We would like to thank everyone involved for making Textile Talks; textiles, sustainability and collaboration, our first one-day symposium, a huge success!

Textile Talks was held on Friday 3 October 2025 online and in-person in Somerton. It was wonderful to meet and chat with so many peers from the fields of textiles, visual art and sustainability, who joined our conversation in-person, and hear stimulating questions from all participants both in-person and online.

Firstly, many thanks to the brilliant Liz Croft and Louise Cottey from The Loom Shed, who managed our ticketing and got the technology working so smoothly on the day.

“It was a huge relief to see Textile Talks come together so brilliantly. We were so lucky to have secured such a high calibre of speakers for the event, and the audience was equally impressive.”

Secondly, seam collective would like to thank all our amazing speakers – Judith van den Boom, Paula Orrell, Helen Carnac, and Becky Early, and seam members Alice-Marie Archer, Oliver Bliss, Nina Gronw-Lewis, Angie Parker and Nicola Turner.

Judith van den Boom, our host for the day, our sustainability mentor and Course Leader, MA Regenerative Design at UAL Central St Martins, provided rich insights to reviewing creative practice with a lens of sustainability. If you were unable to attend the day you can gain helpful insight to inform your own practice via her contribution from her blogpost, Mentoring through Warped and Wasted: a journey into seam sustainability.

The seam sustainability wheel was a highlight—many phones were raised to capture it during her presentation. This tool is a powerful way to identify connections and highlight gaps in your creative practice, both individually and collectively. This is a tool you can also incorporate into your own reflective practice.

“Thank you for today, it was just what I needed to relight my fire with the business as it’s sometimes hard to keep motivated as a solo maker.”

Paula Orrell, the national Director of CVAN England, provided an overview of national challenges faced by the creative sector and highlighted the impact of visual arts through case studies.

She highlighted the importance of campaigning collectively and directly with government advocating for more paid internships to bridge skills into industries and increase the capacity of small businesses. She encouraged consolidating ideas into an actional manifesto towards sustainability in arts practice. We at seam do have an established manifesto for our collective practice, however a national approach is something that had not yet been discussed! Being prompted to think more strategically towards a sustainable approach nationally was something that sparked great interest within our members and the audience on the day.

“The content of the talks was hard hitting yet digestible, and I felt fortunate to have access to the expertise in the room.”

During lunch attendees had the chance to visit the Warped and Wasted exhibition and speak to artists

“Inspiration of use of found recycled, discarded materials”

Helen Carnac, author, mentor and teacher, facilitated a brilliant in-conversation question and answer session with members of seam collective: Alice-Marie Archer, Oliver Bliss, Nina Gronw-Lewis, Angie Parker and Nicola Turner. It was after lunch, when attendees had had the opportunity to visit the Warped and Wasted exhibition and speak directly with the artists. The session unpacked the process seam members went through to produce the work and curate the installation, provoking lots of questions.

The members discussed how the process changed their approach to sustainability in their collective and individual practices. 

“It was a fantastic day. A thought-provoking line up and great to be with textile artists”

“Ideas for my work, a desire to be part of such a group”

Becky Early, Professor of Circular Design Futures at Chelsea College of Arts, shared a range of pioneering practices and projects that explore new approaches to circularity. She demonstrated how technical and social innovations can lead to more sustainable and positive lifestyles for everyone. Drawing on research from both the sciences and the humanities she championed approaches that explore how designers can rethink entire systems, from material sourcing to end-of-life, by using innovative approaches to engage consumers and industry.

We also want to thank how active and enthusiastic our audience, both in-person and online, were during the conversations, asking stimulating questions that nourished and enriched the vital subjects discussed. Without you, the day could not have happened.

But the thanks do not stop here; we noticed several representatives from UK universities in the audience – always amazing when the messages from the day can be taken back to education establishments.

“I appreciate it is an important theme as so many textiles and clothes are thrown away”

“The exhibition is very good educational resource, I will use it with my students”

We are grateful for the new connections made on the day, across the textile community, and existing bonds strengthened between visitors and collaborators, so essential if this vital conversation is going to thrive.

And finally, thank you to seam member Nina Gronw-Lewis who did an incredible job of introducing the speakers, co-ordinating the questions and making sure that everything ran to time – you made it look seamless.

Julie Heaton and Oliver Bliss

Photographs by Angie Parker, Oliver Bliss, Glory (Youngye) Cho and Penny Wheeler.