programme
Matt Joy - Businesses of Wood Street Open Air Exhibition
Free, self-guided
Explore the portraiture of the eclectic businesses of Wood Street from Walthamstow based photographer Matt Joy. New installations will be erected onto the walls and windows up and down the high street, with an intimate exhibition based at the Lacy Nook Wood Street Studios.
ABOUT WOOD STREET WALLS
Wood Street Walls is a creative arts organisation that works on global projects with world renowned street artists. We work to empower local communities and artists in public space. Together with its in-house team of artists and creative professionals, it curates walls and coordinates events and runs two artist workspaces in Walthamstow. Since its formation ten years ago, Wood Street Walls has helped facilitate and curate more than 100 murals in East London, using the power of art and creativity to highlight social issues and causes that affect London and the UK.
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Ethical Colour exhibition
Free, drop-in
With Daily Interactive Colour Demo ‘Colours of Walthamstow’at 11.30am and 2.30pm.
Ethical Colour is an on-going piece of interactive research promoting climate-positive and regenerative colour sources and processes by Colour of Saying. Ethical Colour Workshops, Talks and Material Displays are all part of this initiative, which combines circular systems and emerging colour innovations to reveal new nuances of meaning responding resolutely to social, environmental and planetary change. Ethical Colour will be featured as an interactive display and exhibition open over 4 days. Colour of Saying will present a curated exhibition featuring progressive colour makers whose work addresses key Ethical Colour themes: Waste & Reincorporation, Emissions, Pollution & Regeneration, and Biotech Solutions.
Ethical Colour implicates colour sources and processes across a range of design and architectural disciplines including surface design, interiors and architectural materials. The exhibition has a unique relationship with the history of Switchboard Studios which was originally the head offices for a large consortium of industrial spaces which produced dyes and food colourings.
As part of Ethical Colour Workshop Space explore hands-on locally made colour stories through responsibly made inks and dyes made within Waltham Forest in daily interactive colour demos at 11.30am and 2.30pm.
ABOUT Colour of Saying
Colour of Saying is a London based design studio dedicated to empowering designers and manufacturers to harness colour and materials as agents of change. Founded by Laura Perryman, CMF designer, forecaster and author of The Colour Bible, Colour of Saying collaborates with creatives internationally to champion the intentional use of colour for human and ecological good.
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ABOUT Switchboard Studios
Switchboard Studios creative workspace consisting of 26 Studios and an event space. It is managed by Waltham Forest Council. Waltham Forest Council took over management in 2020. Its 26 studios range in size from 14 to 35 square metres. Each provides a dedicated workspace for SME creative business. Switchboard Studio is home to fine artists, record labels and digital creatives such as audio designers, graphics studios and videographers.
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Open Night: Pearl Home Records
Free, drop-in
Drop in to the Gallery for Spoken Vinyl, an Open Night with Pearl Home Records, the record label for DIY experimental music, sound art and spoken word.
Learn about record cutting with a vinyl lathe demo, take part in open mic, create record covers using photo collage, hear spoken word performances by Dominique & Nik, AKA SILKess Demon, Graham Clifford and Ruth Wiggins, and hear a special sound art playlist throughout the evening.
about William MOrris GAllery
William Morris Gallery is the only public gallery devoted to the designer, craftsman and radical socialist William Morris.
Housed in the Grade II listed building that was once Morris’s family home, the Gallery displays the world’s largest collection of his work, alongside contemporary exhibitions and an active events and learning programme.
Our purpose is to share the rich artistic and social legacy of one of Britain’s greatest designers. The Gallery is free and open to all.
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Open Workshop: Grain
Free, drop-in
Join us at our 13,000 square foot Grain workshop in Leyton to see British furniture manufacturing in action. Our entire collection is designed and made in our workshop. Come and see our contemporary dining tables, desks, stools and shelves – available in a large range of colours and sizes. Meet the designers and makers in our friendly team and find out more about what they do.
ABOUT GRAIN
We are Grain and we have been designing furniture since 2017. All of our furniture is designed and made under one roof in London. All of our materials are ethically sourced and our products made to order by our expert furniture makers. Our team has a wealth of experience designing and making furniture for high-end bespoke joinery projects where quality and craft are at the forefront of everything we design and make.
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Open Factory: Blackhorse Lane Ateliers
Free, tours will take place every 30 minutes, please arrive on the hour or at half past.
A factory tour with Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, London’s only craft jeans maker. Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour where you will get to see the factory in operation. Find out about the equipment, tools and materials we work with and meet some of our team.
ABOUT BLACKHORSE LANE ATELIERS
At our London atelier, we craft and offer ready-to-wear denim jeans, emphasising sustainability, community, and unparalleled quality. Established in April 2016, Blackhorse Lane Ateliers draws from our founder Bilgehan “Han” Ates’ 25 years of expertise in the textile industry.
We manufacture our own ready-to-wear line of denim and non-denim garments. We specialise in jeans and offer multiple fits from modern slim to vintage wide, in multiple denim fabrics from reputable mills across Europe and Japan.
Based within a tastefully renovated 1920s factory building in Walthamstow, the brand combines the production of jeans with the establishment of a modern methodology for a community of makers – Think Global, Act Local.
Our company stands for three key things:
Quality
Community
Eco-consciousness
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www.instagram.com/blackhorselane
Open Studio: Furnishing Futures, Meet the charity
Free, drop-in. Tours will take place at 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm.
Discover the work of innovative charity Furnishing Futures, which partners with the interiors industry to create trauma-informed healing homes for families given empty social housing after escaping domestic abuse. Enjoy a tour of our warehouse and studio, meet our team and learn about sustainability in interiors and the impact of trauma-informed design for recovery.
ABOUT Furnishing Futures
Furnishing Futures is an innovative new charity founded by social worker and interior designer Emily Wheeler. We combine social work values with interior design skills to create trauma-informed, fully furnished healing homes for women and children escaping domestic abuse, who are placed in empty social housing or living with furniture poverty and who have experienced multiple disadvantages and trauma. We do this by saving good quality furniture from landfill and partnering with the interiors industry to design, fully furnish and decorate families' homes.
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Open Studio: thinkfound socially sustainable furniture
Free, drop-in
Join us in our workshop to learn about socially sustainable furniture, our social mission to thinkGREEN, thinkSOCIAL, thinkFUTURE at thinkFOUND. Over the weekend we will be hosting an open studio demonstrating our processes and showcasing past work.
ABOUT thinkfound
thinkFOUND is a community interest company (CIC) committed to environmental sustainability and wider access to employment. We represent a social value model that gives back to communities around London. From our workshop in the Argall Industrial Estate we incorporate carpentry, fabrication, upcycling, training, employment, coaching and more.
The circular economy is an integral element of our enterprise; using repurposed and locally sourced timber and other materials, we create furniture through resource-driven design.
We provide supportive and tailored placements for young people in the area; working with under-represented communities such as ex-offenders, care leavers, the long-term unemployed and neurodiverse individuals who struggle with the transition to employment.
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Tools of the Trade: Kribi Coffee UK Roastery
Free, drop-in
Join us for a special day at Kribi Coffee UK! Owners Anne and Luca will guide you on a tour through the air roastery and share the rich story of Cameroonian coffee and their family’s connection to the farmers and the land.
ABOUT KRIBI COFFEE
At Kribi Coffee we bring coffee from our home, Cameroon. After delicately selecting green beans, we roast them using our patented air-roasting technology. This is what makes our coffee taste fresh and clean without bitterness. Kribi was founded with a mission to pay farmers more and disrupt the industry with a revolutionary air roasting method. Air roasting not only improves the flavour of our coffee, it is also good for the planet as it can be electric-powered with zero CO2 emissions.
