Textiles Technology Project - Coleg Sir Gar

the textiles technologies project
aim is to collaboratively transfer knowledge between academia and business across a broad range of companies involved in almost any kind of textile use in wales

HRH Prince of Wales and the TTP
On the 1st March 2011, two members of the Textiles Technologies Project team, Suzi Park and Hannah Wright, were invited by the chairman of the Cambrian Mountains Company Ltd, to meet HRH Prince Charles at a reception lunch in the King’s Head, Llandovery. HRH the Prince of Wales is the President and the inspiration behind the Cambrian Mountains Initiative, which aims to ensure a sustainable future for the heartland of rural Wales through increasing income from local produce, tourism, and ecosystem services, underpinned by a strong common brand.

The reason for our invitation was due to the research we have been carrying out within the TTP Wool Project. The Cambrian organisation has been working with local farmers and producers to develop a range of premium branded products. The organisation is now interested in producing a product from the wool they produce and have attended both wool seminars that the TTP team have recently held. The Textiles Technologies Project is currently in discussions as to how we can help develop a product with the technologies and expertise we have available within our project.



Last year we attended the Llandovery Sheep Festival
which was held on the 25th – 26th September 2010. The Textiles Technologies Project exhibited at the event as part of the wool project they are carrying out at present that coincides with HRH Prince Charles’ “Campaign for Wool”.

Besides raising awareness of Coleg Sir Gar and the Textile Technologies project, the main aim of attending the event was to carry out a feasibility study with the general public and other exhibitors and local farmers, in order establish a diverse range of opinions concerning the British Wool Industry and how they feel it could be improved. The event provided an unusual opportunity to speak directly with both farmers at the start of the supply chain, through to the general public as end users. The exhibitors at the event also gave an insight into some of the problems facing the wool industry today.

The information was gathered in the form of questions and the participants were encouraged to provide their views anonymously via post-it notes or if they preferred, via video. It is intended to correlate all of the information in order to provide feedback to the industry. This information will be disseminated at a seminar in the next quarter of the project. A number of companies who have already signed up to the TTP project exhibited their products (made from wool) at the event and supported the TTP project by attending at the weekend and also speaking on video about their concerns and views on wool and Welsh wool in particular.

With the amount of wool being produced in Wales declining each year we at the Textiles Technologies Project felt something needed to be done to help the Welsh wool Industry.

The DVD "Why Wool" was produced after the 2010 Festival