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Claire O’Sullivan and Kitty Wilson Brown are two inspiring people who are passionate about the properties and potential of hemp, especially for textiles. Their journey together led them to found a UK business, Contemporary Hempery. Hemp has amazing potential, for a wide range of products, and it’s brilliant for regenerative farming practices – so why aren’t we doing more with it? It’s useful as a textile, in construction, in food and personal care products, and as an alternative to plastic. It’s one of the earliest cultivated plants in our history – but although cultivation is increasing and being encouraged by the European Union, elsewhere it’s a different picture.
Kitty and Claire outline some of the uses of hemp across different sectors, about the little-known history of hemp growing in the UK, and some of the ways it was used – many of them absolutely essential to our industrial evolution. We’ll also hear about some of the current issues, in terms of hemp production and processing.
Kitty and Claire also share the story of how they came together, the amazing coincidences that sparked their interest and what drove them to start Contemporary Hempery, to embark on this long and complex journey to rescue hemp for regenerative, contemporary textiles.
Podcast host Catherine Weetman helps businesses use circular, regenerative and fair solutions to do better, with less.
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Read on for more on our guest and links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention.
Links we mention in the episode:
Links for our guest:
- Kitty Wilson Brown on LinkedIn
- Claire O’Sullivan https://www.linkedin.com/in/contemporaryhempery/
- Website contemporaryhempery.com
- @contemporaryhempery on Instagram (We like instagram best for communications)
- Contemporary Hempery on LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/contemporaryhempery
Businesses using hemp:
- hempen.org– fantastic not for profit who consult on hemp growing and produce the best organic complete cold pressed CBD
- wakelyns.co.uk– longest established organic agroforestry site in Europe, where Contemporary Hempery is growing hemp
- margentfarm.com– farm in Cambridgeshire, house built of hemp now producing hemp architectural products
- Harrison Spinks beds, they are doing fantastic work with hemp https://www.harrisonspinks.co.uk/
- Hempwood organic flooring hempwood.com
- Bespoke sunglasses and optical eyewear handmade in UK hempeyewear.com
- Largest hemp farm in the UK currently: East Yorkshire Hemp, specialist hemp growers since 2002 eastyorkshirehemp.co.uk
- Alliance for hemp and flax growers, showing just how much other countries in Europe are growing, and getting away from us due to restrictive UK government policies allianceflaxlinenhemp.eu
- Hemp clothing in the UK, from www.baukjen.com and www.babbleandhemp.com
Books, people and organisations we mentioned
- European Commission – lots of great information on uses of hemp https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/farming/crop-productions-and-plant-based-products/hemp_en
- A T M Faiz Ahmed, Md Zahidul Islam, Md Sultan Mahmud, Md Emdad Sarker, Md Reajul Islam, Hemp as a potential raw material toward a sustainable world: A review, Heliyon, Volume 8, Issue 1, 2022, e08753, ISSN 2405-8440, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08753 or https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240584402200041X
Guest bios
Claire O’Sullivan, co-founder of Contemporary Hempery is a studio jeweller with an MA in Entrepreneurship for Creative Practice. Her interest is in the place where art and commerce meet, and in processes which take raw material to product. Claire’s involvement in hemp sprung from a sense of place, living in the centre of what was once the centre of a thriving and economically important hemp growing and processing industry.
Kitty Wilson Brown, co-founder of Contemporary Hempery is a textile artist and weaver. Kitty graduated BA at Chelsea College of Art, UAL in June 2021. She studied weaving in Tokyo and completed an internship at the Liverpool Weaving Company. Her work is focused on sustainability. Kitty grows flax, hemp and natural dye plants for her work and is co-founder of Contemporary Hempery.
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Podcast music
Thanks to Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow, otherwise known as the brilliant, inventive and generous folk duo, O’Hooley & Tidow for allowing me to use the instrumentals from the live version of Summat’s Brewin’ as music for the podcast. You can find the whole track (inspired by the Copper Family song “Oh Good Ale”) on their album, also called Summat’s Brewin’. Or, follow them on Twitter.
