This article was written by Valley Fiber Life contributor, Elaine Lipson. 

If you’re familiar with the Slow Food movement, then perhaps you can relate to the practice of Slow Cloth. It’s not a project or a technique; it’s a way of working with textiles in any form that begins with recognizing the value and beauty in making things with integrity and skill. 

A few years ago, having been working for many years in the organic foods world, I’d watched with interest as Carlo Petrini’s remarkable Slow Food movement grew into an international community. Why couldn’t its principles of preserving regional and local traditions, celebrating pleasure and quality, building community, and honoring right use of resources also be applied to textiles? People like Carl Honoré (slowplanet.com) were extending the Slow philosophy in many areas; couldn’t textile artists, artisans, designers and entrepreneurs do the same? 

At the same time, I saw that the do-it-yourself, Craft 2.0 trend had gone a little wild, with more and more people “crafting” but with little attention to quality and skill, and plenty of craft industry mushrooming. Developing the idea of Slow Cloth, for me, was an alternative to this state of mind, and a way to reclaim personal meaning and validity in craft. 

I started writing about my vision of Slow Cloth in late 2007, and was lucky to find a few like-minded creative souls to follow along. Now, in 2010, a Slow Cloth movement is taking hold. Around the world, there are other people simultaneously developing their own concepts and communities of Slow Textiles, Slow Fashion, and Slow Craft. The common thread is a worldview that includes technology but is not limited to it; that opts for creativity over efficiency; and that considers time and how we can approach things with a healthy and human pace. 

So what, exactly, is Slow Cloth? In early 2008, I identified ten principles or qualities of Slow Cloth that form a framework for this idea. 

1. Slow Cloth means recognizing the possibility of joy in the process. In other words, it's the journey, not the destination. If efficiency and sameness are the primary goals, it's not Slow Cloth.
2. Slow Cloth offers a way to be contemplative. There are moments of peace that come from the process of making something yourself, whether by hand or machine.
3. Slow Cloth honors skill and has the possibility of mastery. So many people today are engaging in craft in a superficial way. The Slow Cloth way seeks an ever-expanding level of fluency and grace in the techniques you work with.
4. The Slow Cloth approach acknowledges the rich diversity and multicultural history of textiles. Textiles are an expression of culture and we live in a fantastically big and small world. Slow Cloth celebrates that diversity.
5. Similarly, the Slow Cloth approach honors its teachers and lineage. There are many generations before us who used their inventiveness and creativity to expand possibilities in the world of cloth. Thank them, and pay it forward.
6. Slow Cloth encourages thoughtful, respectful, and sustainable use of materials and resources. Ever been to a great organic dinner where the host went through every dish and named the farmers? Similarly, take a moment to remember that it takes a lot of people to make your fabric or yarn or dye. For me, Slow Cloth doesn’t have to be only natural materials -- some of my favorite artists, like Mary Ruth Smith, work with some synthetics -- but be mindful of your footprint and choose well and appropriately. Make what you do sustainable in the sense that it gives more than it takes, and allows future generations the same gifts and opportunities to create that we have today.
7. The Slow Cloth approach celebrates quality. We want to make things that last and are well-made.
8. The Slow Cloth approach appreciates and celebrates beauty. I think that we all have a need for beauty that has driven the urge to make and decorate textiles for tens of thousands of years.
9. Slow Cloth supports community. This includes sharing knowledge, preserving knowledge about traditional techniques, and teaching others, and embraces fair trade principles for people working with textiles.
10. Finally, the Slow Cloth approach embraces the idea that textiles are expressive of individuals or cultures. Decorative arts have not always had an individual signature, and that’s still often true today, but the human creative force is reflected and evident in the work.

To reiterate, Slow Cloth is not a project or a technique; it’s a relationship to your work and life with textiles and fiber. Slow Cloth is not literal; it’s not about “things that take a long time to make, “ to name a common misconception; it’s about things that are appropriately made, whether by hand or machine. And while Slow Cloth celebrates hand-stitching as a vital creative and functional act, it isn’t limited to hand-stitching; just as Slow Food chefs use ovens, so the practice of Slow Cloth might mean sewing machines and other tools. 

If you like, please join the Slow Cloth discussion and community group on Facebook  that I’ve started (www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=269539431110), and keep an eye open for future Slow Cloth developments. Let me know if you’d like to be on my mailing list. And please visit my blog (lainie.typepad.com) for more posts on textile art, craft, culture, and Slow Cloth! 

This article is adapted from work originally published on Elaine Lipson’s blog (lainie.typepad.com) and an article published in  HandEye magazine online (handeyemagazine.com). Elaine Lipson is a writer, editor, and artist, and the author of The Organic Foods Sourcebook (Contemporary Books, 2001), The International Market for Green and Sustainable Apparel (Packaged Facts, 2008. She is currently a book editor at Interweave. Contact her at elainelipson@gmail.com.

Copyright Elaine Lipson 2010. All rights reserved.

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