At Kribi, we believe in the 3 C’s: Community, Consciousness, and Coffee!
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Bamboo Bicycle Club: Build with bamboo workshop
£30, booking required
Join Founder James Marr for a unique workshop during London Design Festival and learn the art of building with bamboo! This workshop will cover key techniques and the material properties of bamboo.
The class will offer an in-depth look into Bamboo Bicycle Club and its global projects. You'll gain insights into bamboo as a material, its properties, and how to effectively incorporate it into your designs.
In the second part of the workshop, you'll get hands-on experience building and creating everyday objects with bamboo. Our ethos is to encourage hands-on interaction with materials, enabling participants to understand their properties and workability, which can be incorporated into future practices.
Take advantage of this opportunity to explore the versatility of bamboo and enhance your design skills with practical knowledge and experience!
Try your hand at the bamboo-building techniques that underpin the Bamboo Bicycle Club’s ethos. These workshop sessions will give you a taste of working and designing with bamboo material. The team will demonstrate unique bamboo building techniques, and guide and support you to build your first bamboo product successfully.
You will build confidence in working with bamboo as a versatile material; gaining skills in sizing, sanding, and shaping.
ABOUT Bamboo Bicycle Club
Bamboo Bicycle Club empower people to build their own bikes. Founded in London, they've grown into a global community that champions innovative and sustainable cycling.
We selected bamboo for bike construction because it's accessible and suitable. Like timber, bamboo is readily available and easy to craft with simple tools, making it perfect for quick, DIY bike building. It absorbs road vibrations better than other materials, offers excellent strength, and has a natural aerodynamic shape. Additionally, bamboo captures CO2 as it grows, storing carbon as you ride.
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Tools of the Trade: Tour the Square Root Soda Factory
Free, tours at 10.00, 12.00 and 14.00
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been cancelled. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Square Root Soda will be running live production shifts to demonstrate how their drinks get made. You will be shown around our production space, where fruit will be being juiced and our other ingredients processed into our soda mix. Then you will be taken around our state-of-the-art packaging line, where one of our sodas will be getting filled into glass bottles, labelled and boxed up, ready to be shipped out to our customers. We'll end with a Q&A and tasting of some of our delicious sodas, including some fresh-off-the-line drinks. You will leave with an understanding of what the inner workings of a factory look like.
Please note: Open House Festival bookings are open from 21 August. There are 10 places available per tour. You will be entering a working factory. You must be conscious of your surroundings, follow any safety instructions we give you on the day and children must be supervised by an adult at all times.
ABOUT Square Root
Square Root was founded in 2012 in Robyn Simms's kitchen with a simple philosophy. "Always fruit. Never concentrate". Robyn created Square Root to bring life to the soft drinks industry, experimenting with a delicious range of flavours while maintaining the core values of using all-natural ingredients. Using the same ethos as craft beer and roping in her partner, Ed, she set up the Square Root Soda Works - a soda brewery where Square Root is made from fruit to bottle.
Sourced directly from our fruity farming partners, we get the best fruit delivered straight to our Soda Works. Lemons and oranges grown by the soon-to-be-famous Carmelo Laudani in Sicily, check. A variety of rhubarb grown just for us in the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle, you got it. Our team of skilled Soda Jerks source, squash, crush, pulp, squeeze, infuse, mash, macerate, wedge, juice, extract, smush, jam, (*deep breath*) pulverise, crunch, mill, reduce, pound, grind, liquidise, mince, chew, cuddle (jk) and press every single piece of fruit that enters our Soda Works so we can guarantee you get the best tasting liquid we can possibly make you. Once we've got our freshly squeezed juice, it's time to mix it into our soda recipes in small batches and then get those sodas into our packaging. Our Soda Jerks rinse, fill, cap, pasteurise (for shelf life), label and box up our sodas, ready to go out for you to enjoy. We do all this, so all you need to do is crack open the top and voila, soda heaven is incoming
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Open SHOWROOM: Ultrasound Blinds
Free, drop-in
Dive into the world of window furnishings as we showcase the intricate process of making roller blinds. We’ll be hosting an open showroom showing the end-to-end process of making our blinds, revealing the craftsmanship and technology behind our high-quality products.
ABOUT Ultrasound Blinds
Founded in 1995 we’ve been manufacturing and installing custom window dressings for nearly 30 years. We work with the construction and architecture industries as well as office, retail and residential spaces. Our eco-friendly solar shading solutions aim to minimise environmental impact.
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Ephemeral Hues workshop
£20. Booking required.
Slow Painting Studio x Colour of Saying
Join colour researchers and painters Slow Painting Studio, Ola Ignasiak and Karolina Gebka and Laura Perryman from Colour of Saying to learn how to harness food waste to create inspiring artists inks.
Plants, from cell, stem to foliage never cease to amaze. As part of their approach to colour, the duo will demonstrate the enriching practice of colour observation and transformation using pH-responsiveness to shift colours, yielding magic shades in simple and inspiring ways.
Come play and incorporate food waste into art materials teaching ourselves to be resourceful and creative, and in turn less impactful. Participants will make a series of colour swatches as a take away.
We look forward to welcoming you! Ticket price includes refreshments.
This workshop is part of Ethical Colour a series of participatory events and exhibition open over 4 days for London Design Festival, 2024 as part of The William Morris Design Line supported by Waltham Forest.
Ethical Colour combines circular thinking and emerging regenerative colour innovations to reveal and inspire new nuances of meaning responding resolutely to social, environmental and planetary change.
ABOUT Colour of Saying
Colour of Saying is a London based design studio dedicated to empowering designers and manufacturers to harness colour and materials as agents of change. Founded by Laura Perryman, CMF designer, forecaster and author of The Colour Bible, Colour of Saying collaborates with creatives internationally to champion the intentional use of colour for human and ecological good.
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ABOUT Switchboard Studios
Switchboard Studios creative workspace consisting of 26 Studios and an event space. It is managed by Waltham Forest Council. Waltham Forest Council took over management in 2020. Its 26 studios range in size from 14 to 35 square metres. Each provides a dedicated workspace for SME creative business. Switchboard Studio is home to fine artists, record labels and digital creatives such as audio designers, graphics studios and videographers.
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The Isokon Collection and Open Workshop
Free, drop-in
Come and explore the Isokon collection and workshop and learn more about our manufacturing processes. Experience the techniques and materials that are used to craft our collection which spans over 90 years of modernist and contemporary furniture design.
ABOUT ISOKON
The Isokon approach to making embraces traditional time hewn skills married with modern manufacturing and technology. Classic modernist designs by the likes of Marcel Breuer and Egon Riss sit harmoniously alongside contemporary pieces by Barber & Osgerby and Jasper Morrison.
Over 90 years of design, each piece with its own story, hand-crafted to perfection. Our team of highly skilled and experienced craftsmen work with the highest quality natural materials, all of which are sustainably sourced. Our entire collection is handmade in our workshop in Walthamstow, East London.
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Tools of the Trade: Neckstamper Brewery Tours
Free, drop-in
Tours will take place every hour
Every hour on the hour Neckstamper will give a brewery tour explaining our brewing process and equipment we use. The brewery taproom will also be open for the public to enjoy our beer or purchase cans to take away.
ABOUT Square Root
Neckstamper Brewing is a 10 barrel brewery in the heart of East London - in the lovely Lea Valley - not too far from the Olympic Park.
The current rise and rise of craft brewing in London is quite amazing. And whilst the current craft brewing trend is a modern one, the beer industry itself is far from a recent phenomenon. Hence, we looked to London's history for inspiration to name the brewery. Reading through old dictionaries shows how many old words have become obsolete, especially "canting" or slang terminology. And there it was, amongst the old cant terms used in beer culture from over 300 years ago... Neckstamper.
