The essential journalist news source
Back
1.
February
2017.
PR: Detta Textiles celebrates shortlisting in Heritage Craft Association awards

PRESS RELEASE

1 February 2017

Detta Textiles celebrates shortlisting in national Heritage Crafts Association Awards

Detta Textiles is celebrating its second national awards shortlisting after being confirmed as a finalist in the Heritage Crafts Association's Marsh Heritage Crafts 'Made in Britain' Award.

It follows on from Detta's recent shortlisting in the Giftware Association's prestigious Gift of the Year awards for 2017.

Company founder and textile designer Berni Raeside-Bell said: "I've been absolutely blown away by the reception I've received for the Detta range.

"I'm especially proud to have been shortlisted for this award in the year when Kaffe Fassett will be the keynote speaker at the Heritage Crafts Association's conference where the awards will be presented. He's internationally renowned in textiles and knitting and a real inspiration for me.

"My focus has always been on not just supporting the tradition of heritage knit, but making it relevant and attractive to today's shoppers.

"By using a vintage knitting machine to create my work I can guarantee the same high quality across all my products and traditional but luxurious designs that fit in with today's lifestyles.

"For example, the unique Detta shorties and wristies were designed to be worn in ways that are smart enough for work while still offering the comfort and warmth of traditional scarves and gloves."

The Heritage Crafts Awards celebrate and highlight the traditional living crafts made in the UK that contribute to our national heritage, where there is a significant degree of hand skill at the point of manufacture.

Berni recently launched new Detta products and colourways for both SS17 and AW17 at CRAFT at the Top Drawer show, including:

  • Fairisle ‘Shorties' - following on from a very successful launch of the original one-colour lambswool and boucle ‘shortie', this is a new range of Fairisle shorties, with an all-over two-colour fairisle knitted design. Developed and designed by Berni, the Detta ‘Shortie' is a new and innovative way of wearing a short scarf, smart enough to wear for work on chilly days without compromising your style.

  • ‘Wristies' - fingerless mittens made to match Detta's scarves, shorties and snoods.

The knitwear range also includes scarves, snoods and wraps, all handmade on vintage framework knitting machines at Detta's studio in South Derbyshire and Berni uses British-spun lambswool sourced from local mills.

Find out more atwww.dettatextiles.com.

 

The winners of the Heritage Craft Awards will be announced at the
HCA's annual conference on Saturday 6th May.

The winners of the Gift Association Awards will be announced on 5 February 2017 during Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham.

 

Ends. 410 words.

 

Notes to editors

Photo caption:The Detta brand represents the best in Heritage Craft Knitwear, inspired by our rich island heritage(A further selection of high res photos is available on request)

 

About Detta

Our studio is based in Kegworth Village (on the Leicestershire/ Nottinghamshire/ Derbyshire border), which has a deep rooted history in framework knitting, with many families in the village up to the 1960's involved in a thriving cottage industry, knitting stockings and socks in their homes on framework machines for the larger factory. With the development of technology, this Kegworth industry died out and so Detta Textiles is very proud to be now knitting once again on framework machines in the heart of the village. 

Berni's designs were selected by the Design & Craft Council of Ireland for the Global Irish Design Competition exhibition at Dublin castle in 2016 and will be installed at the National Centre for Craft and Design in Kilkenny in February 2017. Berni will also be giving a talk at the centre this year on sustainability in textile design and manufacture later this Spring as part of the Craft council of Ireland's Spring schedule.

 

Berni only uses 100% British spun lambs' wool and uses craft yarns interspersed in certain designs, sourced locally in the UK.

Each knitted item is carefully handmade, washed, felted if required and hand finished in the studio. Each item is then packaged carefully and our lambs' wool felted wraps come boxed so that they can be looked after and handed down as an heirloom, just like the Aran sweaters that inspired them.

Our studio is open every Friday and Saturday mornings to the public.

Inspiration

Detta's colours are mostly inspired by the windswept and craggy coastlines of Ireland, Scotland and the British Isles as well as the flora and fauna that inhabit that landscape. Berni's upbringing in Dublin, a bustling metropolitan capital, can also be seen in the patterns she creates, reflecting the historical as well as modern architecture we see in cities today.

 

Contact:

Berni Raeside-Bell, 07970 509758,berni@detta.co.uk,www.dettatextiles.com