06/09/2024
Squeeeee. So pleased these can be shared now as I’ve been working on them for a while…. Beautiful silk reticule bags made with “waste” ribbons (I say waste with quotes because it’s the most beautiful waste I’ve ever worked with) there are only 6 in the world and you can only acquire one through Papilionaceous
Reticulated ribbons
With just seven days (including today!) until the Fayre at Jane Austen Festival, Bath, UK I guess we should stop thinking of this as 'product development' and start thinking of it as product
It has been an absolute pleasure to finally collaborate on a project with Jessica Geach (aka Ruby Cubes)
Jess has ten years experience as a textile artist and has progressively worked towards a zero waste philosophy. This has lead to, for example, working with National Theatre costume to re-purpose their fabrics
As anyone who has visited the Papilionaceous workshop will know, we don't like to throw stuff away
There really is no 'away'; or rather 'away' just means somewhere else that isn't here, or potentially incinerated
So once we have woven something we would rather it got used; some things just take longer to find their purpose than others
So what you see here is an accumulation of pieces of ribbon that didn't get used for the purpose for which they were originally woven; not the right length, weaving flaws, samples, all those sorts of things
Jess has first twisted them into rope and then stitched them into fabulous forms
We are now in the process of adding finishing touches: cords and tassels, which we are making from silk rescued from a passementerie mill that recently closed
Upcycled, recycled, repurposed, zero-waste, all good
And realistically, although we are out of the product development stage, work in progress is still probably fair
Until the Fayre!