According to many accounts, the so-called "neck-stamper" was the slang term given to the pot-boy (or girl) at an ale-house or tavern since the 1600s. One of the neck-stamper's jobs was to collect drinking vessels - bottles or tankards - that had previously been sent out full of beer to private homes or other establishments. Yes...takeaway beer in the 17th century!
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Bamboo Bicycle Club: Build with bamboo workshop
£30, booking required
Join Founder James Marr for a unique workshop during London Design Festival and learn the art of building with bamboo! This workshop will cover key techniques and the material properties of bamboo.
The class will offer an in-depth look into Bamboo Bicycle Club and its global projects. You'll gain insights into bamboo as a material, its properties, and how to effectively incorporate it into your designs.
In the second part of the workshop, you'll get hands-on experience building and creating everyday objects with bamboo. Our ethos is to encourage hands-on interaction with materials, enabling participants to understand their properties and workability, which can be incorporated into future practices.
Take advantage of this opportunity to explore the versatility of bamboo and enhance your design skills with practical knowledge and experience!
Try your hand at the bamboo-building techniques that underpin the Bamboo Bicycle Club’s ethos. These workshop sessions will give you a taste of working and designing with bamboo material. The team will demonstrate unique bamboo building techniques, and guide and support you to build your first bamboo product successfully.
You will build confidence in working with bamboo as a versatile material; gaining skills in sizing, sanding, and shaping.
ABOUT Bamboo Bicycle Club
Bamboo Bicycle Club empower people to build their own bikes. Founded in London, they've grown into a global community that champions innovative and sustainable cycling.
We selected bamboo for bike construction because it's accessible and suitable. Like timber, bamboo is readily available and easy to craft with simple tools, making it perfect for quick, DIY bike building. It absorbs road vibrations better than other materials, offers excellent strength, and has a natural aerodynamic shape. Additionally, bamboo captures CO2 as it grows, storing carbon as you ride.
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Made In London: Manufacturers and Makers of East London
Presented by Hive Collective in collaboration with Yonder
Tickets: £7.50
Walthamstow's Creative Business Community Hive Collective in collaboration with Yonder Workspace, will celebrate and shine a light on East London's vibrant manufacturing and making industry.
The event will feature two passionate and expert speakers - Professor Mark Brearley, who has spent a decade cataloguing London manufacturers who will discuss the industry's current landscape and future prospects. And Harriet Warden, Director of Blackhorse Workshop, who will be speaking about the importance of the workshop in Walthamstow and preserving essential skills.
Additionally, talented local makers will demonstrate their unique processes and tools, offering attendees insight into their craftsmanship.
This event will showcase photographs of local makers, taken by Carmel King from 'Made In London', a book Mark and Carmel collaborated on together.
Come along, have some drinks and network whilst celebrating local manufacturing and making, ensuring these remain a vital part of London's economic and cultural fabric.
ABOUT HIVE COLLECTIVE
Hive Collective CIC is a community of creative and independent business owners in Waltham Forest. We host fun, informal and inclusive events for businesses owners to meet, share advice, collaborate, swap skills and learn from other within the collective.
At the core of Hive is connection – we believe that creating a connected network of businesses and organisations alone can increase the success of all the individual companies across the Borough. Our values are openness, sharing, and inspiration - we encourage the business owners to step outside their comfort zones and be bolder.
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About Yonder
Yonder is more than meets the eye. A community-led facility with indoor climbing, co-working, studio space and a café and bar, we don’t doubt that you’ll find something for you here.
A space for people to work, play, create, and unwind, providing a focal point for all aspects of the local community.
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Tools of the Trade: Climpson & Sons Roastery Tours
Free, booking required
Step inside the Climpson's Coffee Roastery and see the inner workings of where your favourite coffee gets sourced and roasted. A selection of coffee beverages and beans will be available to buy.
Please note Open House Festival bookings open on 21 August 2024.
ABOUT Climpson & Sons
Climpson & Sons are pioneers in the evolving London specialty coffee scene. Our ambition is to continue sourcing, roasting and crafting the finest coffees from the heart of East London. Our range of espressos, blends and single origin beans reflect what we do: a boundless exploration into the possibilities of flavour.
Website:
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www.instagram.com/climpsonandsons
Public Knowledge bookshop: DESIGN READING LIST
Free, drop-in
Public Knowledge Books have made a selection of Design related publications which will be on sale throughout the William Morris Design Line. Come in, meet the team and find out more about this recently opened bookshop.
ABOUT PUBLIC KnOWLEDGE BOOKS
We are a bookshop championing underground culture, under-represented and minority voices.
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www.instagram.com/public_knowledge_books
TALK: Artist-Maker / Maker-Artist
Free, booking required
Join Blackhorse Lane based artists Barry Sykes and Sandie Sutton, mountmaker Mick Lapsley and fabricator Ollie Bailey from madeWORKSHOP in a discussion exploring the interplay between artistic and making practices.
We’ll discuss the role that making plays in Barry and Sandie’s artistic practice and how Mick and Ollie work with artists as makers. The materials and tools that they work with and how this has informed their approach. The influence being based in a historic industrial area like Blackhorse Lane has on their work.
This artist talk is part of the William Morris Design Line programme which a design district of London Design Festival 2024. Across the weekend 20-22 September makers and creatives across Blackhorse Lane and Argall Industrial Area are opening their doors and showing you behind-the-scenes in a celebration of design, craft and making.
Tickets are free but spaces are limited, please book in advance.
ABOUT BARRY SYKES
Barry Sykes (born 1976, Essex, lives and works in Walthamstow, London) makes sculptures, drawings and performance about authenticity, interaction and pleasure, often working at the edges of value, skill and acceptable behaviour. Recent projects have looked at fake laughter exercises, social nudity and sauna culture, using group participation and various handmade processes like cyanotype photography, life-drawing and rough ceramics.
Barry is also an educator and facilitator, adapting his practice into various events, classes and workshops, working withall ages and abilities, from nursery pupils senior citizens, working with schools, galleries, museums and hospitals. He has recently worked with organisations including Roger Ascham Primary School, London; Focal Point Gallery, Southend; Falmouth School of Art; Manchester School of Art and University of the Creative Arts, Farnham.
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ABOUT SANDIE M SUTTON
Sandie M Sutton is a contemporary wildlife and nature inspired artist dedicated to promoting conservation and sustainability. She is based at Barbican Arts Trust studios, Blackhorse Road E17.
Her Art for the Animal Kingdom business started in 2010. Building on her degree studies in illustration and postgraduate degree in sculpture.
Natural history inspires and motivates her art practice and business. She exhibits, work to commissions and hires work to organisations involved in animal welfare, conservation and sustainability. She has worked in schools as a visiting artist, run community workshops and participated in art residences.
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ABOUT madeWORKSHOP
madeWORKSHOP is a creative construction company with a practice deeply rooted in film and live events. Founded in 2013, it has over a decade of experience in fabricating sets for Film, TV & Events from their premises in Leyton Studios, recently expanded across 4 units, including CNC studios and a large yard in Excalibur Works, Argall Avenue.
This growth affirms made’s intentions to build a company culture that attracts and develops the very best creative talent and skills from people of all backgrounds from the Waltham Forest area and beyond.
The madeWORKSHOP vision was clear from the outset: to bridge the gap between can-do construction company and the dynamic, trend-driven worlds of music, fashion, TV & events. Fast forward ten years, and the company has evolved into an industry trailblazer — but ever true to our original ethos.
ABOUT OLLIE BAILEY, HEAD OF METALWORK
Ollie grew up in Worthing and studied Art and Design at Northbrook College. He graduated from Central Saint Martin’s with a degree in Product Design. Ollie joined madeWORKSHOP seven years ago where he is now the Head of Metalwork.
