Show dates 2011

Spring:

9th - 10th April
Wonderwool Wales, Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells, Powys

We'll be sharing a stand with Ystrad Traditional Organics under the heading 'Organic Textiles Wales'. Llynfi clothes will be available, as well as a selection of horn and bone buttons, and some baskets of 'ends of runs' of naturally dyed organic wool yarns. Ystrad will have available natural and naturally dyed organic Wensleydale from the farm's flock - fleece, curls, carded and yarn. Also some rather lovely certified organic woven throws.

28th - 30th May
Studio Open Weekend, Talgarth, Brecon, Powys

We'll be holding open days as part of the Crickhowell Arts Trail around the Black Mountains. This is also the first weekend of Hay Literary Festival, so if you're going to the Festival come and visit Talgarth too - we're only 6 or so miles down the road.
The restored Talgarth Mill should be open by then too. This has been a major community undertaking, winning funding from the Lottery Save our Villages project. For more info see the Mill's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FelinTalgarthMill

The Yarn I've Been Dreaming of Has Arrived!

Have just got my hands on some beee-a-uuu-tiful worsted Wensleydale in Chocolate (of the darkest bitterest sort), Grey (dark and silver at the same time) and white (soft and shimmery). Fully certified organic of course, and grown here in Wales. Cannot Wait to get making with it! It will be expensive I'm afraid - naturally coloured Wenselydale like this is quite rare, and worsted spinning in itself is a costly process. And add to that the fact that you don't get many metres to the kilo, so a small jacket will be quite heavy. But fabulous! Will ad some pics later.

Spring Developments

...longer days and fewer layers; spring must be on its way!

Through the cold and dreary winter months we have been working on our staple collection.
We have tweaked some designs here and there as well as added some brand new ones!

At long last the collection is finalised and patterns almost all drafted.

So now, on to making and then photography!

A Can Of Silk Worms...

‘Its a complex world like woven fabric, where we can not just pull one thread.’

Krishna Jha

At the Llynfi studio there is always something in the pipeline –whether it’s a nagging idea in the back of the mind or designs in progress…

This one has been brewing for quite some time, and has finally come to fruition –well, nearly!

Revered for centuries, the properties of silk are well known. In particular I have always loved spun silk; it’s intriguing character gives it an honesty and almost humbleness that appeals beyond the glamorous luxury of reeled silks.

However, finding some silk fabric that I was happy with on a sustainability level was not so simple, and the more I found out, the more complicated it got!

Most commercially produced silk involves heating the cocoons to kill the pupa inside before it hatches, thus allowing the unbroken cocoon to be reeled. Any left over bits would then be lumped together and spun, which is how most spun silk gets onto the textile market.

The alternative to this method is ahimsa or non-violent silk, so this is where I begun my research. These are marketed as being a vegan alternative to commercial silk, being produced without harming the pupae inside the cocoon by allowing it to hatch naturally. Because the cocoon is broken, it must be all spun rather than reeled.

Without having any first hand experience of silk rearing, I must admit that I had a rather idealised view of the whole ahimsa process. I pictured village communities wandering out into the forests to collect the spent cocoons from wild silk moths, then spinning and weaving the silk into magical lengths of shiny cloth… hmm.

When you stop and think about it, that’s just not very realistic. Not only would that method be impossibly time consuming, the cocoons would likely be far too damaged from the damp of the forest floor to spin a reasonable thread.

In reality, ALL silk comes from farmed moths, but there is still a distinction to be made; the small, rural silk growing initiatives are as different to the intensive commercial set ups of big companies as the comparison between free range chickens and battery farming.

It is true that some silk is even cultivated in a forest environment, but like all farming, the caterpillars are monitored in a controlled area so that they can be fed easily and gathered up efficiently once they have finished spinning their cocoons.

Next comes the more difficult bit…

A silk moth can lay up to 1000 eggs. If all the eggs hatch, grow, pupate and then mate, and each lays another 1000 eggs… that’s a lot more caterpillars! A lot of caterpillars need to eat an awful lot of leaves.

If a caterpillar does not find food within a day of hatching, it will die.

If the moths were released into the wild, the combined number would be so huge; their offspring would strip the forests bare.

So, if we want enough silk to supply demand, however it’s done, at some stage in the

cycle, caterpillars or pupa will die.

In general practice, only the number of moths needed to breed the next generation of caterpillars are allowed to hatch naturally and mate.

In NE India the other pupae are cut out of their cocoons and usually sold as food. The practise of eating pupae is an ancient tradition of many Indian tribes, particularly in these forest regions home to native silk moths.

Although my initial reaction to learning this was shock, I was quickly able to put it into perspective. In the western world the idea of eating insects is so far removed from our experience, it is hard to understand. However, can we really say that eating lamb and using the fleece is any different, or cows and leather, or geese and feathers… the list goes on. In fact, the families that farm silk moths in NE India (where many of the small ‘ahimsa’ enterprises are found) make easily as much money from selling the pupae as they do from the cocoons. Without a market for one, the other would not be sustainable.

