Blog No 2. Antidote

I was once content with producing a quality product that demonstrated my particular skills while endeavouring to respond to the ever changing ebb & flow of the British cultural and tribal narrative.

I called this 'fashion'.

The past few years have caused me to reconsider that 30 year contribution. Today my field, like many others, feels superfluous to today's needs! Struggling to reflect the landscape in which it performs.

What has ‘fashion’ become?

This system of production and consumption of goods & services is broken.

Due to a variety of, ever escalating, factors, what was once the perceived wisdom, is now an ill fitting, over policed, blight on a once glorious craft:

- New sedentary social habits: Stay at home, Lessening brand loyalty

- Significant current social - political - Economical factors

- Brick & Mortar (physical) Retail: Too expensive to continue in its current form

- Cycles are too fast to service: The obsolescence of trend

- Unsustainable consumption: Dead stock and wastage

What is the Antidote?

The culture of consuming has changed. Instead of buying stuff people are now buying stories...

Artisanal (high-hand) craft techniques that canvey a ‘story’ may elevate your practice and fosters client loyalty, while importing long-term thinking back into your clients perception of your creative process. Unlocking truly purposeful, sustainable, planning systems!

I am now working towards re-positioning ‘craft’ back into the cultural landscape.

Through sustainable calendar scheduling, in-line with the needs of the unfolding seasons we have all practiced for thousands of years. Ancient Wisdom and insights accumulated over thousands of years of human civilisation has, until comparatively recently, been passed down through ‘storytelling’ through the oral-aural tradition.

It is these stories that we all instinctively know and pass down to the next generation!
Customs and practices adopted and performed in every corner, up and down, the British isles. These, phases of the year, lead us instinctively to the 'what and when' of the things we need and desire.

There is extraordinary clarity and respite in the silent simplicity of the past...

it is with this in mind that I am, as a craft practitioner and teacher, endeavouring to re-align my practices...

I would like to invite you to contribute to this journey in any way you feel valuable.
It is my intention to format these finding and publish them for all...