Keeping in track with my timetable that I wrote for myself in my proposal, I began conducting research into materials. My tutor suggested that I try going to the cloth house on Berwick street- I absolutely love this store and I could easily spend all day there, although I was still wary about the fact that the prices are quite hight, especially for sustainable and organic materials… I looked at the types of fabrics, noticing the qualities such as the weight and structure and also got samples so that I could try and find equivalents at a lower price.
As this shop was definitely out of my price range (looking at prices like £35/m for natural linen), I looked in my local shops but had no luck, therefore I had to look at stores online; thankfully I found a book about eco-friendly textiles which had a huge list of fabric companies that stock fabrics and yarns that are natural/organic/sustainable, so I decided to order a bunch or materials and yarns online. It was also good research reading about these companies as alot of them were small and independent and had interesting stories such as one company that works alongside local communities in Chile to produce beautiful hand-spun yarns. One downside is all of these materials could only be purchased online and it would have been good to go to more stores to see and feel the fabrics beforehand, but I still managed to gather an interesting range of materials.
an.andycaptures 