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ABOUT MICK LAPSLEY
Mick Lapsley is a mount maker and display specialist based in Blackhorse Lane.
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Natural Dye & Hapa Zome Techniques
£20. Booking required.
Alice Burnhope x Colour of Saying
Join textile artist Alice Burnhope and colour forecaster and author Laura Perryman, from Colour of Saying for an immersive late-summer evening workshop inspired by natural dye and colour.
Plants and flowers have been used for centuries to reveal the colours of nature onto our textiles. Introduce yourself to the basics of natural dyeing and enjoy a fun and interactive hapa zome dye technique, learn how to create beautiful botanical patterns and take home swatches and botanically dyed upcycled fabric, creating a visual statement of slow conscious design.
Hapa Zome is the Japanese craft of plant printing also known as Tataki Zome. Tataki is the Japanese word for hammering, and Zomé is the word for dye.
This technique has historically been used to encourage us to connect seasonally and locally with nature. Steaming flowers and dye plants directly onto fabric, avoiding excess water usage.
After the technique explore paint with natural dye inks onto watercolour paper to create nature-positive responses.
We look forward to welcoming you! Ticket price includes refreshments and a tour of Ethical Colour.
This workshop is part of Ethical Colour a series of participatory events and exhibition open over 4 days for London Design Festival, 2024 as part of The William Morris Design Line supported by Waltham Forest.
Ethical Colour combines circular thinking and emerging regenerative colour innovations to reveal and inspire new nuances of meaning responding resolutely to social, environmental and planetary change.
ABOUT Colour of Saying
Colour of Saying is a London based design studio dedicated to empowering designers and manufacturers to harness colour and materials as agents of change. Founded by Laura Perryman, CMF designer, forecaster and author of The Colour Bible, Colour of Saying collaborates with creatives internationally to champion the intentional use of colour for human and ecological good.
Follow us:
ABOUT Switchboard Studios
Switchboard Studios creative workspace consisting of 26 Studios and an event space. It is managed by Waltham Forest Council. Waltham Forest Council took over management in 2020. Its 26 studios range in size from 14 to 35 square metres. Each provides a dedicated workspace for SME creative business. Switchboard Studio is home to fine artists, record labels and digital creatives such as audio designers, graphics studios and videographers.
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10 Years of Making It Together: Blackhorse Workshop's Celebratory Weekend
Free, drop-in.
Tours of the workshop and showcase at 10am, 11am and 2pm.
Drop in anytime on Saturday 21 September between 10 - 5pm to see our special makers showcase, celebrating 10 amazing years of design and creativity at Blackhorse Workshop (2014 –2024). The exhibition will feature some stunning pieces of hand-crafted furniture, lighting design, metalwork and sculptural pieces by past and present users of the workshop.
We’ll be hosting special tours of the workshop and showcase will take place at: 10am, 11am and 2pm. Meet outside reception, no booking required.
These guided tours will finish with some special maker demonstrations on our wood lathes and hand-built forge.
And come back and join us on Sunday 22 September to celebrate our ten year making milestone (2014-2024), with music, games, food & drink and a spectacular birthday moment! All welcome!
ABOUT Blackhorse Workshop
Blackhorse Workshop is a social enterprise dedicated to making, offering easy access to a fully equipped wood and metal workshop that’s open to all.
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Open Studio: Vintage Furniture studio sale with PUSH // PULL and ThreeTwenty
Free, drop-in
PUSH // PULL and ThreeTwenty are opening their studio to show a carefully curated range of Modernist, Brutalist and Postmodern vintage pieces alongside the contemporary PP//01 Modular Sofa. Come and learn more about their work and find your next vintage piece!
The studio is located at Unit 25 Fairways Business Park - as you enter the Industrial Estate continue straight until Old Friends Cafe is in front of you, then we're down the little road on the left in the car park at the end. If you can't find us call 07810 504 152 & we'll direct you! For more info please see www.pushpull.store
ABOUT Push // Pull
PUSH // PULL’s carefully considered vintage collection is sourced from all over Europe. An eclectic mix of 20th century design and unusual one off pieces with new pieces added weekly.
They also have an own label range of Modular Sofas. Designed by Matthew Long and hand made in their Derbyshire workshop by a small team of master craftsmen.
The studio is shared with ThreeTwenty another east London dealer with a beautiful vintage collection of furniture and design, mostly from the 20th century.
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Bamboo Bicycle Club: Build with bamboo workshop
£30, booking required
Join Founder James Marr for a unique workshop during London Design Festival and learn the art of building with bamboo! This workshop will cover key techniques and the material properties of bamboo.
The class will offer an in-depth look into Bamboo Bicycle Club and its global projects. You'll gain insights into bamboo as a material, its properties, and how to effectively incorporate it into your designs.
In the second part of the workshop, you'll get hands-on experience building and creating everyday objects with bamboo. Our ethos is to encourage hands-on interaction with materials, enabling participants to understand their properties and workability, which can be incorporated into future practices.
Take advantage of this opportunity to explore the versatility of bamboo and enhance your design skills with practical knowledge and experience!
Try your hand at the bamboo-building techniques that underpin the Bamboo Bicycle Club’s ethos. These workshop sessions will give you a taste of working and designing with bamboo material. The team will demonstrate unique bamboo building techniques, and guide and support you to build your first bamboo product successfully.
You will build confidence in working with bamboo as a versatile material; gaining skills in sizing, sanding, and shaping.
ABOUT Bamboo Bicycle Club
Bamboo Bicycle Club empower people to build their own bikes. Founded in London, they've grown into a global community that champions innovative and sustainable cycling.
We selected bamboo for bike construction because it's accessible and suitable. Like timber, bamboo is readily available and easy to craft with simple tools, making it perfect for quick, DIY bike building. It absorbs road vibrations better than other materials, offers excellent strength, and has a natural aerodynamic shape. Additionally, bamboo captures CO2 as it grows, storing carbon as you ride.
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Open Factory: Blackhorse Lane Ateliers
Free, tours will take place every 30 minutes, please arrive on the hour or at half past.
A factory tour with Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, London’s only craft jeans maker. Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour where you will get to see the factory in operation. Find out about the equipment, tools and materials we work with and meet some of our team.
ABOUT BLACKHORSE LANE ATELIERS
At our London atelier, we craft and offer ready-to-wear denim jeans, emphasising sustainability, community, and unparalleled quality. Established in April 2016, Blackhorse Lane Ateliers draws from our founder Bilgehan “Han” Ates’ 25 years of expertise in the textile industry.
We manufacture our own ready-to-wear line of denim and non-denim garments. We specialise in jeans and offer multiple fits from modern slim to vintage wide, in multiple denim fabrics from reputable mills across Europe and Japan.
Based within a tastefully renovated 1920s factory building in Walthamstow, the brand combines the production of jeans with the establishment of a modern methodology for a community of makers – Think Global, Act Local.
Our company stands for three key things:
Quality
Community
Eco-consciousness
Follow us:
www.instagram.com/blackhorselane
Public Knowledge bookshop: DESIGN READING LIST
Free, drop-in
Public Knowledge Books have made a selection of Design related publications which will be on sale throughout the William Morris Design Line. Come in, meet the team and find out more about this recently opened bookshop.
ABOUT PUBLIC KnOWLEDGE BOOKS
We are a bookshop championing underground culture, under-represented and minority voices.
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Transform Wax Waste into Beauty: Beeswax Floral Centerpiece Workshop
£45. Booking required.
Join Lola Lely, founder of WAX Atelier, for a special London Design Festival workshop at their new Walthamstow workspace. Transform wax waste into a beautiful beeswax floral centerpiece in this 2 hour workshop.
