriptions of the conversation will be available soon. In the meantime, there are some previous audio recordings of conversations between artists about Slow on the Taking Time website.