Thread & Butter Collective CIC

Meet Alex Darke.

Alex is a multidisciplinary creative designer with more than twenty years’ industry experience working with some of the most successful design agencies, creative professionals and global brands. From conception to completion, he has built a proven track record of delivering effective design solutions and compelling brand identities for a wide variety of international clients.

After ten years working within studios across Manchester and Yorkshire, Alex established his own freelance practice and now works on a project-by-project basis, collaborating with agencies and creatives both in-house and remotely from his own studio. His work has taken him from B2B corporate events in Dallas to branding entire football stadiums for the UEFA Champions League Final, and then back home to helping small independent craft beer start-ups establish their own distinctive identities.

Alongside his commercial design work, Alex is an exhibiting collage artist whose practice is influenced by Surrealism and Pop Art. Combining vintage ephemera with landscapes, personalities, flora and fauna, he creates dreamlike and imaginative scenes using found materials gathered from antique books, retro magazines, packaging, slides, photographs and postcards. His collage work has been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally and has been featured in Creative Review.

As a trustee, Alex contributes to the visual identity and presentation of Thread & Butter Collective, helping communicate the vision of the Weaving Shed project through strong design, creativity and visual storytelling.

Outside the world of design, he enjoys listening to obscure funk and soul records, conjuring up Lebanese feasts in the kitchen and venturing into the wild on long-distance fell runs.

Meet Rachel Wood.

Rachel Wood is a surface pattern designer, maker and visual artist based at Woodend Mill.

With more than twenty years’ experience in textile design, Rachel’s practice bridges commercial design and independent creative work. Influenced by African wax print textiles, global visual traditions and the industrial heritage of the North West, she creates vibrant, layered surface patterns defined by confident colour, rhythm and graphic form.

Rachel explores how pattern can tell stories, connect communities and transform everyday experiences into something joyful and meaningful. Whether gathering inspiration, designing surface patterns or working collaboratively within communities, her practice is rooted in the belief that creativity should be shared.

Alongside her studio practice, Rachel delivers creative workshops using textiles and surface pattern as tools for wellbeing and connection. She also teaches art within a local primary school, encouraging creativity and self-expression from an early age.

Across all areas of her work, Rachel is interested in creativity as a shared experience that connects people, place and story. Through bold colour, playful composition and the universal language of pattern, she creates work that brings people together and reflects the stories that shape us.

Meet Les.

Les Owens is a co-founder of Luna Crafts Group and a practising artist based at Woodend Mill.

Les helped establish Luna Crafts Group more than ten years ago with a simple aim: to create a space where people from the local community, including those with additional needs, could come together, take part and feel included. Having seen how easy it can be for people to feel left out, he believed creativity could help change that.

For Les, crafting is about far more than making things. It is about bringing people together in a friendly and welcoming environment where everyone has something to contribute and everyone belongs. Through Luna Crafts Group, he has helped create opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to learn new skills, build confidence and enjoy the benefits of creativity and friendship.

As both an artist and community volunteer, Les is passionate about encouraging people to try new things. His approach is simple: experiment, don’t be afraid of mistakes and learn as you go. He believes confidence grows when people are given the freedom to explore, create and discover what they are capable of.

More than a decade on, Les remains committed to the belief that creativity opens doors and helps people feel valued. As a trustee, he is passionate about ensuring the restored Weaving Shed remains a welcoming and accessible place where creativity, community and opportunity can flourish for future generations.

Meet Annie.

Annie Keki is a trustee and founding member of Thread & Butter Collective CIC, working as a creative practitioner
and community organiser. Her professional background spans creative practice, business management, therapeutic work and project development.

Annie helped establish the collective from a belief that historic spaces should remain active, accessible and rooted within the communities they serve.

Before moving fully into creative and community-led work, Annie worked within the insurance industry at Lloyds as an underwriter and risk assessor. This analytical background continues to inform her strategic approach to project development and organisational planning. Her practical management helps translate complex ideas, people and requirements into clear, deliverable plans that can be effectively communicated, delegated and overseen within collaborative projects. Under her leadership, the organisation has brought together artists, makers, educators, local residents and volunteers to begin the restoration and reimagining of the historic Weaving Shed at Woodend Mill.

Alongside her work in couture and jewellery, Annie is also a clinical hypnotherapist with more than 25 years’
experience working one-to-one with individuals seeking meaningful change and personal growth. Her approach
is centred around self-empowerment, confidence and helping people recognise their own potential and
capability.

