Making Masks, a small contribution to the crisis
To our dear followers and loyal customers
Hoping you are staying safe and well
We started 2020 quietly, with big ideas for the year ahead and slowly putting them together. A trip to Frome, to see if a company there can make my bags for me, meetings with photographers and film makers, while reorganising the Leather Hub at Cockpit Arts.
Then a pandemic started and everything came to a stop. The Earth needed to breathe and forced us into a bubble.
Barbara has been working from home, translating, for the past 6 weeks - so we are lucky that her skills are still required full time!
I did one last trip to London on the 28th of March and brought back my sewing machine, some fabric and thread, and started making fabric masks after watching various YouTube videos.
So, while the bag business is on hold (We are still here and will be back) I have made about 50, using first a bandana and a sarong Barbara had in a drawer.
Helping
We are not looking at this as a business idea or profiting in any way. We figure it’s a win, win, win idea. Firstly, it gives Steven a purpose by doing something and out Barbara’s way. Then, Help people stay safe and then, supporting Care4Calais, and the young people who have been through wars, have crossed the Mediterranean Sea, risking their lives again, then walked for weeks, to France, in the hope they would be able to reunite with a family member in the UK.
Did you watch Years and Years on the BBC?* One of the best political fiction series we’ve seen, following a British family in the future, with Emma Thompson as a female version of Trump who becomes PM. And touching all the challenges our society is faced with, except maybe, there is no Covid19, but where two of the main characters find themselves trying to cross the English Channel with tragic outcomes. And, one of them is British…
We felt we wanted to help people who are slipping through the net and not as lucky as we are.
Masks for personal use
The masks are made from 3 layers, two of cotton, double elastic (red) at the back, the middle layer is the non-woven material used in surgical masks and they are washable at 60 degrees.
In less than 4 weeks, we have raised around £350 for Care4Calais, a charity that we have regularly supported.
As of today (18/05/20) we are selling our face masks instead of asking for donations only (but we'll keep supporting people displaced by wars) as we have had to start buying fabric.
* (If you haven't watched it yet, here is the link for Years and Years trailer, series available on BBC iplayer!)
Leave a comment