Had a lovely afternoon at Emma Neuberg's Slow Textiles Group last Saturday. We focused on Scandinavian folk motifs, and as we traced, painted and paper cut, Emma told us about snickeregladje - the Swedish name for the cutout technique done in paper and wood, which literally means 'carpenter's happiness'.

I ended up, as I often do, just doing a simple running stitch, bringing together several layers of fabric of these Swedish motifs.

I realised that on the way home I was feeling very relaxed and this reflects another of Emma's interest - the physiological and emotional occurrences when people are involved in these simple hand techniques. The brain enters the theta state where brain activity slows to an almost trance-like state, and it is in this state that receptivity is heightened and one is better able to store information and access memory.

Emma's workshops involve the participants practising these hand techniques while she talks through theory and ideas based around a certain theme. It is a very unusual way to learn, but I found it very relaxing and 'connecting'.

local global 2

More thoughts about this local/global issue from reading the Transition Town Handbook. There is a chart in the handbook outlining a vision for what products could be produced at what scale in the UK. They propose that food would be produced at a 'village' scale, whereas clothing and textiles would be produced 'nationally'. i.e somewhere in the UK. This suggests that textiles/clothing could be made at a manufactured, non-bespoke level but atleast it was still 'local', rather than manufactured in the Far East (and it could utilise all the UK textile wastestreams to produce upcycled product).

But where will our bespoke, handmade pieces come from ? I would suggest both at a UK 'village' level and at a non-UK 'village' level.

Maybe our ideal re-localised textiles/clothing vision for the UK could have several layers to it:

1. Bespoke textiles/clothing at a UK 'village' level, someone like Naomi Paul who handmade the cushions pictured above.

2. Manufactured virgin material/upcycled materials at a UK 'national' level

3. Bespoke textiles/clothing in collaboration with non-UK communinties/'village' level

In this way, we would be nurturing all the skill and talent of makers in the UK, using up textile waste and producing our basic clothing needs in the UK and also still benefiting from cross-cultural collaboration with non-UK craft communities.

Sounds good to me.....

I have been busy with moving house and other things lately, but some exciting news is that the bricolage holding page is finally up and it is the start of our collaboration with web designer Dennis Mabry on developing the full web site, coming shortly!