Interview with Sarah Tibbles (Dec 10, 2021, at 12:02 PM London)

Graduate from Chelsea College of Art in 2021 with a BA in Textile Design. Halfway through her second year at Chelsea, the pandemic shut down the university and moved everything online. So, the two halves of Sarah’s experience of Chelsea are markedly different. 

JY: Tell me about your practice and the work we’re showing in particular?

ST: I specialise in weave, and I started to develop a growing interest in slow design as a sustainable design strategy to tackle the negative impacts the textile industry has. Slow design centres around localism, craft, the longevity of use, and consuming consciences. I see it as a counterbalance to more technocentric solutions. It started collaborating with Khadi London (?), a social enterprise organisation, that works with various textiles suppliers in India to celebrate their artisan skills and sustainable production methods. They came to college and gave a few talks and launched the Khadi competition in celebration of Gandhi’s birth and his influence towards India’s Independence movement. With that, they donated a really generous amount of fabrics and yarns for us to take with us for free. I loved the organic qualities of the yarns, many of them were hand spun. I felt much more protective of these yarns and didn’t want to waste any of it.  So I went down a path of looking at traditional artisan skills and techniques, like natural indigo-dying with ikat and shibori techniques(?), which are slow design processes. So, I am material and process led. 

JY: What was it like studying after the pandemic and how did that affect your work?

ST: It was very difficult. The hardest thing was planning my time because a lot of these slower process that I wanted to incorporate required planning. One thing I struggled with was being consistent about what I wanted to get out of the project, so I ended up jostling between a series of backup plans, other techniques, and things I could do instead, if I needed to. I struggled to be consistent. The difficulties was… you know, when you go into the studio you’re around other people and there is a buzz of activity. It’s almost like in between those hours of making, you have little conversations with people. People roam around and look at each other’s work and talk things out. I miss that. Yeah, we had a tutorial, but it was one hour a week. Outside of that, I was home on my own. My parents at work.  So, that was another difficulty. It really helped when I could start seeing people. Even though at the beginning it was quite limited, but having one day to go into the studio was great. 

• Note: The value of art school in the social experience, the site-specific knowledge exchange of being a studio environment surrounded by peers and tutors

JY: You mentioned sustainability when you talk about your work, so could you tell me more the problems and concerns you address in your practice? For example, social enterprises that protective traditions. 

ST: For my dissertation, I was looking at a designer who does a similar thing of working with rural communities in China to preserve artisan skills. The worry that I have is that, I’m not against technology or digital media. I consume it, and use it myself. I think there is a worry that people are trying to design technology where it’s not needed. They are trying to solve problems that aren’t problems, or used as a mask, seemingly like it is solving a problem but really, it is not. I worry about digital media and technology dominating the narrative of strategies to help with some of the issues in the textiles industry.  

Equally, how these strategies will lead to a  disconnect from materials, to really appreciate a skill and the materials you wear on your body, to see those processes of how they are made. In the west, we often only see the end product and not the process. 

 

JY: Do you consider your practice a problem-solving practice? If so, do you have any advice for artists, designers, creative practitioners? 

ST: I have been thinking about the purpose I want my practice to have. I think a variety of solutions are needed to tackle issues in the industry. To feel inspired and motivated to form ideas, it helps to network with other people, who are already putting strategies together to help. Learn from other designs, brand, and stay engaged in what is already happening, and look for gaps or footfalls that need to be dealt with. Or maybe something is being done but could use more emphasis. So, I’m trying to figure these things out instead of making work just to make work. I’ve changed how I think about design from aesthetics-led (does it look good?) to choices of materials and process/ I ask myself why I am making those choices, and what impact they are having. What am I making and what is it for? Design is not just about the final object but about the process. For example, part of filming myself doing indigo dying is wanting the process to be seen. There are also different design ideas from a business point of view, such as repair services or  services that connect textiles designers, suppliers, and people around the world. 

JY: Could you tell me about filming the indigo dying process. 

ST: I was learning it as I was doing. It wanted to record this new process that I was learning to show how it worked slightly differently from the natural dying techniques. You have to deoxidise the vat, to get darker colours, you dip the fabric multiples times instead of just leaving it in the vat for a long time. It’s a slow process getting dark colours. It definitely tested my patience so the videos capture that process. It's also a traditional process that goes back thousands of years ago, and I was first keen to have a go at it whilst researching for my dissertation and watching videos on Instagram of these small communities in rural villages in China Indigo dyeing these long swaths of fabric, attaining these rich midnight blues. The designer I was researching, Angel Chang, explained in detail how the process worked, it’s slow, repetitive (which I find therapeutic) and the vat needs much care, much like regularly attending to plants that you grow, in order to get the best blues. She even explained it’s better health benefits on the skin as opposed to many common synthetic dyes used. This traditional process was something I wanted to experience myself. 

Watch Sarah's Video on the indigo dying process below!

ABOUT Sarab Tibbles

https://www.instagram.com/tibbles_sarah/  (@tibbles_sarah)

https://www.behance.net/sarahtibbles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GypmrScK9gI 

https://khadi.london/

I included Sarah Tibbles' work in the Annual Team LEWIS Foundation Exhibition in Millbank Tower in London, UK, which includes a virtual tour.