Paintworks, Bath Road, Bristol BS4 3EH

12-13 July 2022

My Blodeuwedd chair was exhibited by Bristol Upholstery Collective (BUC) as part of a festival of sustainable upholstery.

Like Second Sitters, BUC is leading the way when it comes to chairs as art pieces and demanding sustainable materials for upholstery.

Upholsterer Delyth Fetherstone-Dilke gave a wonderfully impassioned talk about sustainability and where the industry is going wrong – much of it surrounding current fire regulations. As upholsterers we are required to comply with these regulations for any furniture made post-1950 but the chemicals involved are deleterious to both health and the environment. There are better ways to do things but we need a change in the current fire regulations to deal with it all. Not only are the chemicals bad very for upholsterers but they also continue to ‘offgas’ in our homes.

For further details, read her brilliant article for the Clean Air Programme.

You can sign the Open Letter on fire retardant chemicals in furniture here.

Thanks to Leigh-Anne Treadwell of the Bristol Upholstery Collective for her invitation to participate in this event.