hannah's blog

There are many many people struggling in Zimbabwe at the moment. Take Martin for example, a chap Jonny met the other day. He is 70 and lives with his wife (who is 60 but invalided from a bus accident) and 8 grandchildren whom he supports. His son died and his daughter is in South Africa, and has been for a year, getting medical treatment for a condition she has. They have about 20 acres of land 30 miles outside Harare (this is not uncommon, the government gave land to people before all the contraversial land grabbing started).

The skins at the butchery were covered in flies and still wet and draped over a tree stump. They did have some old ones which had been dried properly but they were old and brittle, I don't think they would be able to be used for anything apparel wise. So I need to find out how to tan hides naturally, and in a way that is inexpensive and leaves them relatively supple. Then I think we would be able to work with them. Any ideas? Would be great to save these from burial...

Today we are going out to a butchery where cattle become steak. Each cow produces a hide. Up until the international economy wobble about a year ago they were exporting the hides to Italy to be made, I presume, into bags and shoes. Now, it is more cost effective for them to bury them than it is to salt them and try to sell them. There’s a possibility I might be able to buy the hides (which would otherwise be landfill) from them and then find someone who is able to make belts and shoes. Maybe. We’ll see. Whether there is enough of a market here too is another question, but we’ll see.

han: Internet has been very very rare here hence not updating in the last weeks - sorry! but here is a quick one while i have the connection...we are currently doing a permaculture design course (as opposed to a clothing design course) and it really does have implications for business: seeing what is happening naturally, where the flow is and going with it. looking at signs of growth and utilising them. turning excess back into the system and recycling everything. good good. will be writing more details after the weekend, for now I am immersed in permaculture 12 hours a day.....

lucy:
I woke up after midday, and now am at the evening end of a dreamy day. I seemed to be industrious today but my mind was somewhere else among retro furniture and psychedelic wallpaper. Being in limbo does stretch my mind further and further into thoughts and ideas and dreams and desires that normally would be left as as ornaments in a metaphorical shop window.

lucy: isn't it amazing that every moment of our existence is the result of what we have been, and that it's possible to pick out the positive and make them make more positives......how marvellous that is.
perhaps the true goal is perfect freedom, i think this begins by being physically free

Han: I mentioned in a previous post that I was about to go away to southern Africa for a few months to look into the possibility of working with some tailors to progress the clothing collections. We have now been here, Jonny and I, for 10 days, but this is the first chance I have had to sit and write a little. I am sitting in grassy shade which slopes down to the shiny turquoise Indian Ocean, there are dhows far in the distance and apart from the birds and the lady who has just dropped off fresh bread, I am alone. It is perfect.

lucy: well the summer has been extraudinnairre, beautiful, sunny and busy. due to slight neglect and frantic creativity as well as a couple of incidences of flooding my studio has been feeling rather hard done by, so i have been spending the last few days revamping and beautifying. i have filled up every space on the walls with pictures, mainly pages from a book of imogen beedham's photos which are close up exquisite shots of flowers, mainly in black and white giving the an ethereal and enigmatic quality.

Han and Lu: did you know that every third mouthful of food you eat is reliant on bees to pollinate it?

Han: Its is simply wonderful for the soul to be out of the city and in the coutryside. Fed fed fed is what I feel. And there are many slightly out of the ordinary things that make me love coming back to see the family. Currently an extremely high and rather swaying treehouse more than three stories high. Which we will be spending our last night here in (if the walls are up in time).