Textiles @ Crafts Alive

The Welsh Tie Company are makers of a wide range of bow ties, neckties and accessories, all individually handmade and beautifully finished. Commissions are welcome, If you would like a custom made order please contact Crafts Alive for more details.

Every piece is designed and created with love.

I am a designer of custom and bespoke clothes and accessories with a Masters degree form the Kiev National University of Culture and Arts.

I started sewing the first caps when I was teenager for my father. Then, when my father left this world, I kept a few of his caps for myself. I likes wearing them so much that I began to sew new ones for myself, then for my friends and from there I started to build a customer base. Each hat is unique, I make a small batch runs. As I sew myself, I understand how much labour and money has been invested in each garment.

With over 20 years experience in the design and creation of bridal wear and custom accessories, I have collaborated with a number of leading salons internationally. My hats, wedding dresses and accessories have sold across Europe, Asia and South Africa, as well as United Kingdom.

In my childhood I was lucky enough to see how silkworms and linen are grown and with my grandmother I have learned to produce woollen threads and make socks. For me, the materials are of particular value and I love natural materials - I hope you do too!

My name is Karen Vosmer, I am a Textile artist local to Carmarthenshire, and I create quality one-off scarves, accessories and other products using fine merino wool and silks.

I have worked with Textiles for as long as I can remember, and taught Design Technology Textiles for the last 20 years. With the birth of my son, I went back to teaching on a part-time basis, which gave me the opportunity to go back to my own designs and craft development.

Although I have worked with a variety of textiles over the years, felting has become my passion. I describe it as ‘painting with wool’ using either silk or wool fibres as my canvas. My ‘signature’ is how I ‘play with colours’, often drawn to natural opposites, but using shades that ‘work’. I like my form to have function, and I am a ‘scarf person’ as in I can never have too many. Hence a natural progression into making scarves. My work continues to develop as I manipulate the fibres in their fineness into Cobweb scarves, and in new surface patterns and design.

My products are hand-made and therefore unique. I sometimes try to replicate an idea, but in both my dyeing and felting, no two pieces are ever the same - each one will always be a quality made item offering individuality.

Lovely items made with wool and other fibres. Includes hats, scarves, gloves and brooches.

I enjoy using a knitting machine to make the clothes I design, and have been a knitwear designer for 40 years. Most, but not all, of my work is with wool from my own sheep. The sheep flock started when I learned to spin and was then told that it wasn’t possible to use hand-spun wool on a knitting machine. Oh, really!

My favourite to spin is a mix of all the colours my sheep produce, all carded together, and then it spins ‘tweed’!

Elin Manon creates one-off, hand crafted items in the heart of South Wales, combining elements of knitwear and reworked materials. It's all about bringing the everyday into fashion, to create relatable pieces. A mixed media approach to design; foraging for broken objects and abandoned textiles to create a character in clothing. Elin Manon is dedicated to creating clothes from quality, natural wools, organic cotton and recycled or dead stock materials.

Elin has worked for esteemed brands : Ryan Lo and Helen Lawrence and the renowned knitwear company Corgi Hosiery

Using fleece from Alpaca, mohair and silk fibres, Joanna Kingston hand spins and creates original knits resulting in luxuriously soft scarves and hats. All Joanna’s designs are unique to the animal the wool comes from.

My name is Enfys Jenkins and I LOVE TO SEW !

I specialise in handmade bags, purses, retro aprons, cushions and pretty much anything that inspires me! I love to bring a burst of colour to any room with soft furnishings from a range of vintage, retro and recycled fabrics.

My creations are lovingly designed using quality sourced and vintage fabrics from my home in Llandybie, West Wales and are made in very small quantities so you can be sure every product is different and unusual.

I have been sewing most of my life. This led me to take a BA Hons Textiles/Art course at Goldsmith’s Art College, London. I have a passion for recycling and reusing old fabrics, ends of roll lengths and smaller pieces that would otherwise be thrown away.
Each of my present bags is unique, similar fabrics may be used but in different combinations. These combinations are influenced by the amount of fabric available the weight, colours, textures and colour balances.My surroundings influence my work as I use 'found' natural objects and materials in my art work and am exploring dying the fabrics I use with local plants.

The Welsh Tie Company are makers of a wide range of bow ties, neckties and accessories, all individually handmade and beautifully finished. Commissions are welcome, If you would like a custom made order please contact Crafts Alive for more details.