Betty Spoke is a Glasgow based luxury brand that began life creating custom suiting and occasion wear for bespoke clients. They have since expanded into manufacturing high end tweed accessories with a strong focus on adaptable style and quality materials for a durable yet stylish garment. Betty herself tells us about where she makes…

Renting my first creative space was an amazing feeling. I was progressing. It was terrifying of course, but adding a major outgoing onto your life and your income is going to be daunting for anybody. I’d been working from home for over a year with clients visiting for consultations. My equipment was far from minimal. I was slowly going insane.

As a compromise, I rented the biggest unit I could afford. It’s split into two rooms, the first of which has three massive windows along the south wall. These allow in endless light during the summer months. When Scotland decides to do summer. 2014 was a comparative heat wave & these long days somehow charged my limbs into working more effectively.

The first half of this area is where I do fittings and talk to clients. Here I store all my fabric samples and inspiration books, next to comfy chesterfields and a large looking glass. I talk about design ideas, perfect toiles and have one last gaze at the final garment.

The second section of the room is a little more chaotic. A large whiteboard reminding me what tasks need to be accomplished. A continuous roll of paper and card for pattern drafting. A large bag of fabric ends that I slowly fill then donate to my local community centre (for stuffing up-cycled draught excluders). Mannequins stand dressed in various examples of my work; currently a bias cut pinstripe dress with a tailcoat feature. A green ribbed jersey dress matched with a navy crop lambs wool jacket. A pair of strobe effect dropped crotch trousers and a pink check Harris Tweed Poplet scarf with magnetic fastenings (the accessory I am focusing on for the Christmas period).

They all crowd around my worktable, admiring the colourful array of fabrics stored on its built in shelves yet embarrassed by the clutter associated with my latest project strewn across the surface. I tend to sprawl myself over the whole space pretty effectively. And enjoy discarding pieces of paper and thread on the floor while focusing on the task in hand – only to grumble when the time comes to clear up after myself.

A second door directly opposite the first leads off into a smaller back room. This area oversees the construction side of things and is occasionally used as a large dressing room for my more modest clients. Here hides two mammoth industrial machines and a steam iron as well as a plethora of thread, shoulder pads, sewing needles and garment fastenings.

The building was created to barrel whisky originally. And the room I reside in was a recording studio before I set up shop. Every wall had been painted black. It was both dramatic and depressing simultaneously. Now it is white. With patterns, pictures and materials pinned on every surface.

You can find Betty at her studio 674 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow (contact her first on tailored@bettyspoke.com).

Images and video kindly provided by Make Works. For more about Make Works on Central Station, go here.

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

Since forming in 2012, Kalopsia has worked to promote and support the creative talent working in textiles today – from contemporary textile art to textile design, we believe that the subject is a diverse practice and holds huge potential for innovation. Our Creative Director, Nina Falk, ran two fashion labels and a store in her native Sweden and found upon arriving in Scotland a number of challenges that textile creators face when producing their fabrics. The lack of resources meant that it was required to travel south to England for short run production and fabric prototyping; an often costly and time consuming process. It became obvious working with other textile artists and designers there was a real demand for a solution.

The Facility is our biggest project to date and aims to support Scottish designers and emerging talent by establishing a creative hub where graduates, independent designers and small businesses can produce their textiles in more efficient and sustainable ways through the use of specialist equipment, trained technicians and the sharing of knowledge and skills. By creating one multi-purposed and designated space, we hope to create an environment where people from different aspects of the textile practice can interact and ultimately fuel the exchange of ideas and knowledge within the textiles industry. We first pitched The Facility last autumn at the STLA symposium and were met with a really enthusiastic response showing there is a real need for this kind of space.

We are looking to build this as a pilot to develop what we hope will be a pioneering new business model for creative industries and are working to make it a commercially viable business that is responsibly grown. With this in mind, we aim to make it a real tool to be utilised by the fresh talent in the textile industry. As we are a social enterprise, Kalopsia see The Facility as an opportunity to train unemployed apprentices, helping them into sustainable and skilled jobs in the regional and national industry.

On Friday 30 January at Ocean Terminal, Kalopsia will be hosting an evening to officially launch The Facility Project. The evening will be an opportunity to hear more about the project but we are keen to hear the ideas of those who could really benefit from The Facility. How can we make The Facility best suit your needs? What would you like to see from it? The event is free and to attend you can your ticket from here.

To get in touch and find out more about The Facility and ways to get involved say hello at info@kalopsia.co.uk.

Visit here for more about Kalopsia Collective on Central Station.

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P R O C I O N S I L K S: Hand-printed silks from degree show collection

Kaleidescope and Procionsilks by Sylvie McGowan, a pattern designer and GSA alumna based in Berlin.

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Design and Architecture Degree Shows will be held in the newly opened Reid Building where the public will be allowed access for the first time since its opening. These shows will feature work from jewellery & silversmithing, textiles and fashion, communication design, product design, product design engineering and interior design. The MFA Degree Show will run at the Glue Factory from 12 – 22 June.

