Walkie Talkie with Zoë Quick

Campion, shepherd’s purse, wild clematis, cleavers, trefoil, wood violet, sweet woodruff...

The starting point for this Walkie Talkie is the striking number of Laura Ashley’s early chintzes that are named after wildflowers and weeds. Join Zoë in tracing these fabrics back to land: We’ll walk and forage along the weedy edges, hedges and verges of Llanidloes, then print patterns onto fabric with our weedy gatherings in an outdoor dye kitchen. Engaging in pattern and textile as outward-bound processes, we’ll reflect on our our work as both an undoing and a redoing of chintz, each of us returning to town with a unique, plant-printed, headscarf or neckerchief-sized square of chintz!

The day will wrap up at 4pm but please let us know if you need to leave any earlier.

Thanks to The Outdoor Partnership, we can provide outdoor gear (boots raincoats, trousers). Please email orieldaviessuzie.jones@gmail.com with your sizes and needs by Monday 11 March to request.

This walk is part of our Walkie Talkie project which celebrates the centenary of Laura Ashley, an important figure in the history of the local area as well as in textile design and production.

As part of the project, Oriel Davies are commissioning 5 artists to lead 5 walks each based in one of the following towns, of which had its own Laura Ashley shop: Carno (or Caersws) where the Laura Ashley factory was located, Welshpool, Newtown, Llanidloes and Machynlleth.

Laura Ashley developed her business with the idea of family at its heart. One such idea she used was the ‘walkie-talkie’ - a walk outside in nature with the family or some of the staff to talk through ideas and problems and support wellbeing.

This project is funded by The Ashley Family Foundation.