Tag: Sustainability

Of Interest: Arena – Swedish Wool Organisation

Published on by Feltmakers Ireland

Just as Irish wool growers face challenges, farmers in other parts of Europe face similar challenges in finding markets for their fibre. The Arena Swedish Wool Economic Association was formed in September 2022.

They aim to promote the members’ interests, contribute to strengthening cooperation for Swedish wool, and work to increase its use.

They have information about standardising wool sorting by quality versus breed.

“This means that wool from different farms and breeds, but with similar properties and uses, can be combined into larger quantities. The hope is that more Swedish sheep owners will receive a provision for all wool and increase their income.”

Arena Swedish Wool Economic Association

For more information, visit their website – https://www.arenasvenskull.se/

If you use Google Chrome as a browser, there should be an option to translate it into English.

Of Interest – Blanaid Gallagher Interview – Irish Wool – Thinking through Making

Published on by Feltmakers Ireland

Blatnaid Gallagher, the spokesperson for the Galway Wool Co-op, was recently interviewed on ‘Thinking Through Making’, a YouTube channel presented by Emma Robinson of the Woolly Mammoth Fibre Company.

It is a charming and insightful video covering the state of Irish Wool and the positive steps taken by the Galway Co-op to counteract the challenges their farmers face.

To listen to the interesting interview, go to Emma’s YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8SI-pPxyU

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Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

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Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

Open Call: Apply to the DCCI Irish Business Design Challenge

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The Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) launches this year’s Irish Business Design Challenge (IBDC) for micro, small and medium-sized businesses to apply and showcase their commitment to sustainability through innovative design and circular and ethical practices.

In its fourth year, IBDC celebrates businesses that add value, repurpose products, develop eco-friendly processes, enhance efficiency, and tackle societal and environmental challenges through sustainable design.

This year’s challenge has a prize fund of over €50,000.

Examples of Sustainable Design Strategies:

  • Designing for minimal waste.
  • Prioritising durability in design.
  • Utilising safe, renewable, and recycled materials.
  • Championing ethical production practices.
  • Reducing chemical impacts through design.
  • Implementing energy and water-efficient designs.
  • Drawing inspiration from nature’s designs.
  • Dematerialising products and developing sustainable systems and services.

For more information, visit their website – https://www.dcci.ie/ibdc

Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

Event: Mend in Public Day – Dublin

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This Saturday, the 20th of April, as part of Fashion Revolution‘s #MendInPublicDay campaign, Kim O’Driscoll from Project Prolong is organizing an event in Wolfe Tone Square, Dublin 1, from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM.

Bring blankets to sit on, some mending material, and/or a garment you wish to repair. Scraps, knit samples, denim patches, needles, threads, and wool will be available, so feel free to pop along!

  • 11-12 PM: Knit Weaving Mending Technique Demonstration
  • 12-1 PM: Denim Patch Repair Demonstration

The event is free, and everyone is welcome, including dogs!

In case of rain, the gathering will meet at the Tram Cafe.

Fashion Revolution Week marks the date of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh. Since 2013, these global actions have taken place to campaign for a fairer fashion system.

To learn more about the global Mend in Public Day, visit the Fashion Revolution’s website – https://www.fashionrevolution.org/frw-24-mend-in-public-day/ They have a listing of locations all over the world where this event it happening!

Fibreshed Ireland members have access to two free recorded mending tutorials on the members’ hub: https://fibreshedireland.ie/membership/members-hub

Project Prolong’s Instagram is here – https://www.instagram.com/project_prolong_/


Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

Of Interest: the Work of Christien Meindertsma

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Via the stimulating Material Matters podcast, we learned about Christien Meindertsma‘s work with wool. She is a Dutch artist/designer who explores creative applications with two local materials: wool and flax. Amazingly, using ‘waste’ wool from sheep raised in the city of Rotterdam, she manages to print three-dimensional forms using cutting-edge technology.

Currently, she has an exhibition, ‘Re-forming Waste,’ at the V&A in London, which runs through Saturday, the 19th of October, 2024.

For more information about her show and to watch a video of some of her fascinating projects, visit this page on the V&A’s website – https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/christien-meindertsma-re-forming-waste

Meindertsma’s website catalogues her many thought-provoking explorations of wool. One of her research projects, Fibre Market, used a Fibersort machine to scan 1000 wool sweaters. The machine revealed differences between the information indicated on the material tags and the actual fibre content. Not unsurprisingly, the actual wool content was less.