Due to recent tragic events at the Mackintosh building, Fine Art students will postpone their degree show. They will be represented in a specially-curated group exhibition at the McLellan Galleries featuring digital prints. A book will be available for purchase, featuring the prints and other works by GSA graduates.

The GSA Degree Show will run 14 – 21 June.

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Innovative textile artist, Nina Falk is from Stockholm but is now based in Edinburgh. Here, she guides us through her work process:

My work often breaks the boundaries between fashion, textiles and art – moving away from the labels that we are often given. This is something that I find really interesting – the labels within art are something that I often come across when I exhibit my work.

Even though I have shown my work at places such at Moscow Museum of Modern Art to New Designers in London I always find myself justifying what I do. Is it art or is it design?

Rend Birth 2011

Rend it 2011

Studying ‘Fashion and Tailoring’ in Stockholm, ‘Textiles’ at Norwich University of the Arts in England, ‘Textiles art’ at Osaka Seikei University Faculty of the Arts in Japan and a Masters in ‘Contemporary Art Theory’ has influenced my work and my process.

I am currently living in Edinburgh where I am running a Contemporary Textile Collective with a group called Kalopsia. Kalopsia brings attention to the field and sees textiles as a distinct artistic practice which opens up the debate on “What is Textiles”. I see Textiles as a social, historical, and cultural artefact and as an instrument to show emotions, experiences and thoughts.

Playing hard to get 2012

Alteration 2012

The way I work and the tools I use, the process and the thinking comes from my past in the ballet. I started dancing when I was three or four years old and I was quickly drawn into the world of ‘perfection’ and the strive to push oneself. You can always be better; be the best! You are brought up thinking ‘what is the point otherwise?’ and without having this mentality, you fail. It wasn’t until I was a teenager, having been a dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and done pliés for, what felt like 100 years, that I realised that it wasn’t for me. I quit a few years later and the only thing that stayed with me was the constant realisation of the pushing – the perfection. I have never found that perfection and I am now moving towards the fragmentations of it. Whatever form my work comes in, it ends up with destruction. The more stains and the more fragmentation I can create, the more satisfied I get. I am a perfectionist, but I know that perfection doesn’t exist.

Alteration – lip 2012

Being diagnosed with MS later came to influence my process and this now has a key impact on my ideas about alterations as it is a constant uncontrollable force, constantly changing my behaviour and my body.

I have tried to capture this in my work and video installations from (Un)Conscious Deformation. The rather painful process of stitching into my own skin is an important aspect. The preparation before penetrating a sewing needle through my skin was filled with adrenaline. I stitched myself in front of a mirror and sometimes with a few people around me. The mirror was there to push me – I saw myself changing and I wanted more – it was very difficult to stop. When was I done? Is there such a thing as a final stitch? When is the time to stop? You always forget the pain and it is difficult to look at yourself in a mirror and say ‘done’. There is always something that you can alter.

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This week, Ironbbratz Studios took over Central Station, posting featured work and blogs. This, their last post, is about Black Cherry Studio.

Black Cherry Studio is a Textile Print Design Studio set up by two graduates from The Glasgow School of Art. They design and create beautiful exclusive Print Designs for the Womenswear Fashion Market keeping their worldwide client base in mind. Their print designs are created for clothing, accessories, swimwear and lingerie and are produced using traditional hand painting techniques along with cutting edge computer technology. This, coupled with inspiration drawn from current catwalk trends, allows them to create a product which is one of a kind and appeals to everyone from high end to high street companies.

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And Sew for Today is a daily project by Emma Ruth.

Each morning, Emma uses an internet based random word generator to choose a word then she hand stitches it onto a piece of fabric. Without using patterns or pre-planning, Emma grabs some fabric and thread and stitches the first thing that comes into her head. It’s an experiment in typography, embroidery and fun.

This is just a small selection of her work here, see her Tumblr for more.

Visit the And Sew for Today website.
Follow And Sew for Today on Twitter.
Find out more about Emma here.
Follow Emma on Twitter here.

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

surplus by d.stitched (a.k.a. Deirdre Nelson), made for the Modern Languages exhibition in Cork, Ireland. The show included the work of five international artists and designers with varying relationships to Ireland.

See more of Deirdre’s work on flickr.
Visit Deirdre’s blog.

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Discover more work by creatives on our creative networks here.
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Cassandra Harrison is a print and textile artist based in Edinburgh. Originally from Nebraska, USA, Cassie creates artwork which experiment with textures, textiles and printmaking.

As well as an account of current commissions or personal projects the artist is undertaking, This is how I roll also features reviews about exhibitions Cassie has been to, and links to interesting artists she comes across in her outings. There are also some very good hints and tips interwoven in the posts about being a working artist.

Whether you are a fan of Cassie’s work, want to find out about the art scene in Edinburgh or need a bit of motivation to start your own project, we recommend you bookmark this blog.

Read Cassie’s blog here.
See more of Cassie’s work on her site here.
Follow Cassie on Twitter here.
See more work by Cassie on flickr here.

Julie Elphick is a designer & maker based in Oxford. Her head-dresses are created using a variety of hand-finishing techniques to produce a detailed and original piece of work. Click on the image above to see more from this collection.

See more of Julie’s work here.

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