So it turns out that not only is peace silk not free and wild, it is produced from farmed caterpillars, which still have to die. To say that I was disappointed puts it mildly. All the issues I uncovered can be reasoned out, but I still felt lied to and cheated. All these words like peace, non-violent and wild are simply marketing tools, much like the word tussah has been abused by the fashion industry to describe any un-even looking silk, rather that actually from the tussah (or tussar) silk moth.

Even companies claiming to sell ‘true ahimsa silk’ are producing it from the spent breeder cocoons brought from other farms. Yes those moths have hatched, but they only exist as part of the wider industry, and their offspring will suffer the same fate as every other. Does that make it peaceful?

Armed with my new found knowledge, I entered into a conversation with one of the Indian companies marketing this silk. I have to say I was delighted by their honest response. They accepted everything I had found to be true, but argued that their aim when starting the project was ‘to provide a better platform to these self employed traditional eri weavers’ (eri are the type of moth native to NE India).

The ahimsa project was begun in 2005 by Ms. Maneka Gandhi (MP in India) as a way of raising funds for 'People for Animals' and to develop an international platform for those traditional weavers in remote areas of India. The project has since been taken on by another group, focused on organising and marketing this unique product, whilst still supporting P.F.A. through its profits.

Obtaining a better price for the silks being produced enables rural communities to earn a fair wage from age-old skills, which will now in turn be passed on to the next generation.

In the complicated world of textiles, there is always more to learn. As far as silk goes, I am certain that I have only scratched the surface. Without going to see for yourself how something is produced, and then following how that affects the local and then global economy, you can never really know that what you are using meets the standards you set.

For now, I know that buying this fabric supports small producers, utilizing an indigenous resource. It encourages the maintenance of the natural environment and promotes the traditional skills of the area. The profits feed into a sustainable industry, which caters for the employment of women, as well as the extremely poor, offering them independence and opportunity.

The pale straw-coloured fabric I have settled on is fairly substantial in weight compared to many dress silks. It has a beautiful, subtle herringbone weave that is picked up in the light. With an almost cotton-like softness yet the unmistakable gentle sheen of silk, this fabric should be warm and cosy and age comfortably into a drapey, cuddly favourite, with just a hint of something special.

Just one thing still irks me; with such valuable, fundamental social benefits and clear sustainability, why is this fabric still marketed under a false banner? It isn’t necessary, so why?

Further reading:

Fantastic information detailing the sustainability of the silk industry in NE India

http://www.slideshare.net/prarkl/bioprop

A fascinating piece, written from experience (and a generally fascinating website to go with it)

http://www.wormspit.com/peacesilk.htm

Retailing some very beautiful naturally dyed silks in the US

http://www.aurorasilk.com/

New Designs : Old Ideas

January; a time for sorting, throwing things out, and starting fresh....but isn't it funny the things you find!?

I decided it was finally time to sort through all of my old college and uni work -you cant keep everything so time to be selective. Ah memory lane, all that work! and whats this? my old war project from my first year of college...

Some designs; some samples; a dress and a skirt ...that bears remarkable resemblance to the AW10 pleat skirt I designed!



I remember the original project began with a poem that my sister wrote. It was a reflective poem written from the perspective of a soldier having served through WW2. The pain, the horrors, and most of all the personal sacrifice. I wanted to communicate that juxtaposition of the defiant, hard, determined and austere front that was the national war effort, against the hearts and souls of real people; people that hurt, loved and lost. The real people underneath the shell.

I actually developed the pleat design by re-modeling a heavy, dowdy work skirt that I picked up in a charity shop. I re-fitted it, moved the pleats and darts and embellished the utilitarian fabric with tiny, delicate red silk roses.

Isn't it funny how some things remain in your subconscious. Even though I began at a different point when designing the pleat skirt for Llynfi, I somehow worked my way back toward a design that I loved back when I was 16.

...I wonder what else will resurface

New year, new plans, new label......

New Year - new plans! As we have to order some more garment labels, we thought it a good opportunity to rethink the design.

The Llynfi logo was originally 'Llynfi Angora', referring to my little herd of angora bunnies and the yarn and items made from the fluff. That was over 10 years ago, so it was about time for a revamp. And we have to go to a different company for these labels - as anything going into a certified organic item has to meet Global Organic Textile Standards.

Anyway! This is what we came up with, although the colour reproduction here isn't quite right. But you get the idea:

It was quite a mission to find a company to produce a small quantity at a reasonable price, and I finally found one in Dublin. A bit of a shame, as there are 2 or 3 here in West Wales that I would have preferred to use, but they couldn't fill in the risk assessment form. All gets a bit too complicated sometimes, and much of the organic system is geared towards major manufacture, at least where textiles are concerned.

And it's Snowing....Again!

Here we are all in the grip of the white stuff again. In Mydroilyn it was only possible to get out of the village in a 4-wheel drive - so glad I have a pick-up, even if it is a bit of a jalopy! The snow plough came through last night, so the road is usable with care, but there are steep hills out of the village on every route. And it's a very long walk to a shop!

Getting parcels out has been made more difficult by these problems, combined with the PO shut at unpredictable times - burst pipes, staff shortages, bocked roads - it's all been happening.

But the compensation is all the prettiness. And it is very pretty:

Left: This is the mill pond in it's winter outfit
Below: last summer's sedums disguised as giant mushrooms...

 And snow clouds heading towards the village....