Responsible Design
Sustainable values are at the core of my practice.
Conscious of the volume of waste sent to landfill in our linear – take-make-waste – system and the need to value our natural resources, my design philosophy follows an alternative path. Inspired by the Cradle to Cradle approach (Braungart and McDonough), my research and practice follow the principles of the circular economy and how we design and make to keep materials in use.
I consider the whole life cycle of the materials at the outset of each project so that they can be recovered or will biodegrade at the end of their life. I design and make hand-woven textiles using only natural materials.
Materials
I work with linen, paper and hemp, as well as wool and sometimes silk. I use repurposed materials where possible; surplus and redundant mill stock as well as waste streams from other design processes such as willow tips from furniture designer-makers par-avion or offcuts from clothing designer-maker Phaedra Clothing. Other materials are locally found, collected on my walks in the beautiful Norfolk landscape.
I often use undyed yarns and love working with the beautiful natural colours of the materials. For colour, I use natural dyes. These are mostly gathered while walking, but recently I’ve been exploring kitchen waste and more traditional natural dyes like madder and indigo.
It’s important to me that any waste I create is repurposed. Warp ends leftover from the weaving process and ties from dyeing yarns are saved and used to create small basketry pieces. Plant materials leftover from the dyeing process are composted, while dye baths are reused until exhausted.