Caramel Rock has joined the Act-1 Programme to deliver after school workshops to young people in the Newham, Canning Town, and Plaistow areas. At this workshop, young people will get a chance to take part, and learn the crucial process from having an idea to creating a final garment. They will have the opportunity to learn design development, how to make a t-shirt, pattern cutting, upcycling, and sewing with the goal of making a final garment.

We ran a 8 week sewing project for 3 years for those aged 18+ in order to develop their skills around sewing in order to develop life skills in creating pillowcases and curtains as well as learning how to alter and take in their own clothing.

We worked with Grange Primary and engaged with the students to do an arts and crafts programme for the period of 8 weeks for their challenging children. It was a great way for the students to channel their energy and express their creativity.

We ran a five-day project at the V&A for the Create Futures Courses. Textiles and fashion are a major part of the V&A´s collections, we use their displays as inspiration for our course while visiting the space.

The SPARK Ilford aims to create and establish an economically vibrant Cultural Quarter, where business and creative enterprise can thrive alongside a diverse cultural and leisure experience. Kick-started through the introduction of Mercato Metropolitano and SPACE Studios, Ilford has already seen the transformation of the Redbridge Town Hall into an exciting hub of arts, opening 35 studios for artists, makers, and creative businesses alongside a public gallery.

We were invited to participate together with other local businesses at the event ” Future You”. Westfield teamed up with local communities and talent to host a series of amazing careers events, creative arts workshops, and wellbeing activities. We delivered two workshops. One run by Chantelle Johns and one by Oana Balan. The first one, consisted in getting familiar with the concepts like: dart, grain, pattern, hipline, waistline. The participants were introduced to the task and familiarized themselves with the patterns, which they consequently traced and cut out.

The second workshop showed them how to thread a sewing machine, and practice their first stitches. In the second part of the task they produced weaving samples by sewing horizontal and vertical straps onto a patch of fabric.

Caramel Rock has been founded by the national lottery to run a three years project running from September 2019 to August 2022. This project has provided creative support for young people and families using the framework of sustainable fashion through two main approaches.

Creative learning and Family & Relationship between sustainable fashion employers and young people.

We have kickstarted a strong movement of sustainable fashion through the next generation of young people who will go onto be engaged with the industry. Through this project, we have challenged the current supply and demand cycles to point young people towards manufacturers and retailers who put sustainability at the heart of their products, as well as providing cutting-edge sustainability training skills for the next generation.

We have run classes for students from Ian Mikardo High School which is a specialist academy pioneering the way in which our society approaches the education of our most vulnerable young people. Engaging younger students and allowing them to develop a new skill set.