Hello and welcome!

Photo by Rebecca Hall 

Thank you for joining us here at A Thoughtful Thread! The series is a collaboration between Claire Lock of nature//street weaves and Holly Marlin of Hollin Textiles. Through this series, we aim to:

• Explore, highlight and promote sustainable weaving/textile practices;

• Connect with, support and promote weavers / textile artists and businesses who pride themselves on sustainability values; 

• Stimulate positive discussion and idea-sharing on sustainability in weaving / textile arts; and

• Share our individual journeys exploring and incorporating sustainability into our weaving!

We hope you enjoy our first post [below] in what we anticipate to be an eight week series. Our aim is to post weekly on Mondays, to start the week off right :)


We would love you to get involved in A Thoughtful Thread conversations – you can follow us using the link on the top right of the blog, comment below, or hit us up on our Instagram feeds - @nature_street and @Holly_Marlin. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts! 

So, without further ado – A Thoughtful Thread!

Photo by Rebecca Hall 

The S word

S   U   S   T   A   I   N   A   B   I   L   I   T   Y   !

Let’s start with our disclaimer: We’re NOT here to beat you over the head or bog you down with heavy loads of information on sustainability (yep, you can check those guilty, tired vibes at the virtual door!). What we DO want to do through this series is to help you consider and discover how small changes in our creative practices can reap great benefits - not only for ourselves, but also for the textile industry, society, the environment, and our four-legged friends. Does that sound good? Yes? Then let’s get on with it!

Who are we, and why are we here?

We are Claire and Holly, weaving enthusiasts, and yarnaholics by night, environmental sector professionals by day. Residing 1,600 kilometres apart - in Adelaide for Claire and Newcastle for Holly - we became Instagram buddies after bonding (almost instantly!) over one of Claire’s weaving images and the realisation that we had a common passion for that S word!! 

We discovered we’d both been swept up in the amazing world of yarn and fibres when we started our weaving journeys, and, after amassing substantial yarn stashes, noted that some materials aren’t actually all that good for the environment/people/animals! Most importantly, we had both realised that, in future, we could be more mindful to ensure materials we used in our creative pursuits truly reflected our personal values. 

We had each started researching and discovering sources of materials that better reflected our beliefs about environmental protection, social justice, and ethics. But you know what? It wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Even if you know exactly where you stand on different issues, it can still be difficult to find information on where and how materials are made, and it can be pretty easy to get bogged down or overwhelmed, feel guilty, and even give up. So we started to share information and collate our own database. It was really cool to be able to share information and bounce ideas off each other - and to receive thoughtfully collated packages of sustainable yarn samples from each other in the mail! 

Claire also had the brilliant idea that others may be experiencing the same issues we were, and that our research could save fellow weavers and textile enthusiasts time and energy if we shared our discoveries. We also thought it important to acknowledge that making our individual weaving practices more sustainable is a ‘continuous improvement process’, and that each small positive change we make can collectively add up to something far greater. 

And so, dear reader… here we are!

About the blog

So, what exactly is this blog series about? It’s about being thoughtful in our choices… slowing down, and appreciating the beauty of the handmade and the imperfect… connecting to nature… creativity… collaboration… and celebrating community.

We want to introduce you to some of our favourite sustainable practitioners, producers and businesses who we are just so inspired by, and think you will be too! We will pass on our knowledge about where to find sustainable materials and share more about our own journeys. We want to offer inspiration and highlight some easy ways to become more sustainable in your own textile practices [no, you don’t have to become a sheepherder on a remote hillside and shear and spin your own wool - unless that's your dream!]. 

Ultimately we hope this blog can be a [hybrid!] vehicle for a mindful and positive discussion on sustainable weaving/textile practices. We encourage you to share your stories and experiences as part of the series - we’d love you to have ownership of this series too! 

Until Monday, 

Claire and Holly