Maker in Focus: Lynda Shell

Lynda Shell's ‘No Waste’ collection has come about by using all the silkscreen printed off-cuts she has kept for many years from previous bag collections;

"I have never been able to throw away even the smallest of scraps believing that they would be useful one day. In a world where sustainability and caring for the environment is at the forefront of our minds the idea of making something new and exciting out of what may otherwise be thrown away has been my driving challenge."

The inspiration for her final designs for her new bags has come from a love of making quilts. Lynda has had a long-standing admiration of the quilts produced by the small rural African American community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, who become well known for their remarkable abstract quilts made from work clothes remnants and scraps.

With their distinctive bold improvisational aesthetic in mind, each piece has been uniquely crafted using a carefully considered combination of patterns and colours but at the same time disregarding conventional quilt geometrics and allowing the material to influence the creative process.