The Threads Sessions

On Friday 29th September and Saturday 30th September, in conjunction with the Threads Costume for Gloucester exhibition at the Cathedral, community artist and our Project Lead, Jo Teague, is hosting The Threads Sessions – a series of fascinating talks and workshops at The Ed Shed in The Folk. 

These two days will be led by textile experts with special interests in costume, fabric, fashion and design. All talks are free but please book below to secure your space. Note that you can either book for individual days, or for individual sessions.

Talks at The Ed Shed include:

Friday 29 September 
Book here for all Friday sessions. Alternatively, book for individual sessions below.

11am-Noon: Community artist Jo Teague and Amanda Hough of the Gloucestershire Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers explore the 14th Century staining techniques that were used to dye and mark cloth. Their research focuses on recreating these recipes today and the colours they produced.
Book here.

2pm-3pm: Katie Taylor is a Gloucester-based costumier who has worked in film and stage, and the designer of the Costume of Gloucester, funded by Voices Gloucester. She will tell us about her inspiration behind her design and the making of the Costume and collaborating with over 100 local makers.
Book here.

4pm-5pm: In their session ‘The New Puritans. An exploration into sustainable fashion’ Margaret McDonough, fashion lecturer and former designer, and Fiona Curran, film maker, sound artist and poet, describe their collaboration with students to create a collection of clothing and a film using zero waste and sustainability at its heart. The film and talk will open our eyes to a new understanding of our everyday clothing.
Book here.

6pm-7pm: Lizzie Johansson-Hartley, Gloucester Museum Collections Officer, will show how Janet Arnold, fashion historian and costume designer, transformed the art of historic pattern design and recreation. Her books ‘Patterns of Fashion’ showcased the intricate details of sewing patterns through the ages, showing the changes in fashion from the 1660s up to 1940, but also giving crucial and accurate scale construction details that are still used around the world by museums, theatres, re-enactment groups and students and have never been out of print.
Book here. 

Saturday 30th September
Book here for all Saturday sessions. Alternatively, book for individual sessions below.

11am-Noon: Aysha Randerra is the manager of the Emma Willis Sewing studio, a community sewing studio based at Gloucester’s Friendship Café. This workshop will explore the traditions of sari wearing with a chance to try them on and understand a little more about the beauty of this traditional clothing.
Book here.

2pm-3pm: Amy Twigger Holroyd is a designer, maker, researcher and writer. Through her work using a design-led participatory approach research, she explores alternative ways of living with our clothes that meet our fundamental human needs and respect ecological limits.The main vehicle for this research is her Fashion Fictions project, which brings people together to imagine, explore and enact alternative fashion worlds as an unconventional route to real-world change.
Book here.

4pm-5pm: Simon and Ann Cooper are from Flaxland, part of the Fibreshed Movement. Their talk, with demonstrations, will show how flax is one of our oldest crops, grown in the British Isles since the bronze age, and its stems produce one of the strongest and most versatile plant fibres. With a growing understanding about why we should return to wearing and using more sustainable clothing, Simon and Ann are leading the way in encouraging the growth of flax and the production of linen locally.
Book here.

6pm-7pm: Tim Parry Williams, Professor of Art & Textiles, of the University of Bergen, has been exploring the Gloucestershire Archives searching for links between Gloucestershire and Norwegian Cloth cultures as part of his funded project ‘Beyond Heritage: Material Making Meaning.’ Along with Kari-Anne Pederson, an internationally respected expert on Norwegian Textiles and Dress, they will present preliminary research findings for the first time here in the UK, and will reveal evidence suggesting how English cloth may have been used in Norway.
Book here.

The Ed Shed is located in The Folk, on Westgate St in Gloucester’s City Centre. Voices Gloucester is committed to ensuring that the projects and events that we organise and support, contribute to the environmental wellbeing of the city. Where possible please use public transport to attend this event.

By train: Gloucester train station is approximately a 15 minute walk. The Station is part of several major lines including Cardiff Central, Birmingham New Street and London Paddington. Regular services run to and from Gloucester throughout the day. For more information please visit www.nationalrail.co.uk or call 08457 48 49 50.

By bus: the “St Nicholas Church” bus stop is 2 minutes walk from the venue and serviced by buses 11, 353, 676 and 781. For more information visit www.stagecoachbus.com. Opposite the train station is the bus station which connects main bus routes from Cheltenham and around Gloucestershire.

By bike: parking is available at the venue.

By car: Westgate Street car park is a 3 minute walk from the venue. Note that it is pay and display.

Accessibility: Note that there is a small step up into the building at the Westgate St entrance but step free access to the building is available via the back entrance on Quay Street. If entering via Westgate St note that there is a platform lift into down into the café, courtyard and Ed Shed areas. Access to the first and second floors is via staircase only but we are not using these spaces for this event.