Last updated 12:28, Saturday, 22 March 2008

THE LAKE District and the Solway are the inspiration for Dianne Standen’s unique, ethical textiles.

Dianne, 56, of High Street, Maryport, started working with textiles more than 30 years ago as a hobby but didn’t take it up full-time until she moved to Cumbria 10 years ago and set up Creative Textiles.

Her expertise lies in working with recycled materials to design and create bags, slippers, jewellery, scarves and wall hangings.

She uses wool, fabric and glass from charity shops to form new materials for her products.

“I reached the point where I wanted to work with textiles full-time,” says Dianne.

“My children had grown up and moved away so this gave me a chance to move where I wanted.

“I chose to live in West Cumbria because it is close to the Lake District and Solway coast, which inspire my work.”

Dianne’s interest in environmental issues is reflected in her work.

“I use anything I can get my hands on,” she says. “The challenge is finding ways to work with the materials.

“I will take traditional techniques such as rug making and incorporate felt and recycled yarns, which gives my work a lot of texture.”

Dianne makes felt – a non-woven sheet of matted wool – and turns it into a range of items.

She likes making practical felt bags and slippers but also makes wall hangings, using dyes to create vibrant colours.

Her felt bags are made from 75 per cent recycled material and fabrics, and she washes and prepares them before hand-felting them to create a new fabric which is cut and hand sewn into a bag.

A hand-sewn felt bag can take up to five hours to make, using felt, wool and recycled materials.

Dianne makes reversible bags and each item is unique because of the mixture of materials.

She recently worked with furniture maker Eric Nicholson and has been upholstering an ash chair, following a beach and water theme, making pebbles out of felt and wadding before sewing them on to a hessian backing and tacking on materials and yarns.

Last July, Dianne decided to join friend Gloria Bridle at the Banyan Tree in Cockermouth and her products are on sale there.

Gloria, who also owns The Linden Tree in Cockermouth, sells Fairtrade goods and they share the shop.

Dianne is happy to continue building up her regional profile and runs felt-making courses in the autumn.

She previously worked as a teacher and with people with learning disabilities, living in York and New Zealand.

“You learn things by experimentation,” she says. “There are so many possibilities with felt making.”

It was after her return from New Zealand in the 1980s that Dianne started to think about how the way we live affects the environment, and she is now an environmental campaigner.

She says: “When you go away and then come home it can make you see things in a different light.

“I started to see the impact we were having on the environment. The contrasts between New Zealand and Britain were really noticeable.”

She stopped using a car, relying on public transport, and she now campaigns on transport issues, working with Friends of the Earth and Local Agenda 21.

She says: “We need to start looking into alternatives to car use and getting people to adjust their lifestyles.

“If more people start to use public transport, services will improve but the key is changing habits first.”

Dianne also campaigns against the use of fluoride in water.