Learn innovative techniques from Lola herself to create a stunning, one-of-a-kind floral centerpiece made from beeswax scraps. This hands-on workshop will equip you with the skills to craft a beautiful and sustainable statement piece for your home.
ABOUT WAX Atelier
WAX Atelier re-visits traditional making techniques for the modern era. From candle making to crafted objects, making becomes a tool to experience the interconnections between the natural world and material culture.
Founded in 2017 by multidisciplinary designer Lola Lely, WAX Atelier handcrafts its products at its East London workshop. A team of skilled artisans, drawn from the local community, brings these creations to life.
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TOUR: From Tree to Table with Grain
Free, booking required
Join us at our East London workshop for an exclusive look at how we journey from tree to table during the making of our American walnut Kielder range. We’ll be running tours at 11am and 2pm over the weekend to show the full process, from selection and preparation of timber, to the machine and hand finishing processes we use to create our timeless dining tables.
Our 30 minute tour will cover: selection and preparation of timber; machining prepared timber into components; hand processing of components; solid lipping of tabletops; selection, preparation and pressing of veneers; hand finishing of components.
Afterwards, you'll have the opportunity to get hands-on with our products, explore design for disassembly (which sets us apart from flat-pack) and get an early preview of our newest product drops.
We're proud to design and manufacture modern British furniture in Leyton and we look forward to welcoming you.
ABOUT GRAIN
We are Grain and we have been designing furniture since 2017. All of our furniture is designed and made under one roof in London. All of our materials are ethically sourced and our products made to order by our expert furniture makers. Our team has a wealth of experience designing and making furniture for high-end bespoke joinery projects where quality and craft are at the forefront of everything we design and make.
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Workshop: Seasonal Colour Making
£20, booking required
Workshop: Seasonal Colour Making - extending the possibilities of plant-based, natural, and locally foraged colours
Join us for an informative and hands-on workshop by Hannah Elisabeth Jones and Laura Perryman. Learn to gather, transform and responsibly make natural colours from local and seasonal plants by respecting natural marshland and hedgerow rhythms. Deep dive into the fascinating world of natural dyes, inks, and regenerative practices for an afternoon of learning alongside plants. Come away with a fascinating palette of colour swatches on various materials.
ABOUT Colour of Saying
Colour of Saying is a London based design studio dedicated to empowering designers and manufacturers to harness colour and materials as agents of change. Founded by Laura Perryman, CMF designer, forecaster and author of The Colour Bible, Colour of Saying collaborates with creatives internationally to champion the intentional use of colour for human and ecological good.
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ABOUT Switchboard Studios
Switchboard Studios creative workspace consisting of 26 Studios and an event space. It is managed by Waltham Forest Council. Waltham Forest Council took over management in 2020. Its 26 studios range in size from 14 to 35 square metres. Each provides a dedicated workspace for SME creative business. Switchboard Studio is home to fine artists, record labels and digital creatives such as audio designers, graphics studios and videographers.
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Tools of the Trade: Climpson & Sons Roastery Tours
Free, booking required
Step inside the Climpson's Coffee Roastery and see the inner workings of where your favourite coffee gets sourced and roasted. A selection of coffee beverages and beans will be available to buy.
Please note Open House Festival bookings open on 21 August 2024.
ABOUT Climpson & Sons
Climpson & Sons are pioneers in the evolving London specialty coffee scene. Our ambition is to continue sourcing, roasting and crafting the finest coffees from the heart of East London. Our range of espressos, blends and single origin beans reflect what we do: a boundless exploration into the possibilities of flavour.
Website:
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www.instagram.com/climpsonandsons
Type Walking Tour with Studio Anna
£5 / concessions available. Booking required
Join Walthamstow-based graphic designer Anna Robinette a walking tour that explores the typography found in hidden corners of Argall Industrial Area in Lea Bridge. Discover what lettering can tell us about the industrial past and the creative future of what the area holds.
Tools of the Trade: Devil’s Botany Distillery
Free, drop-in
Enter the world of the curious with a special meet the maker open day at the UK's first ever Absinthe Distillery. Learn about the origins and rituals of this once illicit liquor from distiller and co-founder Rhys Everett. There will be free samples of Absinthe and Gin as well as a cocktail to try!
ABOUT Devil’s Botany
Devil’s Botany Distillery was founded by award-winning bar owners and two of the UK’s leading absinthe experts. Our award-winning range was handcrafted to highlight absinthe's versatility in cocktails. We are proudly the first dedicated absinthe distillery in the UK.
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Tools of the Trade: Dee’s Basement
Free, drop-in
Watch a demonstration of Dee from Dee's Basement decorating cakes and have the opportunity to decorate your own cupcake with a variety of toppings.
ABOUT Dee’s Basement
Dee's Basement is a confectionery studio founded by Dee Omole in 2017 based in East London. They specialise in unique, nostalgic style cakes and postal desserts available across the UK. Dee has loved baking from a young age, developing a major sweet tooth as a little girl when she would practice baking with her mother and then honing that passion by creating sugary concoctions for friend’s and family member’s birthdays as she got older.
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Open Studio: Discover 35 years of patination with Capisco
Photograph by Miles Reilly
Free, drop-in
Join us and learn more about the ancient art of patination. Our master patination technicians will be on hand to guide you through some of our flagship projects and demonstrate some classic patination techniques. Our sample archive will be available to view featuring over 35 years of archived works as well as a curated gallery of patination orientated projects by current and former staff.
ABOUT Capisco
Founded by sculptor Andy Elton in 1989, Capisco work at the juncture of Fine Art and Construction - seamlessly fusing artisanal ideas and processes into an industrial scale. Their hand-applied finishes maintain the integrity of Capisco’s fine-arts heritage. From large-scale architectural facades to smaller artworks we provide a bespoke service tailored to every individual client. Our highly experienced team of colour technicians are committed to providing exceptional craftsmanship, innovative solutions, and personalised service all delivered completely by hand.
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Open Studio: Turning Earth
Free, drop-in
For this weekend, Turning Earth Leyton will open its doors to the public and show them around the studio. Come to see our members making their own pieces on the wheel and find out how a pottery studio is managed.
ABOUT Turning Earth Leyton
Turning Earth Leyton is a centre for ceramics located in an old hardware factory. The centre includes a large open-plan membership studio where part-time professional makers, serious hobbyists and beginners work together in a community environment, with the benefit of shared facilities. The space also includes two classrooms for ceramics courses for those new to the craft, where multiple courses a week are taught by professional artists.
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Tour: A short history of Armstrong Audio
Free, arrive at 12pm
Take a tour of Armstrong Audio with engineers and owners, T & Shalma. Learn about its rich history dating back to 1932 when the company was established as 'Armstrong Wireless & Television Ltd.' and began manufacturing public address systems, radios and televisions for public use in WWII.
Since a shift in the market in the 1980s, Armstrong Audio has been repairing Hi-Fi equipment and has developed a reputation as a leading audio repair specialist in the UK with unrivalled knowledge and expertise.
ABOUT ARMSTRONG AUDIO
Armstrong Audio is a leading specialist with 40 years' experience in home, high-end and professional audio equipment repairs. Established in 1932 the company was originally called 'Armstrong Wireless & Television Ltd.'. Based in Camden, London, the company began by manufacturing public address systems, radios and televisions for public use in WWII. The advent of the home high fidelity market in the 1950s saw the company successfully diversify and manufacture "The High Fidelity Sound" range of home radios, amplifiers and receivers through to the late 1970s. Combining good performance and stylish looks, the 600 Series amplifier attracted an avid fan base with members still bringing them back for a service to this day.
The 1980s saw consumers shift towards the growing overseas audio market. This led the company to move away from manufacturing and into the service and repair side of the industry. From here and relocating to Walthamstow, London, Armstrong Audio developed its reputation as a leading audio repair specialist with unrivalled knowledge and expertise.
