Making sustainable choices

This post reflects on some the materials and techniques I used whilst creating a piece of textile art to display at Saltaire Arts Trail in May 2023. 

The material that I really began with and felt that I wanted to do something with (although not sure what at that stage) were fine birch twigs collected from Shipley Glen in January. The flexibility of them made me want to wrap and twist them and they formed into small rings. They weren't promising as individual items but stitching them together started to build a structure that took on form. 

Birch twigs and the rings formed from looping them round 

I stitched the rings together with some beautiful silk thread from Paintbox threads and wrapped some of the rings in spare yarns. I didn't pay too much attention to what I was using and just chose what was to hand and that went together well. As my thoughts developed on I started to focus on a moorland habitat theme I created the sample in the right hand picture below based on the structure of sphagnum moss cells. I was pleased with how both samples had turned out, especially when photographed against the rich greens of the moss. 

Samples developed in initial stages of project

However, at the end of the previous study year I had reflected on how much I'd produced since starting my studies (mainly because I had to find somewhere to store it!). It made me think about what happens with what we produce, particularly as a student trying out and practicing new things, and made me question whether I could make a piece that could be composted or that would at least wouldn't involve materials that would not biodegrade for many many years. The fact that the work is to be displayed outdoors also made this feel like the right choice and it would be interesting to see how natural materials would stand up to weather and exposure. This meant that the two samples shown above were out of the running as they both involved metallic polyester thread. 

Finding alternative approaches to avoid use of polyester threads

I had experimented with 'colouring in' parts of the silver embroidery with embroidery silks in the left hand photo above. As an alternative, I tried similar machine embroidery on dissolvable fabric with cotton and silks threads but when they didn't end up knotted and tangled, they just didn't hold the structure like they needed to - the cell pattern wasn't discernible and they ended up in a tangled bundle. Instead, I used silk threads to embroider onto wool felt so that  had some structure to work with. This worked and meant I could replicate the design but in a slightly different way whilst meeting my objective by using wool felt, silk thread and embroidery silks.

Whilst I thought about the material I was using, I realise that I could have taken sustainability considerations a lot further. I purchased some silk and wool threads to use from a UK company who specialist in silk and wool yarns. They had a beautiful range of colours and I felt like I was doing the right thing buying from a small UK retailer but I didn't give any thought to the sourcing of the silk or the wool or the dyeing process that they had gone through. In hindsight, given more time to experiment, I could likely have created a colour palette to give me the feeling I was after from botanical or natural dyes - perhaps not as vibrant as the embroidery threads or the perle threads but perhaps more fitting to my aims of creating something compostable.

A Craft Scotland blog post provides 6 points for makers to consider when sourcing materials:

• Origin - use materials from closer to home
• Toxicity - consider how the use and disposal of materials impacts the environment
• Impact - what is the impact of obtaining the materials on their environment?
• Supply chain - where do the materials come from and what is their supply chain including conflict zones, labour conditions, the supplier’s environmental, sustainability and governance policy?
• Lifecycle - what is the lifecycle of what I create? How long does it remain for and what is the impact when disposed of? Could the materials or the item be re-used or repurposed?
• Packaging - consider packaging and transport and focus on low impact materials or re-use

I think these are really useful prompts for me to refer back to in future as, whilst I've done OK on some of them, the toxicity, impact and supply chain could certainly warrant more investigation and consideration.

Finally, in a last effort to minimise waste in my work, I did make use of the ends and scraps of threads that had accumulated through the work. I chopped them up and needle felted them onto a base layer of (in the photo to the right) Masham wool tops and wool felt and they turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the final piece. 

Waste threads from the rest of the work

Needle felted circle using the waste yarns

All images are the author's own