With a strong understanding of budgeting, sustainability and organisational planning, Annie believes that creative
and heritage projects must balance vision with financial realism. Having faced challenges within education early
in life, she values resilience, adaptability and the importance of approaching challenges from different
perspectives.

Her work focuses on preserving industrial heritage, supporting participation in the arts and developing
sustainable creative spaces that connect traditional skills, wellbeing and contemporary creative practice. As a
trustee, Annie continues to help lead the organisation’s long-term vision, partnerships and development of the
Weaving Shed project.

⭐️Win a Full Day Tattoo Session — Supporting the Restoration of the Weaving Shed at Woodend Mill

We’re hosting a special raffle to help raise funds for the restoration of the historic weaving shed at Woodend Mill through Thread & Butter Collective CIC.

The prize is a full day tattoo session with Bogdan Voda at Tattoo Hub Studio, based inside the mill itself — a chance to create a custom piece while supporting a project that means a lot to the local creative community.

Tickets are £10 each, with all proceeds going directly towards the restoration project.

We’re limiting the raffle to 150 tickets only.

Woodend Mill has become home to artists, makers and independent businesses over the years, and this project is about helping protect and restore an important part of its history for future generations.

Thank you to everyone supporting the project — every ticket genuinely makes a difference.

Prize:
• Full day tattoo session with Bogdan Voda at Tattoo Hub Studio

Ticket Price:
• £10 per entry

Limited to 150 entries.

Enter for a chance to win a custom tattoo session with Bogdan at Tattoo Hub Studio
Your entry helps THREAD & BUTTER COLLECTIVE CIC restore the historic Weaving Shed, turning an old mill space into a working home for local makers, shared skills, and new opportunities.

Every ticket supports:
Bringing an empty industrial space back into daily community use
Creating creative studios and a community kitchen
Linking local heritage with fair work for artists and young entrepreneurs

Meet Saruul.

Born in Mongolia, Saruul is the co-founder of Tattoo Hub Studio and one of the people helping shape the studio into what it is today.

With a background in wood and resin craftsmanship, she spent years creating handmade pieces from the mill before stepping fully into the world of Tattoo Hub Studio. Her eye for detail, calm approach and natural creativity have become a big part of the experience clients feel when they walk through the door.

Alongside helping run the day-to-day side of the studio, Saruul is also part of Thread & Butter Collective CIC, supporting the restoration and preservation of the historic weaving shed and helping contribute towards a creative space for future generations and the local community.

Meet Bogdan Voda.

Bogdan is the founder of Tattoo Hub Studio .studio, a tattoo studio based at Woodend Mill. Originally from Transylvania, Romania, Bogdan moved to the UK in 2008 to pursue a career in nursing, later finding his path within the tattoo industry.

Over the past 15 years, he has become known for his attention to detail, creativity and calm approach with clients.

Working from his studio within the mill, Bogdan sees tattooing as more than just the final piece — focusing on storytelling, craftsmanship and creating meaningful artwork that lasts. His work has brought clients from across the UK and beyond to Mossley, helping Tattoo Hub Studio become part of the growing creative community within Woodend Mill.

As part of Thread & Butter Collective CIC, Bogdan is passionate about supporting the restoration of the Weaving Shed and helping protect a place that has become an important part of both his life and creative journey.

Meet Suzanne Drake.

Suzanne is an independent brand and graphic designer working with organisations, teams and individuals to bring clarity, personality and cohesion to whatever they’re creating - from early ideas right through to real-world rollout.

Based at Woodend Mill, she feels genuinely lucky to be surrounded by such a brilliant mix of creatives. Alongside an inordinate collection of plants, commemorative mugs and cushions, the studio is where her day-to-day design work and lino printmaking sit together in a home-from-home kind of way.

As part of the Thread & Butter Collective, Suzanne helps shape the voice, identity and storytelling - supporting the restoration through thoughtful design, visualising ideas and by working closely with the people around it.

Meet Louise Stocks-Young.

Louise’s industry experience spans fashion PR, brand communications and heading up a creative team. Part of the founding team of the Fashion & Textile Museum in London Louise has worked for multi-channel brands, developing their PR and Comms and has 360 knowledge of starting a fashion business from concept, to design, sampling, manufacture and marketing.

Founded a small business called The Smockworks which she ran for 4 years alongside other projects, with a studio at Woodend Mill. The Smockworks was a slow fashion brand, working with UK and Japanese denim, with an ethos to combine traditional skills with made to order garments and to develop and nurture a more responsible approach to fashion and improved fairness within the areas it can affect.

Louise has 15 years combined experience working as a Senior Lecturer in the Fashion Marketing, Branding & Communication subject area.