Listening for the Echoes: heritage knowledges to shape fashion and design futures: Reclaiming myths and legends through traditional making

I come from a place called Formby, which is by the sea. One of the curiosities at low tide as a child, was placing my foot into the neolithic footprint preserved in the mud flats, that had walked the earth right where I was walking thousands of years ago. What would our indigenous traditions have looked like in those days, and how can we preserve what’s left? Some indigenous traditions still exist in the UK where there are cultures of folk, and alternative ways of living. Heritage Crafts have a list of endangered crafts called the Red List, they support people who want to learn disappearing crafts through bursaries. Crafts such as mould and deckle making, for making handmade paper are extinct in the UK, meaning none are being made any longer, the knowledge of making these has gone out of the country since 2017, and if you want a handmade deckle, the nearest can be found in Belgium.

Folklore is having a resurgence in the UK, where people want to perform Morris dancing and wassailing, encouraged by programmes like Charlie Cooper’s Myth Country (BBC iPlayer). Scaling up skills in crafts could be made through education in schools or after school clubs in rural areas where alternatives to commercial ways of living are more accepted. Skills in needlework and repair should be added to school curriculums again, having previously been removed as it is fundamental to encourage respect for clothing, materials and a love of making, as well as the neurological skills to help young people cope today.

The ideas of indigenous art being currently shown at the Pelz gallery, London demonstrate the value of creative practices from Brazil, but for how long are we going to be tourists looking at other cultures, rather than looking more inwardly and reigniting our own? A human condition is production (Arendt, 2013), craft regeneration is being re-recognised as an artful skill and not looked down upon as in previous generations. Allan Brown from ‘The Nettle Dress’ film, shows us how hand spinning and weaving fabric from nettles helped him repair his life after major bereavements, through the love of making something with his hands (Wilson, 1999). Basketry from willows is also having a resurgence, as prior to plastics, this was an often-used form of carrying things.

Folk culture can help bring traditions back in England, spinning, weaving, natural dyeing. Growing the right plants for a natural dye bath. Wales has maintained many indigenous traditions through the Mabinogion, myths and the calendar of dates which keeps these traditions going. Li Edelkoort, global trend guru, through her founding of The World Hope Forum, highlights crafts from all over the world. The annual Loewe Craft Prize helps give craft practice status globally. This paper will highlight our indigenous crafts through folklore and inspire a desire for making.