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Art Without Heroes: Mingei - Family Day
Free, drop-in
Participate in family-friendly workshops inspired by Mingei, exploring the beauty of handcrafted everyday objects. Learn the traditional art of textile weaving and create your own fabric using simple cardboard looms. These free, drop-in sessions are open to all.
About WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY
William Morris Gallery is the only public gallery devoted to the designer, craftsman and radical socialist William Morris.
Housed in the Grade II listed building that was once Morris’s family home, the Gallery displays the world’s largest collection of his work, alongside contemporary exhibitions and an active events and learning programme.
Our purpose is to share the rich artistic and social legacy of one of Britain’s greatest designers. The Gallery is free and open to all.
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Meet the designers: The Black Horse
Free, arrive at 1pm
Join us at for an exclusive architect and designer led tour of The Black Horse Bar & Pizzeria. Hear directly from the architect and interior designer from Pencil & Brick and Flamingo & Oak about their inspiration and creative process behind designing this award-nominated venue. Discover the design elements that make The Black Horse unique and gain insights into their work. Don't miss this unique opportunity!
ABOUT THE BLACK HORSE
Located in the heart of Blackhorse Road, The Black Horse is a stylish neighbourhood bar serving seasonal cocktails, local craft beer and authentic Italian stone-baked pizzas from their in-house pizzeria, Dodici Pizze.
The Black Horse & Dodici Pizze boast an industrial interior adorned with terracotta and blue hues, paying homage to nearby denim and bus factories in the area. Noteworthy elements include a custom terrazzo bar and an original street art mural, lending a chic and refined atmosphere that earned the venue a nomination in the British Interior Design Awards 2023.
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Tools of the Trade: Nirvana Brewery
Free. Drop-in between 13.00 - 18.00
Guided tour at 14.00, booking required
Join us for an alcohol-free beer tasting and brewery tour! Nirvana Brewery will be opening its doors to offer the chance to sample our delicious and varied range of non-alcoholic beers. From craft lagers and hoppy pale ales, to wheat beers and dark and rich stouts, all of Nirvana’s beers are delightfully alcohol-free.
Our shutter will be open all afternoon for you to pop in and join us for a beer. Our brewer James will lead a brewery-tour session at 2pm giving the low-down on the magic behind alcohol-free brewing, followed by a guided tasting with a selection of four great Nirvana beers.
ABOUT Nirvana Brewery
Nirvana Brewery are an independent alcohol-free brewery, brewing a range of craft beers all under 0.5% ABV.
Website:
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www.instagram.com/nirvanabeerco
Bamboo Bicycle Club: Build with bamboo workshop
£30, booking required
Join Founder James Marr for a unique workshop during London Design Festival and learn the art of building with bamboo! This workshop will cover key techniques and the material properties of bamboo.
The class will offer an in-depth look into Bamboo Bicycle Club and its global projects. You'll gain insights into bamboo as a material, its properties, and how to effectively incorporate it into your designs.
In the second part of the workshop, you'll get hands-on experience building and creating everyday objects with bamboo. Our ethos is to encourage hands-on interaction with materials, enabling participants to understand their properties and workability, which can be incorporated into future practices.
Take advantage of this opportunity to explore the versatility of bamboo and enhance your design skills with practical knowledge and experience!
Try your hand at the bamboo-building techniques that underpin the Bamboo Bicycle Club’s ethos. These workshop sessions will give you a taste of working and designing with bamboo material. The team will demonstrate unique bamboo building techniques, and guide and support you to build your first bamboo product successfully.
You will build confidence in working with bamboo as a versatile material; gaining skills in sizing, sanding, and shaping.
ABOUT Bamboo Bicycle Club
Bamboo Bicycle Club empower people to build their own bikes. Founded in London, they've grown into a global community that champions innovative and sustainable cycling.
We selected bamboo for bike construction because it's accessible and suitable. Like timber, bamboo is readily available and easy to craft with simple tools, making it perfect for quick, DIY bike building. It absorbs road vibrations better than other materials, offers excellent strength, and has a natural aerodynamic shape. Additionally, bamboo captures CO2 as it grows, storing carbon as you ride.
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TOUR: From Tree to Table with Grain
Free, booking required
Join us at our East London workshop for an exclusive look at how we journey from tree to table during the making of our American walnut Kielder range. We’ll be running tours at 11am and 2pm over the weekend to show the full process, from selection and preparation of timber, to the machine and hand finishing processes we use to create our timeless dining tables.
Our 30 minute tour will cover: selection and preparation of timber; machining prepared timber into components; hand processing of components; solid lipping of tabletops; selection, preparation and pressing of veneers; hand finishing of components.
Afterwards, you'll have the opportunity to get hands-on with our products, explore design for disassembly (which sets us apart from flat-pack) and get an early preview of our newest product drops.
We're proud to design and manufacture modern British furniture in Leyton and we look forward to welcoming you.
ABOUT GRAIN
We are Grain and we have been designing furniture since 2017. All of our furniture is designed and made under one roof in London. All of our materials are ethically sourced and our products made to order by our expert furniture makers. Our team has a wealth of experience designing and making furniture for high-end bespoke joinery projects where quality and craft are at the forefront of everything we design and make.
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Tools of the Trade: Burnt Faith brandy masterclass and tasting
£20. Booking required.
If you want to make the best brandy then you’ll need the best team and equipment. Do we have both? Course we do, we have the best of the best.
Oliver Kitson our Master Distiller (previously Master Distiller for Sipsmith & Warners Gin) will be hosting the ultimate Brandy masterclass.
Learn how we make and produce brandy at the UK's first dedicated Brandy House on the only Charentais pot still in the UK whilst enjoying a tasting session within our distillery understanding the craftsmanship that goes into our Batch One blend.
ABOUT Burnt Faith
Burnt Faith's Brandy House is the first dedicated brandy distillery in the UK, on a mission to unlock the real potential of brandy. This mission began a few years back when we spent time in the Cognac region of France — we were taken both by the passion and the constraints of its traditional methods.
Some people import and relabel the brandies they love. Others create their own, unique blends. Those routes are all good with us, but we want to do more.
We’re taking things to the next level, distilling and blending our own brandies in the UK’s first legit brandy house.
Our home in Walthamstow now contains the knowledge, equipment and attitude needed to unlock the real potential of Brandy.
We make brandy without boundaries.
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Garden Tour: Growing indigo and flax with Indigo Garden
Free. Arrive at 3:30pm, late arrivals will not be able to join due to locked access.
Together with textile designer First Principals we've been growing flax for the first time down at the Indigo Garden this year. Come and discover the harmonious pairing of indigo and linen and learn more about hand processed fibres and dye plants. We'll be demonstrating how to process flax and extract indigo from the leaves using the fresh leaf method. Get to know the different species and varieties we grow in the garden and spend time communing in nature with a cup of indigo tea!
About INdigo Garden
Indigo Garden London is a creative learning space that allows us to showcase the natural beauty of slow craft and bring the alchemic science of dyeing to life through communal art making. We grow a variety of indigo and other dye bearing plants as well as flax for making linen.
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ABOUT First Principals
First Principals started in Utrecht as a sustainable clothing project. Now based in London, we strive to operate as a vertically integrated clothing company. This means that our ultimate objective is to have complete control of the production chain, from the seed to garment. Our ideal company would grow natural fibres, harvest them, process them into yarn, weave (or knit) the yarn into fabric, and finally stitch the fabric into finished garments. We are aware that achieving this objective alone is a monumental task. For this reason, we are working with a number of collaborators and establishing a community of like-minded makers. By pulling together, and each providing expertise at different stages of the production chain, we are hopeful that we can produce clothing in a radically transparent and responsible manner.
