Every summer for the past three years, artists have contributed stunning designs for our deckchairs in the Royal Parks, as part of the charity's Deckchair Dreams art initiative. At the end of each season, to make way for the next year's edition, the designer canvases are un-looped from their frames, sent to be professionally laundered and then carefully stored in our hay loft.

As a result, at the beginning of 2009 we had over 1,000 fabulous canvases waiting for an idea that would make them useful again. Then the light bulb flashed - we would transform them into bags!

Deckchair Dreams has raised over £200,000 to date and has enabled more than 150 school pupils and community groups to study art in the parks and create fantastic deckchair designs of their own. We hope that sales of The Sling will raise even more funds to support projects like these.