Wool Directory online - connecting SW wool producers to wool users (From Smallholder)

Wool Directory online - connecting SW wool producers to wool users

7:16pm Sunday 30th October 2011 in Livestock

A new free online database initiated by the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World in collaboration with Claire Crompton of Give Fleece A Chance.

Why a Wool Directory and who is it for?

Wool is currently enjoying a renaissance among wool users as a sustainable, versatile and locally sourced material. What is missing, however, is an easy way for wool users – spinners, weavers, dyers, artists and product makers – to connect to the producers. The answer is the web-based Wool Directory - a free and easy to use database.

Wool producers – market your fleece or yarn to potential buyers and connect with others in the wool supply chain.

Wool users – connect with producers, share information and promote your products.

The new Wool Directory is the latest in a series of projects, which, over the past two years, CCANW has initiated to raise the profile of wool, its use by makers, designers and artists, and its contribution to the economy and local distinctiveness.

A user’s testimony This project will be very useful in bringing together and galvanising the different people in the supply chain and sharing information, products and services in a way that has not happened before. I think the web directory is a fantastic and incredibly useful idea and I look forward to being in it!

Yuli Somme, feltmaker and proprietor of Bellacouche How to join The Wool Directory is free and easy to join. See www.wooldirectory.org.uk for further details.

Give Fleece A Chance Claire Crompton, a Cornwall-based textile designer, developed Give Fleece A Chance, a collaborative knitting project creating a flock of sheep using wool sourced from the South West. Her research forms the basis of the Wool Directory and she is involved in the setting up and running of the Directory.

For more information on Claire’s project see http://givefleeceachance.com/ www.wooldirectory.org.uk CCANW wish to thank the project's funders The Prince’s Countryside Fund, Dartmoor Sustainable Development Fund and Greater Dartmoor LEAF incorporating funding from the EU, defra, LEADER and SWRDA.