Stunning upcycled craft installations created by textile students at the School’s Middlesbrough campus are being featured at this year’s Festival of Thrift, the national celebration of sustainable living taking place at Kirkleatham, near Redcar, on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September 2022.

The eye-catching designs have been created by first and second year UAL Extended  Diploma in Textiles and Surface Design students as part of a live brief from the festival organisers to decorate the information points which are positioned at key points around the event site.

Using unsellable donated clothing and scrap fabric from Festival of Thrift partner, Teesside Hospice, the students have made some ingeniously recycled bunting, screen printed fabric, giant pompoms and tassels to add colourful, stand-out details to decorate the stalls. Have a look at some photos of the work in progress in the gallery below.

Caroline Forknall, Cluster Leader for Fashion and Textiles at The Northern School of Art’s Middlesbrough campus, said: “This has been an amazing opportunity for students to use and develop their textile design skills on a very prestigious and high profile live project. Students have printed, embroidered and constructed using fabric that would otherwise have gone to waste so it’s a fantastically sustainable way to create some stunning textile based-decorations.

“We’re very excited and can’t wait to see them all displayed. Over 50,000 people visited Festival of Thrift last year so our designs will be seen and appreciated by a huge audience!”

A weekend like no other, Festival of Thrift is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year with a packed programme as diverse, entertaining and inspiring as ever, Compact Disco who are appearing are pictured at the top of this article.  Thousands of festivalgoers are expected to attend to enjoy the event’s trademark heady mix of performances, live music, workshops, talks and stalls selling an eclectic selection of food, drink and goods from ethical traders.

Festival of Thrift takes place at Kirkleathm, Redcar on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September 2022. The programme for the weekend is available to view and download HERE

Further information about the UAL Extended  Diploma in Textiles and Surface Design course at The Northern School of Art’s Middlesbrough campus is available HERE