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Nottingham Designers an international success

Jeanne and Debbie were invited to exhibit by the organiser and custodian of the centre Christine Lang as 'international honour guests'

Jeanne was invited as a result of her successful appearance at the Maison&Objet trade fair in Paris in January 2010. Debbie was invited by recommendation.

The aim of the festival, which incorporates the 8th World Merino Conference, is to promote wool innovation by creating links between producers and consumers and develop exciting exchanges between European textile designers. A programme of seminars and workshops were held to support and promote professionals and enterprises that use wool in a variety of ways including housing, insulation, interior décor and fashion to show that wool has a sustainable, commercial future.

Jeanne and Debbie's work was very well received and the delegates and public were impressed to see the quality of wool based textile being produced by Nottingham designers. They all knew about the textile history of the city, which once was the home of a royal textile manufacturing guild and set the pricing standards for wool nationally, and were pleased to hear that designer/makers in Nottingham were continuing to carry the torch for sustainable textiles in the city.

As a result of their visit these two innovative designers have achieved exposure and sales to a wide international market. Jeanne has a felted textile canvas on loan to Le Bergerie and has been invited to develop her textile range for the fashion industry. Debbie is producing a regional collection using locally sourced wools.

Jeanne and Debbie are both keen to return to the festival next year and watch this space for their exciting new collections being produced as a direct result of their involvement in the Festival des Arts de la Laine.

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