This is a story of following your dreams regardless of where they take you, of finding the connection and cultures that envelop the world. That are woven into every country’s fabrics and tales. This is my story. At school I was bullied, I spent miserable years being the uncool kid at the back of the class. I wear glasses, have fussy curly hair and was dressed in hand me down clothes, acceptance from my peers was unlikely! I would spend my days wandering around alone disappearing inside the stories of my imagination, dreaming of the far-flung places I would go when school was but a distant memory. A few days after leaving school I was on a plane...
Demi Taylor is a writer, Director at Approaching Lines and Co-founder of the London Surf / Film Festival. She lives in Cornwall with her partner Chris Nelson. What was the journey that lead you to start the London Surf / Film Festival? Chris and I met on a press trip – he was a magazine editor and I was managing the PR for the world’s largest surf brand – and the rest is history! We fell in love, packed in our desk jobs, packed up our Winnebago and headed off on a year-long road trip documenting the Atlantic coastline of Europe. We came home, scored a publishing deal, wrote our first book and we’ve been writing partners ever since....
Oh boy did we LOVE our time in Morocco, fabric sourcing, mint tea drinking, surfing and getting lost amongst the medinas and souks. I literally cannot wait to return with a van to fill to the brim with ceramics, rugs and puppies, but more of that later.
Essaouira is a port city on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, it has a laid-back friendly vibe, almost impossible to visit and not feel enchanted by. Here is our World in Cushions guide!
It was in the hills of the rift valley working for a Buddhist festival that I first fell in love with the Maasai blankets or Shuka as they are called locally. I had come to Kenya as part of a motley crew of artists, designers, makers and musicians. We were to bring to life this corner of the world for the Shinnyo-en Buddhists annual fire and water festival a faction of Japanese Buddhists. I knew little of Buddhism before the trip and felt inspired by the marriage of colours and sounds of these two separate cultures. The gentle chanting with the deep purples and oranges of the Japanese’s fused with the bright reds and deep drumming of the local Samburu...
A friend of mine lives on the isle of Lewis and this was my destination, my starting point from where I would find remote waves and weavers of Harris tweed.
My trip to the Outer Hebrides took me to deserted beaches where I swam and surfed with mystified seals, long walks across the hills and through bogs to return to my friends place as the sun faded soaked to the skin and happy. We spent our evenings drinking the local whiskey and putting the world to right.
