Heritage
Bespoke Commissions for Art Exhibitions and Community Projects
We actively collaborate with communities to realise commissions that foster a deeper understanding of place, history, and culture. Our approach involves active engagement and experimentation with heritage dyes and craft techniques.
The heritage crafts and processes we undertake underscore the significance of collaboration and community engagement, especially in hand-processing raw materials and employing traditional dyeing methods on a large scale. This is why we see these community-driven projects as integral to the essence of GEM Eco Studio.
Debarking and shredding Alder Tree bark
Situated in Birmingham, the heartland of the Industrial Revolution, we envision a new era—a Green Industrial Revolution—where sustainability takes centre stage. An eco arts and crafts movement, resurrecting handmade art materials and heritage processes to address our modern-day environmental issues.
Infused with a sense of reverence for our heritage and inspired by heritage design and craft, we strive to channel its influence to sculpt a future that is both mindful and harmonious with nature.
To us, heritage also speaks of ancient plant wisdom, which goes hand in hand with crafting using nature and plants. It represents our cultural roots that reach across the earth, the crafts deeply woven into the fabric of a place, our knowledge and skills passed down through communities and families, converging in a shared sense of belonging and place.
The Birmingham Allotment Project
by General Public at The Library of Birmingham, 2023Find out more about our dyeing for the ‘Wotta Lotta Culture’ exhibition
︎*COMING SOON* Blog Post - September’s Blue Moon and Celtic Woad
