Tuesday 30 May 2017

LASTING IMPRESSIONS



If you have never visited Saltaire at Bradford I can strongly recommend it.
This is English Industrial heritage at its best


Once the largest industrial space in the world owned by Sir Titus Salt who created an entire village for his workers.  Twenty nine streets with more than 800 houses, a school, a hospital, shops, churches and recreation facilities.  Now the mill is home to permanent exhibitions of David Hockney's art, one floor has a fantastic bookshop, you can learn all about the history of the mill on another floor, designer/maker homeware on another and visit the different events regularly held throughout the year.


We went to see Claire Wellesley Smith and Hannah Lamb who had taken 
over the Spinning Room on the top floor of the mill, for the weekend 


We took part in the project they are currently working on "Lasting Impressions".
In 2016 Claire and Hannah over three days collected impressions of over 300 peoples clothing onto porcelain tiles.  Participants wrote a response to what they thought about what they were wearing.
The responses and tiles were archived to go forward to the next stage of the project which was what we visited this weekend.


We were asked to pick a response card then find the coordinating tile.
The card gave details of what the fabric of the item was made of.
Taking a couple of metres of the thread that the cloth would have been made from
we then weaved it into a strip with the card attached





The pieces were then hung on a back drop cloth for everyone to see and 
we wrote our own response to the project in a book.


This is not the end of the story, but it could be if they do not get any heritage funding.
Both Claire and Hannah put this together even though their application was declined.
They have a strong believe that we should be all know more about the history of our textile industry.
It makes you think about what you are wearing and its provenance.







3 comments:

  1. That's freaky. I was out with my brother on Sunday and he asked if we'd ever been to Saltaire, he'd had to go with work a few years ago and it made a lasting impression on him....it's a sign!
    Lasting Impressions sounds wonderful. Like our leather and lock museums, our working class industrial heritage needs to be celebrated. I do hope Claire and Hannah get to continue with their project. xxx

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  2. Although I've never visited, I have heard a lot about Saltaire, and it's definitely a place I'd love to visit. The Lasting Impressions project is fascinating. xxx

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  3. It's a beautiful idea, and I hope they will get funding, so many people can benefit from it!

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