ABOUT | Ophelia Dos Santos

About

I'm Ophelia! A Welsh textile designer and educator based in Cardiff. Through my practice I create educational content, to inform and encourage conversation around climate justice and equality, the over-consumption, waste and psychology of fashion. My textile works also serve as a visual reminder of fashions changing attitude towards sustainability; inspiring others to give old clothes a second chance.

Collaborating with communities, I focus on skill sharing as a powerful tool to explore the complexities of climate change, driving participation and action. Facilitating workshops with local charities and organisations, I demonstrate how simple embroidery techniques can be used to mend and reinvent clothing. Learning to sew is a purposeful activity, that can bring people of different age groups, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds together – giving people the ability to build confidence and practical life skills.

I continue to develop more accessible methods of teaching, acknowledging that climate activism must amplify the voices of marginalised groups; Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples, people of all disabilities and LGBT+ communities.

Education & Training

Creative Agent Training by Arts Council Wales, 2022.

Equal Power Equal Voice mentoring by EYST, WEN, Stonewall Cymru and Disability Wales, 2022.

Child Safeguarding by Children in Wales, 2020.

BA Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors, Bath Spa University, 2019.

Project Producer

Project Producer and Co-ordinator of Madaraja at Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel: Working with creatives of all ethnicities (with an emphasis on Black voices in Wales) and those in the African continent. Ongoing https://www.ssap.org.uk/pages/madarajapontbridges

Producer & Narrator

Producer and narrator of the short documentary film 'Moving to Make It'. This follows my dilemma as a Welsh creative, will I leave Wales to pursue my career? BBC TWO Wales, It's My Shout Productions, 2021.

Watch on iPlayer, New Voices from Wales, Ep 2:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000tlz6/new-voices-from-wales-series-4-2-moving-to-make-it

Workshop Collaborations

University College London

South Riverside Community Development Centre

Women Seeking Sanctuary Advocacy Group Wales

Welsh Centre for International Affairs

Women Connect First

Wales Millennium Centre

Ways of Working

National Museum Wales

Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel