Craft Festival Wales
Craft Festival Wales, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund through the Levelling Up campaign as a joint venture between the Cynnal y Cardi team, Ceredigion County Council, Arts Council of Wales, and QEST, will be held over three days at Cardigan Castle from 6 – 8 September 2024.
The event will showcase an exceptional handpicked selection of 80 makers from across Wales and the UK – including jewellery makers, potters, furniture makers, textile artists, glassmakers and many more – all selling their finely made unique products directly to the public.
We spoke to Emily James from Carpenter and Cloth to get to know more about the work exhibited at the festival.
What is your first memory of a textile?
My early childhood memories are vague and abstract - like the sensation of poking my fingers through a crochet blanket or digging them into the dense pile of a carpeted stair; the fibres prickling my cheek. I remember a magical red velvet gown in the dressing-up basket that was so heavy and floppy that it changed the way you moved so you became a different sort of being!
Can you put into words what you love about textiles?
I love the stories that textiles can tell, and the connections that they represent. Humans have traded textiles for as long as we have walked the earth. We have exchanged techniques, merged ideas, traded dye plants, animal skins and clothes themselves, and all the while this exchange of textiles has been synonymous with the exchange of stories and influencing of cultures.
Unfortunately, the scale of the modern global industry is so mind-boggling that it is extremely hard to feel any kind of connection to how or who produced your textiles, but I believe there are still stories to be told through the clothes we wear. If we take the time to tell them and to listen, to make those connections, what a great richness we could feel when dressing for our day.
Where is your most inspiring place to create?
Although I produce most of my work from my studio, which is a wonderful space at the top of a converted old river-stone barn, the place where my mind wanders and ideas flow in, unsought, is my garden. Eked out of a patch of woodland, the shady space is full of wildlife and many volunteer flowers amongst the moss roses and the sedums. I love the surprise combinations - the act of guiding the tapestry without seeking or needing full control of the scene. I think it is this act of letting go that lets the creativity in!
What has inspired you recently?
I am often inspired first by materials. I find something that I love, for both its texture and its origin, and work from there to create a design that suits its characteristics - and a life in rural Wales!
Working in the very small-scale way that I do, I tend to straddle the gap between fashion and art. Balancing sustainability with creativity and affordability is no small challenge. I start my process at the bottom line, utilising materials and local skills that are already there to create truly useful, cherished garments. I find working in this way extremely satisfying; I can prioritise the social and environmental impact my work has right from the beginning.
When designing, I often look to history for inspiration. I am drawn to traditional workwear and ways of life; the simplicity of practical garments allow the cloth to have the stage. I have recently been working on a shirt using some designer salvage cloth from Italy, which has taken me on a journey into the history of Wales, Industrial Revolution and cultural exchange in the 1800’s.
What is your most cherished textile, and why?
It is so hard to choose a most cherished textile! I have many beautiful tribal textiles and old Welsh blankets, but perhaps it would be a slouchy, cable knit cardigan that my mum knitted for me. Her passion for textiles and skill in knit - both in design and execution - has been an ever-present source of awe and inspiration in my life. Due to worsening tendonitis, it is probably the last garment she will ever have hand-knitted. When I put it on, it feels like a protective, nurturing, strengthening cocoon.
Where did you learn your craft?
My mum introduced me to a sewing machine and dressmaking patterns when I was a teenager, but my skills in pattern cutting and sewing are almost entirely self-taught.
I studied Fashion and Clothing at Herefordshire College of Art and Design after my GCSE but then shied away from the fashion industry, instead gaining a BA at Swansea Metropolitan in Surface Pattern Design.
When I left education, more than anything, I knew that I wanted to create work with a practical purpose. It was extremely important to me to be able to justify making clothing in a world that was already oversaturated. My philosophy, therefore, has been an intrinsic part of my craft; equal to the practical skill and ever-evolving as I am influenced by people, podcasts, poems, indigenous cultures and the cycle of the seasons.
Images courtesy of Carpenter and Cloth
Find out more and plan your visit:
www.craftfestival.co.uk/Wales
The event will showcase an exceptional handpicked selection of 80 makers from across Wales and the UK – including jewellery makers, potters, furniture makers, textile artists, glassmakers and many more – all selling their finely made unique products directly to the public.
We spoke to Emily James from Carpenter and Cloth to get to know more about the work exhibited at the festival.
What is your first memory of a textile?
My early childhood memories are vague and abstract - like the sensation of poking my fingers through a crochet blanket or digging them into the dense pile of a carpeted stair; the fibres prickling my cheek. I remember a magical red velvet gown in the dressing-up basket that was so heavy and floppy that it changed the way you moved so you became a different sort of being!
Can you put into words what you love about textiles?
I love the stories that textiles can tell, and the connections that they represent. Humans have traded textiles for as long as we have walked the earth. We have exchanged techniques, merged ideas, traded dye plants, animal skins and clothes themselves, and all the while this exchange of textiles has been synonymous with the exchange of stories and influencing of cultures.
Unfortunately, the scale of the modern global industry is so mind-boggling that it is extremely hard to feel any kind of connection to how or who produced your textiles, but I believe there are still stories to be told through the clothes we wear. If we take the time to tell them and to listen, to make those connections, what a great richness we could feel when dressing for our day.
Where is your most inspiring place to create?
Although I produce most of my work from my studio, which is a wonderful space at the top of a converted old river-stone barn, the place where my mind wanders and ideas flow in, unsought, is my garden. Eked out of a patch of woodland, the shady space is full of wildlife and many volunteer flowers amongst the moss roses and the sedums. I love the surprise combinations - the act of guiding the tapestry without seeking or needing full control of the scene. I think it is this act of letting go that lets the creativity in!
What has inspired you recently?
I am often inspired first by materials. I find something that I love, for both its texture and its origin, and work from there to create a design that suits its characteristics - and a life in rural Wales!
Working in the very small-scale way that I do, I tend to straddle the gap between fashion and art. Balancing sustainability with creativity and affordability is no small challenge. I start my process at the bottom line, utilising materials and local skills that are already there to create truly useful, cherished garments. I find working in this way extremely satisfying; I can prioritise the social and environmental impact my work has right from the beginning.
When designing, I often look to history for inspiration. I am drawn to traditional workwear and ways of life; the simplicity of practical garments allow the cloth to have the stage. I have recently been working on a shirt using some designer salvage cloth from Italy, which has taken me on a journey into the history of Wales, Industrial Revolution and cultural exchange in the 1800’s.
What is your most cherished textile, and why?
It is so hard to choose a most cherished textile! I have many beautiful tribal textiles and old Welsh blankets, but perhaps it would be a slouchy, cable knit cardigan that my mum knitted for me. Her passion for textiles and skill in knit - both in design and execution - has been an ever-present source of awe and inspiration in my life. Due to worsening tendonitis, it is probably the last garment she will ever have hand-knitted. When I put it on, it feels like a protective, nurturing, strengthening cocoon.
Where did you learn your craft?
My mum introduced me to a sewing machine and dressmaking patterns when I was a teenager, but my skills in pattern cutting and sewing are almost entirely self-taught.
I studied Fashion and Clothing at Herefordshire College of Art and Design after my GCSE but then shied away from the fashion industry, instead gaining a BA at Swansea Metropolitan in Surface Pattern Design.
When I left education, more than anything, I knew that I wanted to create work with a practical purpose. It was extremely important to me to be able to justify making clothing in a world that was already oversaturated. My philosophy, therefore, has been an intrinsic part of my craft; equal to the practical skill and ever-evolving as I am influenced by people, podcasts, poems, indigenous cultures and the cycle of the seasons.
Images courtesy of Carpenter and Cloth
Find out more and plan your visit:
www.craftfestival.co.uk/Wales