Thrash it out | From bummer to brilliance

Our second event is...

From Bummer to Brilliance

with Bernadette Casey and Jeremy Dumble - 4 May

It's all about dealing with a 'No'. We get them all the time and how we react can make them into brilliant opportunities. Hear from Bernadette Casey about making coffee sacks into 'silk purses' and Jeremy Dumble from the Blondini Boys who self-funded their first feature film.

Come for a drink and some nibbles - buy your tickets here

ART Generator Network | meet, network, know, grow & enjoy!

ABOUT our guests

Bernadette Casey | The Formary

Bernadette Casey is a textile designer and has worked in the design and textile industries for over 20 years, from fashion houses to importing interior textiles for a large distributor, launching her own range of home-wares and a fabric design company, and designing a range of products from wallpaper, to gift bags for Hollywood A-listers.

She has written widely about textiles including an article on sustainable textiles for Melting Point, a book on global warming by Dr Eric Dorfman (Penguin, 2008). “The research for this book caused us to re-evaluate how we were working, and we decided to do it another way by focusing on workable solutions for the vast amounts of industrial waste generated each year.”

“WoJo”, a revolutionary new fabric made from sustainable New Zealand wool woven with jute fibers from Starbucks recycled coffee sacks, has been recognised with awards at UK Wool Week (11-17 October).

Conceived for Starbucks by New Zealand design company The Formary, the hard-wearing, elegant fabric will be used in a range of Starbucks seating, reflecting its commitment to ethical sourcing and environmental stewardship. This five year programme will see WoJo initially being introduced to some Starbucks coffeehouses in the UK and to other stores in the EMEA region over time, with the aspiration of the textile being used in all Starbucks markets.

Jeremy Dumble | Blondini Films

Once upon a time, when film schools were rarer and feature films dearer, there were two friends who set out to make a career in film. Trumping the unconventional, they called themselves 'Blondini' and soon proved to possess a touch of Houdini in bringing laughs (and cash) from their short flicks.

Still young, the Blondini boys have moved into feature films. Without funding they have launched themselves into the world of micro-budget film-making. Now that the limitations of expensive equipment have been removed thanks to the advent of the DSLR culture, feature length films can be shot for next to nothing; ring up a few star actors on holiday, rope in your friends to be extras, pull on the heart-strings of your freelance crew mates (Ande Schurr was the sound recordist), toss in a few petrol vouchers, add lunch, shoot, edit and upload to the web... Cha-Ching! Well, they hope so...