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Barbara Brown, the Golden Girl of Heals Documentary

Barbara Brown was one of the most renowned textile designers of the mid 20th century. Her strongly geometric work was the very essence of 60s art and style. In celebration of her 90th birthday Haptic & Hue and Gray M.C.A have produced the first documentary about this leading twentieth century designer. In it, Barbara talks about her life, the influences that led her to become a textile designer and the ideas she wanted to express. The film is available to rent and free of charge to Friends of Haptic and Hue.

Haptic & Hue Notebooks

Three blank notebooks for all those brilliant ideas, each one featuring an image from a different Haptic & Hue podcast in Series 1 and 2. These made great gifts for someone who loves the podcast or who just enjoys good design. There are two different sets of notebooks: one set features textile artists of colour, Althea McNish, Loretta Pettway Bennett from Gees Bend, and Baba Issaka, a famous Asafo Flag maker. The second set features British wool, including Haptic & Hue’s own trademark pincushions, Rebanks Tweed from Woven in the Bone, and handwoven cloth designed by Janet Phillips.

Knitting for Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has now created over ten million refugees. Not all of them have left the country, but all of them have had to leave their homes, often with little more than a suitcase and a couple of plastic bags. They have to start again and have very little to help them do so. This conflict is no different from any other and there is a great need for those with knitting and crochet skills to help. If you would like to contribute your skills here’s one way to do so.

Haptic & Hue’s Bookshop

All the best books about textiles in one place? There are so many books out there that tell us how to sew, knit, stitch, weave or crochet, but not many tell us why we do this and what it means to us, or what impact it has on the world. Haptic & Hue now curates its own collection of books to buy on textiles,  many of them suggested by listeners We update and add to this regularly. By buying from this site you support the podcast as a small commission comes to us at no extra cost to you. You can find the US bookshop here and the UK bookshop here. As soon as Bookshop, which supports independent bookshops, opens new bookshops in different areas we will be able to extend the area that the shops can ship to. Happy Reading!

Sew Organised Style

Jo Andrews

This is Australia and New Zealand’s top podcast for sewers and crafters. It’s hosted by the lovely Maria Theoharous. The latest episode is about how I came to set up Haptic and Hue and the long and winding road I took to get here. If you are interested in the life of a reporter and television broadcaster who came to textiles and weaving as a way of balancing the stresses of life on the road then this is for you!

Homespun Army – The Radical Power of a Needle and Thread

Jo Andrews

Britain has been a quiet place these past weeks: no planes, no pubs, few trains, and no traffic, except for the sad howl of ambulances. But if you listened carefully you might just have been able to catch the whirr of sewing machines in households across the country. It’s the sound of a small homespun cavalry coming to the aid of the NHS and other frontline workers. Independent of governments, voluntary organisations or management structures, thousands of women and men in lockdown have hauled out their machines from under dust covers, found their cutting scissors and set to work to produce scrubs, laundry bags, masks and gowns for care and health workers to protect them and their patients. This has been the real Great British Sewing Bee of 2020.

Comfort in a Time of Need: The Power of Fabric

Jo Andrews

A father stands at the top of the stairs, a family is preparing to go out. By the door the mother is putting on the baby’s coat and shoes. The father suddenly yells: ‘Rugga hunt!” and the other three children dive around the house searching for a bedraggled piece of worn out cotton, which might be anywhere. They can’t leave home without it, all know the consequences of trying to do this.

As Long As a Piece of String

Jo Andrews

When anyone sees me weaving at a handloom they ask the same questions: how long does it take, and why do you do it? I guess everyone who works with their hands at something that a machine could do faster or ‘better’ gets asked the same thing, and the answer isn’t simple. I am a handweaver for many reasons, it shapes a flow in my life, thread by thread, I bring order out of the chaos of yarn and, if it is a successful piece of work, it delivers something useful that pleases the hand to touch and the eye to see.