Exciting times here at Ethnic Supplies. A little over a year I was introduced to an Artist in Uganda his name is Fred Mutebi. Fred works with wood and is passionate about bark cloth. This is a fabric native to Uganda and was historically used to produce clothing for Kings and queens until the introduction of cotton. I had a conversation with Fred about his work with bark cloth producers and here is what he had to say- bark cloth is important in the economic empowerment of local communities
The challenge for me was to find designers here in the west who would be willing to explore the use of this unknown but sustainable fabric, specifically how it can be incorporated into main stream fashion. I approached a few Art and Fashion colleges and Karen Rothwell a Student from Central St Martins agreed to take up the challenge
Writing on Africa on the Blog– Karen takes us through how she works with this complex fabric to develop interesting designs and in a follow up post she presents some stunning African style jewellery using mostly the pale bark cloth
Karen is show casing her final year work at
Room 109, 1st floor
Central St Martins
University of the Arts London
Southampton Row
WC1B 4AP
on the following dates and times- do call in and take a look for yourself
Saturday 18 June 12.00 – 18.00
Sunday 19 June closed
Monday 20 – Wednesday 22 June 12.00 – 20.00
Thursday 23 June 12.00 – 18.00
I am incredibly excited about Karen’s work and can’t wait for it to get into mainstream retail outlets
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