Campaign for wool

The time has come for me to start on another section of my gold arts award. To complete this section I must form a view of an issue/something going on in the arts world. I have chosen to focus my attention on the Campaign for Wool. For those of you who don't know, the campaign for wool is a charity organisation which was started by HRH the Prince of Wales. HRH is now the patron of the campaign and has given it his full backing.
For those of you who would like to know more about the campaign go to this address http://www.campaignforwool.org/the-campaign/
I first came across the campaign for wool on the Online Guild for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, this was back in 2010, two years after the campaign was set up. All of the research which helped me form my view of the campaign came from the campaign's website (listed above.)

So as I was saying, I have decided to tell the world of my opinion on the campaign for wool as a whole. In this post I intend to present to you my entire view on the campaign for wool. If any of you have an opinion you would like to share or would just like to send me a comment, please feel free to either comment on my blog or contact me on twitter @meggiesdesign

Campaign for wool

I personally think that the campaign for wool is truly brilliant. HRH the Prince of Wales has picked a brilliant cause to back and with his help the campaign can really move forward. I truly love how they are choosing to advertise their campaign, including the brilliant wool week. The way that the campaign got so many people and brands involved in wool week was inspirational, the sheep parading down Saville Row and Selfridges exhibiting yellow sheep outside their store; brilliant! They have also recently included students from universities across the country in their campaign by commissioning them to come up with a design for a wool sweater, then teamed them up with the country’s leading brands. I think this is, not only a great way to advertise the campaign, but also appeal to the students to give them an opportunity to work with top brands such as John Lewis.

There is of course the obvious aim of this campaign which is to increase the price farmers get for wool. One big battle they still have on their hands is to make all farmers everywhere aware of the correct price for their fleece. Once this is achieved then the wool board will have no choice but to pay this price. I am, of course, fully behind this cause and will back it 100 percent.

However, there is one thing which I see as an issue, potentially a big one in the future. Where do we stop. We do of course want a fair price for farmers but we do have the danger of pricing wool out of the market for average citizens. We must remember that we are in a recession and the last thing we want is to make woollen products unavailable to everyone. As an example, carpet manufacturers are already starting to make their carpets 80 percent wool 20 percent synthetic fibres as apposed to the 100 percent wool they used to be. This is simply to keep their prices the same as before to make the carpets more affordable. No one can blame them for that.

I would just like to stress again that I am fully behind this campaign but I do believe that the campaign needs to stop at a certain point before wool becomes stupid prices. If wool is priced out of the market then manufacturers of woollen products will stop purchasing as much wool, the wool board will stop purchasing as much wool, and then the farmers have no where the sell their wool. Wool is a truly brilliant product, its natural, its eco, its sustainable and it can be used in almost everything. In a time such as this when we are not only in a recession, but global warming is now more prevalent than ever, surely this is the time to be using the most sustainable and eco products possible.

To sum up my views I will say again that the campaign for wool has my full support, and no one can argue that the fact that farmers making a loss on their fleece is wrong. However, my view also poses the threat of going to far and pricing it out of the market. I think the campaign is a wonderful thing and they should all keep working hard and keep aiming to achieve their goal. I just think they should stop before the price becomes ridiculous and wool is no longer available to the wider audience. They aren’t there yet by any stretch, but now is not the time to make other products, especially something like wool, become too expensive for people to afford.

I apologise for such a long post, I hope some of you found it interesting. Thats all for now friends, speak soon.
Meghan