ROSE Tinted Rags has become a Hereford institution over the past 14 years and is already in its second incarnation having been moved from its earlier site on Rockfield Road.

Change is around the corner once again and the talented duo at the helm, Karen Meiklejohn and Tina Walton of not-for-profit company Green Eyed Monster are hoping for a new sponsor or benefactor who can re-home their workspace and shop when the current lease expires in early August.

“We are hugely grateful to Herefordshire Council which has housed us in the bus station for the past three years,” said Karen. “They now need to use the space for their own staff and we are on the look-out for a new opportunity.”

Anyone who has visited their Aladdin’s cave of a site will know already what a huge community service they provide. “It’s so exciting, a fabulous space with gorgeous things,” said Liz Lockett. “Such an asset to the community,” said Cheryl Hewitt.

Four days a week the space is used for workshops with adults with learning disabilities in partnership with Leominster based organisation ECHO and the shop can also offer opportunities for students and people with disabilities to work as well as make things.

The business also recycles textiles, haberdashery and craft memorabilia - often donated by people clearing out a parent’s home - finding a new use for most things, down to scraps of fabric for quilters. “We don’t throw anything away!” Karen said. The charity has a relationship with Hereford Museum and Art Gallery thus ensuring certain heritage items aren’t lost forever.

Many customers call in weekly and have become part of the fabric of the enterprise, which is one of Hereford’s finest.

“When we started out we weren’t sure that the donations would keep coming,” Karen said. “But we’ve been amazed.

“Only last week a local school delivered a van load of vintage blankets which they can’t use any more and which would have been trashed.

“In some countries you would have fabric recycling facilities alongside furniture and other recycling units and that would be amazing to get going.”

The duo met when volunteering for an art project and realised there was a need for something in the county which offers a home for gorgeous things which would otherwise be lost forever.

Customers may call in for sewing, knitting, crafting, millinery, costume, art, upholstery or reenactment materials and find other things that they didn’t know they needed, from patterns to platforms - “we do get clothes, some of which we pass on, but others we keep,” Karen said. “We’re just really useful for people, some of who stumble upon us from all over the world.”

The company has two major exhibitions to plan and organise this summer, one opening at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery on August 4 called ‘Threads of Time’ - ‘an immersive trip through four years of work: extraordinary work by extraordinary people’.

They also have work going out on loan to Berrington Hall and Ledbury Poetry Festival.

Anyone who can offer the business a new home in exchange for workshops and community activities or a new future please contact the owners on 01432 360 981 or email rosetintedrags@gmail.com

The shop is open Monday - Thursday 9-4.30pm and the second Saturday in the month from 10-3 at Hereford County Bus Station. It will be closing in its current premised on August 13.