Before visiting Munnar, I was not aware of the health issues related to tea plantation workers in India. Often foreign media would focus on the working conditions of garment factory workers, yet the problems related to tea plantation workers (primarily female) are largely ignored. Although they are not stuck inside cramped factories [...]

 
The purpose of my trip to India in February was to attend a natural dyeing conference. And it took place before COVID-19 changed our lives. Aranya Natural is a natural dyeing organisation under Srishti Trust in Munnar, supported by TATA Global Beverages Limited, which runs programs for the education training and rehabilitation [...]

 
Please Be Seated is a large-scale installation designed by Paul Cocksedge, and it is made from more than 1,000 scaffolding planks. Cocksedge collaborated with Essex-based high-end interiors company White & White to re-imagine and re-use the building wood. The curvy seating encouraged passerby to sit and relax with their books or lap tops, which [...]

 
Coal Drops Yard
 
This year, the ever-changing Kings Cross was chosen as the design district for the first time at the London design festival. Aside from the annual design trade show, DesignJunction, there were many exhibitions and activities taking place during the festival.
I received a trade preview invitation to visit Designjunction, so [...]

 
Fashioned from Nature exhibition at The V & A museum
 
It is time to face the truth: the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. This is not fake news, it is a fact.
Confession 1: I am guilty of polluting the environment, and I have been doing [...]

 
I have been wanting to visit paper specialist G . F Smith's showroom since it opened in 2016, but somehow never got round to it. The London craft week provided me the opportunity to visit the showroom as well as the new exhibition 'Beyond Paper – The Craft of Material Making' co-organised [...]

 
I have been writing a lot about Hong Kong's heritage lately, and coincidentally when I contacted Kevin Cheung, a local upcycling designer, he invited me to meet him at his home studio, which is also located inside a heritage building: the Grade I listed Blue House in Wan Chai.
The Blue House Cluster [...]

 
Top: Northumbria university's crafted interactive products; Bottom left: Leon lighting by Lewis Power; Bottom right: Kaelin Rose Newton's CitySprout
 
This year's New Designers show Part II was probably the best that I have been to in recent years. Overall the standard was very high, and I think it was more exciting than [...]

 
A delayed entry on the New Designers 2015, the annual design graduation show that took place on 6th-9th July at the Islington Business centre. As usual, it was a fantastic opportunity to spot new talents and meet them in person. Here are just some of the highlights from the Part 2 of [...]

Main and bottom left: The future is here exhibition designed by by Lucienne Roberts+ and drMM; Bottom right: KUKA Robotics' AGILUS robots 
 
Work has kept me quite busy lately, but I finally managed to visit "The future is here: a new industrial revolution" exhibition at the Design Museum on its last day at [...]