Shops / Textiles

Creating the Bristol Cloth

By Hazel Needham  Friday Nov 9, 2018

“We live in a chemical era,” says Babs Behan, founding producer of new small-scale fabric manufacturer Bristol Cloth. She is standing in the kitchen of a warehouse in St Philip’s, a stone’s throw from the Barley Mow, making a cup of tea before heading back through to her studio. “There was a stone age, a bronze age, but over the last two generations, we have created the chemical age.”

With this horrifyingly accurate outlook anchoring the ethos of her two ventures – established dyeing business Botanical Inks and her latest project, Bristol Cloth – Babs hopes that Bristol can help pioneer a sustainable textile industry. Bristol Cloth will provide fashion designers with a material that currently missing from the market: a fabric that is locally-sourced and naturally regenerative.

Having moved from London to Bristol around five years ago, Babs says she was immediately charmed by the overwhelming sense of community she found here. This support allowed her business to have a fighting chance in such a monopolised economy. In late 2014 she set up Botanical Inks, specialising in using non-toxic, plant-based materials and manufacturing processes.

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She is now focussing on the fabrics that she dyes: “It’s important that you can see where it comes from. You can’t see all the negative effects happening in places like Asia where a lot of fabric is made.” It’s this desire that has seen her partner with eco-friendly Fernhill Farm in the Mendips, who raise Shetland-Romney sheep for both meat and fibre.

Often, the wool produced by meat farmers is of a low quality and thus insufficient for clothing. “Instead it can be used for industrial purposes like insulation, but mainly it’s just disposed of. It’s actually a cost for farmers,” Babs explains. Aware of how wasteful the textile and agricultural industries can be, Babs says she is delighted to not only be supporting local farmers, but also is maximising the use of natural resources to create an economical and sustainable product.

Babs works from a studio in St Philip’s but plans to sell her cloth online

Babs’ studio is crammed with Kilner jars and metal pans all set up for the dyeing process, although there’s no need for protective clothing or masks – “It’s 100 per cent natural,” she assures. As with the rest of the production process, dyeing the wool involves absolutely no toxic chemicals at all. From farming to washing, dyeing and weaving, only organic resources are used, meaning that after its useful life-cycle, the Bristol Cloth can be returned to the ground with a harmless impact on the environment.

Babs is currently fundraising to get the project off the ground, and says she has been amazed by the response so far. In one week, she raised over £7,000 on her crowdfunding page. Although friends and family in the local community were among the initial investors, sharing on Facebook has allowed her project to be supported internationally. American company Fibershed are among the plethora of organisations who have recently demonstrated their support.

Inside Babs’ studio, where she dyes fabric using natural materials

The weaving element of production takes place in the Bristol Weaving Mill, run by Juliet Bailey and Franki Brewer, which is based on the edge of St Philip’s and Barton Hill. Babs recently discovered that the Great Western Cotton Factory was established in the same area in 1838. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the factory had developed so much by the turn of the 20th century that over 1,000 employees, many of them women, worked there. “It’s such an amazing coincidence,” Babs says, grinning. “But at the same time it’s not surprising because textile-production is part of Bristol’s history.”

Babs says she appreciates that Bristol Cloth is not a revolutionary concept, but a re-adoption of traditional methods, simply taking more environmental precautions. Because of this, she believes that her project is entirely feasible, and though she will remain independent and local to Bristol, the concept is easily replicable across the globe. By cutting out the middle-man of a wholesaler, she can keep the prices down and reinvest as much money as possible into the second production run. Babs is set to start dyeing the first round of wool on November 20, and the weaving will commence in January 2019.

Find out more about the Bristol Cloth at www.botanicalinks.com/the-bristol-cloth.

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