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MMU Futures Talk on Upcycling & Sustainability

Upcycling is...

Some of my fabric selection for repurposing by the students

creative flow

Items to be Upcycled

Choosing fabrics 

Paper beads

I recently found out about Stitched Up in Chorlton, an Eco Fashion hub for swap shops, workshops and tutorials. After speaking to the ladies there, they asked me to come on board with a workshop they were delivering at Manchester Metropolitan University as part of their MMU Futures Events. The theme of the workshop was Sustainability & Environment, with an emphasis on Upcycling, across all platforms, fashion/interiors/furniture. 

The students had a talk from myself, from Sara Han of Stitched up, and from a representative from Innospace  the start-up business incubator hub at MMU. They were then let loose on the materials and supplies to begin to form their initial ideas for their Upcycled pieces. They will then work on their items over the next 6 weeks with an exhibition of their work going on display at the end of June.

I can't wait to see what their finished pieces are, and it has really inspired me to apply more upcycled elements into my own work - and to be creative again! 

Photos courtesy of Anca Asmarandei www.behance.net/asmarandei

Tres Chic Telephone Table Dahling!

For sale now in Blakemere Village Emporium  www.blakemerevillage.com

snaps from the studio #laurasattic

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snaps from the studio #laurasattic

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snaps from the studio #laurasattic

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snaps from the studio #laurasattic

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snaps from the studio #laurasattic

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snaps from the studio #laurasattic

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Laura's Attic Upholstery Workshop at IARD // Parc Glynllifon

Welsh wool topped footstool with Ash legs

Action shots, nearly finished

Stitching loops for hair

shades of mustard

team photo!

On Saturday I hosted an Upholstery workshop at the centre for Craft IARD Parc Glynllifon the aim of the day course was to teach the participants how to traditionally upholster their own small footstool from  the frame up. 
Using solid beech frames, made from locally sourced timber and hand-turned legs by a bespoke furniture maker in Denbigh, North Wales, all traditional fillings, hessian and fibre, cotton flock and calico. 

The participants had a choice of fabrics selected from the studio especially for the event and extra Welsh wool blanket fabric, to continue the welsh theme. 

I guided them through the process of learning how to apply webbing, hessian, stitching their fibre in, creating a nice shape with calico for the top fabric, buttoning and finishing ready to take home and put their feet up on! 

With a bit of homemade flapjack to fuel their work, and kept warm by the cosy log burner in the room at IARD,  they produced some lovely pieces, see the team photo above. All different, all with their own character to somehow reflect that of the maker. 

We are looking at booking some more workshops so add yourself to our mailing list on our website here to find out when the next one will be on. 

A couple of video clips from the event are here on my Vimeo feed, have a little look! 

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6 Months of Cake & Pizza

Renovated leather chesterfield

Sugarplum tearoom, Rhewl

Labradoodly madness

weddingy fun

Weddingy work

sisters, can you tell?

messing around on the river

foodslam fridays pizza heaven

A roundup of highlights since the last blog:
 We've been working on some larger projects like sofas with our good friend and colleague Michelle from North Wales Upholstery in Llanelidan. Been to a few summer weddings, aah so lovely, I nearly always drink too much, cry, and loose a shoe on the dancefloor.  We have consumed a HUGE amount of cake from the Sugar plum tearoom, and too much pizza from the talented Baking Matilda. Once you've had wood-fired stonebaked artisan pizzas you can't go back.
We hung out with the sis, and launched {WBH} or Wedding-Bunting-Hire, our new sister company dedicated specifically to weddings. V exciting and was lucky enough to have the talented Daydream Designs make the website for us. About to go live any minute...