Visit her website to see more of her intriguing work – https://christienmeindertsma.com/

Lastly, here’s a link to the interview with her on the Material Matters Podcast – https://materialmatters.design/Christien-Meindertsma


Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

News: Fourth Annual European Wool Day

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The Fourth Annual European Wool Day will be held in Greece on April 9th, from 2:30 to 7:30 Central European Time. This year’s theme is ‘New Routes of Wool towards a Sustainable Future’.

WoolinSchool will present as part of the Wool in Education section at approximately 18:30 CEST.

You can watch the presentations live on EWE Foundation’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ewefoundation-europeanwool255

Local programs will run from 6th to 7th April 2024 as part of the Celebrating Wool Weekend, so you are more than welcome to attend in person and enjoy the series of workshops, exhibitions, lectures, and roundtable discussions taking place locally in Metsovo, Greece.

For more information, visit their website – https://www.ewe.network/european-wool-day-2024

Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

Webinar: Farming, Fashion and Starting a Textile Revolution

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There is an upcoming free webinar with Li Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano to learn about a new generation of designers and textile makers returning to the farm to rethink the fashion system. By taking a conscious approach to sustainable practice, circular materials and regenerative resources, a fashion revolution is starting around the globe, overhauling how things are done by putting the environment, people and animals first.

From seed to sewing, Polimoda Textiles from Farm to Fabric to Fashion Master Program is part of this movement, reshaping education by proposing a new hands-on learning experience that focuses on farming, fibres, weaving, knitting, embellishments, and design in a radical way. Thinking about textiles and fashion from a holistic perspective.

In this one-hour session, you will learn about:

  • Trends in slow fashion, textiles & distribution
  • Regenerative farming & circular textile practices
  • The origins of fibres, fabrics & resources
  • Education curriculums that teach textiles in a conscious way

When: Thursday, the 28th of March at 3 PM CET.

For more information and to register a spot, visit their website – https://landing.polimoda.com/webinar-farming-fashion-textile-revolution-28mar24

Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

Event: Mend in Public Day – 20th of April

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On Saturday, the 20th of April, join Fashion Revolution on the streets for their first global Mend In Public Day. The idea is simple: get out into your local community and stitch in protest against disposable fashion. Amidst busy Saturday shoppers, participants will repair torn pockets and broken seams and spark conversations on making Loved Clothes Last.

Mend in Public Day stands as a beacon of change in a world inundated with fashion waste. By participating, you’ll be part of a global creative action resisting the cycle of excess through repair and reuse. Get your repair pile (or other fibre crafts!) ready.

Find a Mend In Public Day event near you, or host your own. All skill levels and Fashion Revolutionaries are welcome! Mending in Public is part of the Fashion Revolution Week – https://www.fashionrevolution.org/frw-24/

The website includes video instructions on several methods of darning and mending clothing.

For more information, visit their website –https://www.fashionrevolution.org/frw-24-mend-in-public-day/

Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

Education: Two-Day Woad Workshop – Apple Oak Fibre Works

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With Apple Oak Fibre Works, students will learn how to harvest dye plants from the field and process them in the dye studio. They also participate in dye plant trials and dye a small item to take home.

  • A talk by Tristan Lienhard
  • Harvesting Woad in the field
  • Making Woad balls for our fermentation Vats
  • Setting a woad pigment extraction, which takes a number of days to extract
  • Testing the blue content of over 20 different varieties of Woad, using the Japanese cold direct dyeing technique
  • Tour of the dye house
  • A talk by Jennifer Lienhard on fermentation vats, their differences and historical backgrounds.

When:

Friday 12th & Saturday 13th of July 2024 
Monday 15th & Tuesday 16th of July 2024

For more information, visit their website – https://appleoakfibreworks.com/collections/workshops/products/woad-hands-on-workshop-growing-and-dyeing-with-woad

Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.

Opportunity: Richmond Barracks Summer Fair

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The Richmond Barracks Summer Fair has the theme of upcycling, recycling, and reusing.

The organisers are looking for seasonal-related stalls that showcase upcycled and recycled products made by businesses, artists, and craftspeople.

When: The fair is on Saturday, the 25th, and Sunday, the 26th, May 2024.

The closing date for applications is Monday, 22 April 2024.

For more information and to fill out an application, visit this website – https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0uzRoNyFHcBCUk08twmERIlC3r4rQ3hdg3oj-1zuy0SgNRw/viewform

A schedule of all of the Barrack’s upcoming fairs for 2024 can be seen here – https://www.richmondbarracks.ie/about/fairs/


Disclaimer for Feltmakers Ireland Blog

Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.

Contact Us: If you have any concerns about content, please email us at feltmakersie@gmail.com.

Questions: For questions about content, please follow the link to the organisation involved in hosting the event.