180gsm linen would work beautifully - John English is an excellent mill in Ireland and they will provide education as needed - linen can be washed to softness or kept crisp - it's completely your choice. If you buy a prepared for dye (PFD) linen and do a reactive dye with heavy softeners you can make them any colour you like and they'll feel like you broke them in. If you want to embrace original artisans - buy a linen sheet or table cloth from a charity shop - pre-softened and highly sustainable. If you want to embrace the artisans - cut your own print block and wood block print the linen yourself - or go find a print designer / wood block printer - there are plenty of these folks around who are amazing and would give you enough fodder for these posts and explain how its done introduce you to inks and processing/finishing. You needn't use AI to reiterate what already exists as it doesn't seem to fit into your theme of "Nation of Artisans". Imagine the issue is that this is a very limited run of apparel pieces? You really need to buy from jobbers because you can't meet mill minimums. But go meet people in the mills - they're fascinating. Good luck Louis - show us all what your find out.
I've spoken to John English just this morning! Thank you for the suggestion. They have already been so helpful and looking forward to getting some samples from them.
I also love the idea of cutting my own wood block — I'm going to look into this.
As for the AI, I you check out my #5 Substack post (https://nationofartisans.substack.com/p/5-ai-boxer-short-sovereignty?r=2hpf4), you'll see that I am interested in doing design in the old way (I'm working with an artist on a print) and then also looking to the future and trying to infuse AI with a sense of artisanship.
I've been reading this wonderful book The Return of the Artisan by Grant McCracken — and also diving into the philosophy of craft. I think AI in it's current form is deeply damaging to ideas of artisanship. However, if we define craft/artisanship as being more about the hand-eye-heart-mind coordination to bring things into being, then I believe there is a way to use AI in more soulful ways that actually increase the abundance of artisanship in the world. I'm going to write a piece on this soon!
Thank you so much for getting in touch — it means the world to me when readers engage and spark inspiration!
180gsm linen would work beautifully - John English is an excellent mill in Ireland and they will provide education as needed - linen can be washed to softness or kept crisp - it's completely your choice. If you buy a prepared for dye (PFD) linen and do a reactive dye with heavy softeners you can make them any colour you like and they'll feel like you broke them in. If you want to embrace original artisans - buy a linen sheet or table cloth from a charity shop - pre-softened and highly sustainable. If you want to embrace the artisans - cut your own print block and wood block print the linen yourself - or go find a print designer / wood block printer - there are plenty of these folks around who are amazing and would give you enough fodder for these posts and explain how its done introduce you to inks and processing/finishing. You needn't use AI to reiterate what already exists as it doesn't seem to fit into your theme of "Nation of Artisans". Imagine the issue is that this is a very limited run of apparel pieces? You really need to buy from jobbers because you can't meet mill minimums. But go meet people in the mills - they're fascinating. Good luck Louis - show us all what your find out.
Hi Tam,
I've spoken to John English just this morning! Thank you for the suggestion. They have already been so helpful and looking forward to getting some samples from them.
I also love the idea of cutting my own wood block — I'm going to look into this.
As for the AI, I you check out my #5 Substack post (https://nationofartisans.substack.com/p/5-ai-boxer-short-sovereignty?r=2hpf4), you'll see that I am interested in doing design in the old way (I'm working with an artist on a print) and then also looking to the future and trying to infuse AI with a sense of artisanship.
I've been reading this wonderful book The Return of the Artisan by Grant McCracken — and also diving into the philosophy of craft. I think AI in it's current form is deeply damaging to ideas of artisanship. However, if we define craft/artisanship as being more about the hand-eye-heart-mind coordination to bring things into being, then I believe there is a way to use AI in more soulful ways that actually increase the abundance of artisanship in the world. I'm going to write a piece on this soon!
Thank you so much for getting in touch — it means the world to me when readers engage and spark inspiration!