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Ercol, Walthamstow and a family business
Tickets: £7.50 / £5 concessions
We are delighted to welcome Henry Tadros, Chairman of Ercol and great grandson of its founder Lucian Ercolani. Henry will speak about the brand’s relationship to Walthamstow and how a furniture company has continued to thrive for over 100 years.
Ercolani’s family emigrated to Walthamstow in the 1890s and Lucian studied furniture making at the Shoreditch Technical Institute before founding Ercol. Henry is the fourth-generation Chairman of this family business. Tadros will speak about running Ercol, a company still based in the UK and committed to skilled craftsmanship and sustainability principles.
With furniture design and manufacturing having something of a renaissance in the local area, this talk will address the challenges and opportunities for the continued production of high-quality furniture in Britain, how this links to the principles of both William Morris and the Gallery’s current exhibition Art Without Heroes: Mingei, and the factors that have contributed to this iconic company’s enduring success.
Hosted by Hadrian Garrard, Director of William Morris Gallery. The talk will be followed by a Q&A and a chance to see Art Without Heroes: Mingei on its closing weekend.
ABOUT WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY
William Morris Gallery is the only public gallery devoted to the designer, craftsman and radical socialist William Morris.
Housed in the Grade II listed building that was once Morris’s family home, the Gallery displays the world’s largest collection of his work, alongside contemporary exhibitions and an active events and learning programme.
Our purpose is to share the rich artistic and social legacy of one of Britain’s greatest designers. The Gallery is free and open to all.
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Transform Wax Waste into Beauty: Beeswax Floral Centerpiece Workshop
£45. Booking required.
Join Lola Lely, founder of WAX Atelier, for a special London Design Festival workshop at their new Walthamstow workspace. Transform wax waste into a beautiful beeswax floral centerpiece in this 2 hour workshop.
Learn innovative techniques from Lola herself to create a stunning, one-of-a-kind floral centerpiece made from beeswax scraps. This hands-on workshop will equip you with the skills to craft a beautiful and sustainable statement piece for your home.
ABOUT WAX Atelier
WAX Atelier re-visits traditional making techniques for the modern era. From candle making to crafted objects, making becomes a tool to experience the interconnections between the natural world and material culture.
Founded in 2017 by multidisciplinary designer Lola Lely, WAX Atelier handcrafts its products at its East London workshop. A team of skilled artisans, drawn from the local community, brings these creations to life.
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Reservoirs of Replenishment: Creative Walk around Walthamstow MARSHES and Wetlands
Photograph by Helen Simms
£7 / £2 concessions / Free for refugees and asylum seekers. Booking required
Join ecology-tending artist and designer Alisa Ruzavina on a walking tour in the valleys of Europe’s largest urban wetlands and the surrounding territories. Partake in the imaginative exploration of the relationship between human history, urban wildlife and all the interspecies intermingling, resulting in the wildness and the man-made coming together on this unique site. Leave with a strengthened sense of empathy, solidarity and kinship with local plant and animal residents and visitors, and take home newfound reflections around the potentialities for human and more-than-human co-existence.
The walk will start at the sculpture at the corner of St James’ Park, South Access Road, E17 8AN and will take a route through the Argall Industrial Area, Walthamstow Marshes and Walthamstow Wetlands. It will finish at Engine House Cafe on Walthamstow Wetlands territory, 2 Forest Road, N17 9NH.
The route is approximately 2.5 miles so please wear appropriate footwear and clothing. There a benches to rest along the route.
ABOUT ALISA RUZAVINA
Alisa Ruzavina is a community & ecology-tending artist and facilitator.Her work focuses on creating conversations and collective experiences in the public realm that playfully explore alternative forms of knowledge, opening possibilities for sustainable place-based ways of relating, making and being that bring people closer in communion with the urban land, the civic commons and the diversity of intercultural and interspecies communities that can be found in the city. Her socially-engaged practice spans across public art, sculpture, installation, textiles, rituals, immersive and celebratory experiences, community and participatory art, walks and workshops.
TOUR: From Tree to Table with Grain
Free, booking required
Join us at our East London workshop for an exclusive look at how we journey from tree to table during the making of our American walnut Kielder range. We’ll be running tours at 11am and 2pm over the weekend to show the full process, from selection and preparation of timber, to the machine and hand finishing processes we use to create our timeless dining tables.
Our 30 minute tour will cover: selection and preparation of timber; machining prepared timber into components; hand processing of components; solid lipping of tabletops; selection, preparation and pressing of veneers; hand finishing of components.
Afterwards, you'll have the opportunity to get hands-on with our products, explore design for disassembly (which sets us apart from flat-pack) and get an early preview of our newest product drops.
We're proud to design and manufacture modern British furniture in Leyton and we look forward to welcoming you.
ABOUT GRAIN
We are Grain and we have been designing furniture since 2017. All of our furniture is designed and made under one roof in London. All of our materials are ethically sourced and our products made to order by our expert furniture makers. Our team has a wealth of experience designing and making furniture for high-end bespoke joinery projects where quality and craft are at the forefront of everything we design and make.
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INSA @ Buxton School
Free, drop-in
A unique collaboration featuring artist INSA, Wood Street Walls, RAW Project, and Buxton School in Leytonstone. Watch as INSA creates a new animated mural on Buxton School's side. Experience the animated artwork with AR via INSA's app as this will be one of the largest piece’s of INSA’s ‘gif-iti” pieces London will have seen.
ABOUT WOOD STREET WALLS
Wood Street Walls is a creative arts organisation that works on global projects with world renowned street artists. We work to empower local communities and artists in public space. Together with its in-house team of artists and creative professionals, it curates walls and coordinates events and runs two artist workspaces in Walthamstow. Since its formation ten years ago, Wood Street Walls has helped facilitate and curate more than 100 murals in East London, using the power of art and creativity to highlight social issues and causes that affect London and the UK.
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Supported by:
10 Years of Making It Together: Blackhorse Workshop's Celebratory Weekend
Free, drop-in
Join us for an afternoon of celebration, on Sunday 22nd September between 12pm - 5pm, of 10 amazing years of design and creativity at Blackhorse Workshop (2014 –2024) . We'll be marking this making milestone since the workshop first opened its doors back in 2014 with a mix of fun, food, music, games and making foolery!
There will also be the final chance to catch the special Makers Showcase, exhibiting work of past and present users of the workshop by some of London’s most exciting designers.
Everyone welcome – bring your family, friends and neighbours!
ABOUT Blackhorse Workshop
Blackhorse Workshop is a social enterprise dedicated to making, offering easy access to a fully equipped wood and metal workshop that’s open to all.
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Walthamstow Women's FC kit upcycling workshop
Photograph by Terna Joga, courtesy of Nicole Chui.
Free, booking required
Join us for an innovative and inspiring workshop for the William Morris Design Line at the London Design Festival, hosted by Amy Powney, Creative Director of Mother of Pearl, featuring a unique collaboration to promote sustainable fashion, supported by iconic sportswear brand Umbro. Amy Powney will share insights into sustainable fashion practices, highlighting how deadstock materials can be creatively reused to reduce waste. Followed by a hands-on workshop with embroidery artist Nicole Chui, expressively customising pre-loved kits using freestyle hand embroidery techniques.
This special event, held at FOUNDRY Walthamstow, is dedicated to the launch of Walthamstow FC’s first women's football team and aims to blend the worlds of fashion and football in a creative, eco-friendly manner.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Introduction and Welcome:
The event kicks off with a warm welcome from the hosts, Wood Street Walls, followed by an introduction from Amy Powney, creative director of Mother of Pearl.
Learn about the mission and vision behind this collaboration, emphasizing the importance of sustainability in both fashion and sports.
