I am delighted to share that I was invited to steer a project with the School of Design and Mechanics of Fashion Industry in my birth town of Popovo.
In a series of online and off line engagements myself and engineer Desislava Ignatova have developed classroom and teacher materials exploring the symbolism and heritage in Celtic knots and Bulgarian folklore embroidery.
The project is the onset of a larger European project.
Outreach Program: Tradition of Threads – from Irish Knots and Braids to Bulgarian Embroidery
A journey through the textile traditions of Ireland and Bulgaria, not with a magic carpet, but through Zoom, was started by two educators from Popovo, Bulgaria. Engineer Desislava Ignatova, teacher at PGTLP-c. Popovo and Dr Niki Collier, Dublin-based craft artist and a director on the board of the Design and Craft Council of Ireland (DCCI) initiated and manage the project. The idea is motivated by the interest to learn more about textile traditions and trends in both cultures and to share the knowledge simultaneously with the students from PGTLP-c. Popovo and artists from Richmond Barracks in Dublin. The experimental project is named “Tradition of Threads – from Irish Knots and Braids to Bulgarian Embroidery“.