A blog about the thoughts and process behind making a dress from slate.
I knew that I wanted to make a dress out of slate right from the very beginning of the R&D process. Textiles are a direct link between myself and my own mother, and then on to my great grandmother, who taught me how to knit and sew, and who had a fantastic biscuit tin full of buttons. Dressmaking is also the skill that brought a lot of young ladies to Bethesda in the boom time of Penrhyn Quarry. When their fortunes took a downturn, these young ladies, now quarrymen’s wives, would take in laundry to try to make ends meet, On a wider reaching and more contemporary scale, women and girls worldwide are still being employed and often exploited by the garment industry. The act of sewing also has a more symbolic association; that of mending and holding together, a role associated with women in a family setting…………(read more)