Sustainable Fashion and Football:
Discover how the project has come together with Umbro’s support, to repurpose deadstock kits, transforming them into unique jerseys for the Walthamstow Football team.
Amy Powney will share insights into sustainable fashion practices, highlighting how deadstock materials can be creatively reused to reduce waste.
Customisation Workshop:
The main event is an interactive workshop where participants will take existing deadstock kits and customise them through embroidery and other creative techniques.
You will learn basic to advanced embroidery skills, making this workshop suitable for all skill levels.
Nicole will demonstrate various embroidery techniques, provide tips on creating unique designs, and guide you through the process of transforming a plain kit into a piece of wearable art.
Hands-on Experience:
No prior experience is required to attend this workshop, but an interest in football and/or fashion is highly recommended.
All materials and tools will be provided, including a selection of deadstock kits from Umbro, embroidery threads, needles, and other embellishments.
Participants will have the opportunity to create their own customised jersey, which will be worn by the newly established women’s team.
Networking and Community Building:
Throughout the day, there will be opportunities to network with like-minded individuals, share ideas, and discuss the intersection of fashion, sports, and sustainability.
Engage in conversations with Amy Powney, Nicole Chui, and members of the Walthamstow Football team, and learn more about the formation of Walthamstow's first women's football team.
Closing Remarks and Group Photo:
The event will conclude with a group photo of all participants wearing their customised jerseys, followed by closing remarks from the hosts.
Additional Information:
● Refreshments and light snacks will be provided throughout the day.
● The venue, FOUNDRY, is easily accessible from Blackhorse Road station which is served by London Underground and Overground
● Tickets are limited, so early booking is recommended to secure your spot.
● All proceeds from the event will support the formation and development of Walthamstow's first women's football team.
How to Register:
● Visit the Wood Street Wall’s eventbrite site in the ‘Book Here’ link above
● Follow the event on social media for updates and sneak peeks of the deadstock kits and customisation ideas.
Contact Information:
● For any inquiries, please contact Wood Street Walls at info@woodstreetwalls.co.uk or call 07867 786688.
ABOUT WOOD STREET WALLS
Wood Street Walls is a creative arts organisation that works on global projects with world renowned street artists. We work to empower local communities and artists in public space. Together with its in-house team of artists and creative professionals, it curates walls and coordinates events and runs two artist workspaces in Walthamstow. Since its formation ten years ago, Wood Street Walls has helped facilitate and curate more than 100 murals in East London, using the power of art and creativity to highlight social issues and causes that affect London and the UK.
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www.instagram.com/woodstreetwalls
www.facebook.com/woodstreetwalls
ABOUT FOUNDRY WALTHAMSTOW
The FOUNDRY consists of three levels, the ground floor housing four wellness studios to service the needs of the community and two levels of workspace as well as a lounge that converts into Harry’s bar, offering cocktails with a terrace that has panoramic views of the Walthamstow Wetlands.
Follow us:
www.instagram.com/foundryspace
www.instagram.com/harryswalthamstow
www.linkedin.com/company/foundryspace
ABOUT MOTHER OF PEARL
Mother of Pearl is a luxury sustainable womenswear brand based in London that celebrates individuality, authenticity and sustainability. We make fashion with wit, heart and conscience. Our sustainable clothing collections are created with natural organic fabrics, respect to animals and a transparent supply chain.
Follow us:
www.instagram.com/motherofpearl
ABOUT NICOLE CHUI
Nicole Chui is a London based, Hong Kong-Malaysian embroidery artist whose work is messy, brash, and disruptive. Through every stitch, her work is driven by the desire to preserve & create memories, have fun, and disrupt perfection. It is important for her to unpick the unrealistic expectations of perfection society puts on women and carve space to “let us be". With every piece she continues to embrace imperfection in a fun and raw way, especially centring our true unhinged emotions.
She is currently exploring her identity in football and sports through her embroidery art practice. She co-founded the London based football club; Baesianz FC. A grassroots football community for women, trans, and non binary people of Asian heritage to play football in a safe space.
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Sunday Mending Club
Free, drop-in
Join the Monday Mending Club for a special weekend edition of their monthly mending social on the final day of Art Without Heroes: Mingei. The Walthamstow-based club aims to spread the joy of mending clothing and textile. It is run by artist, designer, maker and mender Mika Sembongi.
The mending club will meet in the Acanthus Room on the second floor of the building, food and drink can be brought up from the gallery café.
ABOUT WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY
William Morris Gallery is the only public gallery devoted to the designer, craftsman and radical socialist William Morris.
Housed in the Grade II listed building that was once Morris’s family home, the Gallery displays the world’s largest collection of his work, alongside contemporary exhibitions and an active events and learning programme.
Our purpose is to share the rich artistic and social legacy of one of Britain’s greatest designers. The Gallery is free and open to all.
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Follow Monday Mending Club:
TOUR: From Tree to Table with Grain
Free, booking required
Join us at our East London workshop for an exclusive look at how we journey from tree to table during the making of our American walnut Kielder range. We’ll be running tours at 11am and 2pm over the weekend to show the full process, from selection and preparation of timber, to the machine and hand finishing processes we use to create our timeless dining tables.
Our 30 minute tour will cover: selection and preparation of timber; machining prepared timber into components; hand processing of components; solid lipping of tabletops; selection, preparation and pressing of veneers; hand finishing of components.
Afterwards, you'll have the opportunity to get hands-on with our products, explore design for disassembly (which sets us apart from flat-pack) and get an early preview of our newest product drops.
We're proud to design and manufacture modern British furniture in Leyton and we look forward to welcoming you.
ABOUT GRAIN
We are Grain and we have been designing furniture since 2017. All of our furniture is designed and made under one roof in London. All of our materials are ethically sourced and our products made to order by our expert furniture makers. Our team has a wealth of experience designing and making furniture for high-end bespoke joinery projects where quality and craft are at the forefront of everything we design and make.
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Open Studio: Buttress & Snatch
Free, drop-in
Come and look round our atelier and see how you can upcycle waste cotton shirts and textiles into useful and exciting new clothes. Buttress & Snatch are a community lingerie atelier.
This open studio is part of Buttress & Snatch’s Community Cotton Club, their Make it Happen grant project funded by Waltham Forest Council.
ABOUT BUTTRESS & SNATCH
Buttress & Snatch are a community lingerie atelier. They make lingerie, dresses and bridalwear using vintage, recycled and deadstock materials.
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IN CONVERSATION WITH PETE BROWN
Tickets: £10
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have postponed this event. More information will be available when a new date is confirmed.
Join Hadrian Garrard, Director of William Morris Gallery for a special conversation with Pete Brown, award-winning food and drink writer and author of Craft: An Argument, winner of Best Beer Book at the North American Guild of Beer Writers Award.
At this special event - taking place in a craft brewery just down the road from the childhood home of William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts movement - they will talk about what might make something ‘craft’ (or not). Also up for grabs are the changing nature of work, to what extent how a thing is made affects the thing itself, the advance of the robots and when is a nice drink just a nice drink.
The event will take place in Exale Brewery and Taproom – an independent craft brewery in William Morris's home borough.
ABOUT WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY
William Morris Gallery is the only public gallery devoted to the designer, craftsman and radical socialist William Morris.
Housed in the Grade II listed building that was once Morris’s family home, the Gallery displays the world’s largest collection of his work, alongside contemporary exhibitions and an active events and learning programme.
Our purpose is to share the rich artistic and social legacy of one of Britain’s greatest designers. The Gallery is free and open to all.
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ABOUT EXALE
Exale Brewery and Taproom is a beloved neighbourhood hub for good vibes. They cultivate a feeling of unity through music, dance and incredible craft beer brewed on-site
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