Making is important for wellbeing and mending brings joy and meditative calming. These are the messages from people I’ve met while travelling to Auckland, New Zealand, as part of my eight-week Churchill Fellowship research. I’ve been posting regularly on Instagram @textilebeat on the topic of how being hands-on with our clothes can help reduce textile waste and enhance wellbeing. I’ve recorded conversations which are posted on youtube and shared below.
Educator and designer Karishma Kelsey
Amongst her many talents, Karishma Kelsey @karishmadesign teaches the politics of style including her lifelong belief that anything is everything, everything is anything. As part of my Churchill Fellowship meetings, we talked about her @miraculous_me_movt style activism and philosophy: your body is your canvass; creativity is your birthright; the superpowers of colour energies and following your intuition. Karishma believes in the joy and meditative qualities of mending and creating.
Botanical dyer Melissa Pentecost-Spargo
Bringing fresh life to old textiles by adding colour from nature is the work of Melissa @woventhreadsnz She gathers and experiments in gentle ways to add story, colour and character to natural fibre textiles that might otherwise become landfill. Some of her favourite pieces are a wall hanging woven from a multitude of colours and textures, and a drape of purple sage leaf hammered using the tataki zome technique otherwise known as botanical bashing.
Upcycler Bea Lorimer
Upcycling is a way of life when you wear upcycled clothes, start a creative business @heke.design based on upcycling, co-found an upcycling shop and teach upcycling.
Here’s to you Bea Lorimer, thanks for sharing your thoughts, ideas and actions on Waiheke around ways to be more hands-on with clothes for health, wellbeing and sustainability.
Entreprenur Geraldine Tew
A lack of making is causing unwellness says social justice and environmental entrepreneur Geraldine Tew, founder of creative business ReCreators which provides hands-on workshops for sustainability and wellbeing. Ger said there’s a direct correlation between income and consumerism and waste to landfill, hence the need to commit to a degrowth model if society is serious about reducing our collective environmental footprint. She said behaviour change surveys showed 75% of people said they were more inspired to reduce consumption after doing ReCreators workshops.