🌱This Saturday I shared #Flax grown in my front garden in #riddings with visitors at the Wilmot Community Centre in #heanor Throughout the day we cracked, wiggled and pulled apart retted flax stems to reveal the fibres hidden inside. Visitors made cordage, handled flax at different stages and took away seeds to grow themselves.
🍃Alongside the hands on activities, I joined the expert panel discussion exploring Future Fibres, sustainability, heritage and making alongside Richard Benfield of
@britishwool
🌿The event also included screenings of
@nettledressfilm opening wider conversations around plant fibres, labour and slow textile processes.
🍀It was wonderful to have Derbyshire spinner Sandra Maycock spinning flax live during the event, helping visitors understand another stage of the journey from plant to fibre, and to see young people from
@heanorgatesa joining the conversations throughout the day.
🌾What interests me most is how quickly flax changes conversations. People begin with curiosity about a plant, then suddenly we are talking about industry, cloth, memory, soil, climate and making by hand.
🌻At the centre of my practice is a growing interest in civic pride, how shared making, overlooked histories and local materials can help people reconnect with place and see value in where they live through #CommunityArt and ParticipatoryArt.
⚘️Huge thanks to
@threadoflife , my fibre partner in crime, the fibre splattered Batman and Robin duo of sustainability, plant and animal fibres, and public conversations.
🌼Thank you also to local councillor Paul Jones,
@we_are_makeshift ,
@derbyuni ,
@claire_tymon_local ,
@milly.melbourne and everyone involved in supporting and encouraging the event.
🌸I’ll be continuing these conversations at
@derbyshiremakes in Bolsover on Friday 16 May with
@platformthirty1 and
@junctionartsuk .
🌱Historically, 20 May was associated with flax sowing, so if you took home seeds from the event, this is your sign to plant them and become part of the next stage of the story.
Photo: Ray Grumbley
@artsderbyshire
@cvaneastmidlands
#vaaworkingartist
@linsey_farnsworth.mp
@aceagrams
@britishtextilebiennial 
