Our mission statement reads like this
- ethically create as much work for ourselves and as many hands as we can
- emphasis on the work of the hand- handloom fabrics, hand block print, hand stitch
- source materials as locally as possible
- make choices that are as environmentally friendly as possible- unbleached handloom fabric, natural dyes [We use AMA HERBAL GOTS certified plant based dyes], indigo and re-cycled silks saris where suitable to the design.
- where the quality of modern sewing techniques are necessary use the best quality threads, zips etc and and our modern sewing workshop.
- promote fair pay for well produced work and educate to help achieve this
- develop work informed by traditional techniques with a contemporary twist.
WORK
both as a noun and a verb is our common interest at TSP.
We want to create good, interesting, arty Work for you to wear, decorate your home or use in your own creations.
Through our work we want to create the opportunity for others to be working with us at fairly paid rates.
We believe keeping worthwhile levels of wages going to traditional crafts people also keeps traditions alive and flourishing; we build OUR WORK on our design aesthetic, our connection to the modern market and our co-workers skills, enthusiasm and experience to produce work we hope others will find desirable.
Our Work is based on traditional methods, often utilizing old motifs with a contemporary twist, tweaks coming as we work together.
- We utilize handloom where possible- handloom is produced in villages across rural regions of India- work is hand spun, hand loomed, its carbon foot print is small. Village production allows continuance of community and we believe a better quality of life than migrating to urban situations [often slum like] in search of work.
- Handloom fabrics have soul- the presence of the maker is subtly with them so different to the blank slate of mill made fabric.
- Re-cycled silk saris are a treasure of India and we use a lot in our work.
- For machine made fabric we try to find un-bleached; having one experience of fabric bleaching and the noxious chemicals used we would prefer not to go there. We pre-wash it before we use it to manage shrinkage.
- We only use block print for our pattern making rather than screenprint. We love the slight rustic quality of it and the fact that water needed is minimal compared with the clean up from screen printing
- For printing we do love indigo and natural black and red- colours that are very permanent and do plan to utilize them when suitable to our designs
- Otherwise we use good quality pigment inks- their wash fastness we can rely on.
- Dye is undertaken by a local family of dyers and we work with them to ensure the best light fastness of the cloth possible.
- For stitch we use quality Coats Anchor threads and work all samples first to time production and ensure reasonable rates of pay are awarded.
- Finish is as important as ideals-in our machine workshop we use quality machine threads, YKK zippers and quality bibs and bobs like buttons for finishing off our work.
