Animism. Design with the soul.

“The animal world will keep invading and transforming the life of humans represented in a more abstract and less narrative manner.
Fibre and plant are becoming dominant materials animated by organic form and skeleton structures”.

“Primitive matter and organic shapes will embody a need of man longing for a more meaningful and ritualistic relationship with earth and the elements.
Resulting in a revival of animism.
Therefore designers create brut and raw shapes that resemble totemic termite mounds, honeycomb shape, spider web laces and timber structures”.

“Can design have a soul and therefore be animated?”

I have mentioned Li Edelkoort some years ago in one of my posts here and now came across her words again when Irit shared it. There’s so much of the truth and purity in her words about trends (that we already see today!) which echo so well with my own inner feelings and believes.

And the whole trend report of her is so well worth reading:

“Post Fossil - excavating 21st century creation by Lee Edelkoort 2011
Time has come for extreme change
Society is ready to break away from last century for good.
To break with creative conventions, theoretic rules and stigmas that now are questioned, challenged and broken.
To break with a materialistic mentality replacing it with the crafted materialization of modest earth-bound and recomposed matter.
In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis in decades, a period of glamorous and streamlined design for design's sake come to an end.
A new generation of designers retrace their roots, refine their earth and research their history, sometimes going back to the beginning of time.
In this process, they form and formulate design around natural and sustainable materials, favoring timber, hide, pulp, fibre, earth and fire.
Like contemporary cavemen, they reinvent shelter, redesign tools and manmade machines, and conceptualize archaic rituals for a more modest, content and contained lifestyle.
Like a Fred Flintstone of the future.
The animal world will keep invading and transforming the life of humans represented in a more abstract and less narrative manner.
fibre and plant are becoming dominant materials animated by organic form and skeleton structures.
Our relationship with all living organisms is at stake. Therefore humans will share and care for each other.
Soon the world will discover that we are all family.
Ecology and sustainability will no longer be enough.
Primitive matter and organic shapes will embody a need of man longing for a more meaningful and ritualistic relationship with earth and the elements.
Resulting in a revival of animism.
Therefore designers create brut and raw shapes that resemble totemic termite mounds, honeycomb shape, spider web laces and timber structures; at times incorporating biotechnology into the making process to inspire design systems for the future.
Nature is a dominant ingredient in this movement, although no longer used in a naive and aspiring ecological language, but as a mature philosophy fit for newer age. Raising the questions that need to be raised.
Can we do with less to become more?
Can design have a soul and therefore be animated?
Can man find a more meaningful way to consume?
Can we break with the past and reinvent the future?
In general, materials will be matte and humble, however the earth and its hidden riches also invites this generation to employ minerals, alloys and crystals; adding lustre and sometimes even sheen to fossil-like concepts and constructions.
Laquered and polished surfaces are enhancing vegabond finds, unveiling their raw beauty while questioning the survival of the world's economy.
At times these designs will echo the essence of the arte povera movement which is bound to make a revival – soon”

Lidewij Edelkoort

A view from above

 

my landscape

 

“I still can’t find any better definition for the word Art, than this. Nature, Reality, Truth, but with a significance, a conception, and a character which the artist brings out in it and to which he gives expression, which he disentangles and makes free”. (Vincent van Gogh)

 

P.S. I found this quotation in a book “Abstract Earth. A View from Above” by Richard Woldendorp – a collection of photographs of Australian landscapes. The book was a gift from a wonderful feltmakers’ group FeltWest in Perth where I was giving workshops. I was doing a slide show on the first night there and shared my passion for landscapes that I create in felt, and they were good listeners – gave me a most wonderful book of landscapes that will be my big inspiration when I return.

To dye for

It’s been really a busy time preparing for my trip to Australia this March to give workshops. In a meantime I managed to give 2 more workshops in Moscow and had real pleasure seeing the students create wonderful things from the wild fibers.

I also opened a real herbal lab in our apartment with lot’s of natural dyeing taking place. And found a beautiful quotation about natural dyes to continue the theme of the natural over the synthetic colours:

“One of the key reasons why natural colors look better than chemical colors because they are not 'pure' color: a natural red, for example, will include blue and yellow, whereas a chemical red will only contain red pigment. The impurities of natural dyes, which may comprise from five to 25 percent of the dye, consist of other hues that are similar to the main one, and it is these mixtures that make natural dyes so beautiful and create their harmony with neighboring natural colors. Where one person will see some purple in a hank of gray yarn, another may see some blue in it. To be able to see the difference is partly genetic, like the ability to curl one's tongue lengthwise, and partly a matter of experience. On the other hand, evenness of a synthetically dyed carpet is flat and uninteresting. Natural dye, precisely because of its unevenness, makes color vibrate or sparkle. And for some people this "imperfection," a sign of the artist's hand working natural substances from the garden or fields, has spiritual overtones.” (AzerbaijanRugs)

 

Some of my natural colours drying and waiting to be felted in. A real burst of colours, longing for Spring?..

What’s in the color?

Just the other day reading the book I found a more “tangible” and scientific explanation of how the colors influence us.

"Clearly, there is more to colour than meets the eye as even blind people can literally ‘feel’ different colours with their fingertips.

Colour is not just part of the object we see in the distance, it's a light wave coming right at us. Colour is simply energy. Energy influencing our feelings, our well being, and demanding a response.” A.Wright

If color is energy, probably there’s much more encoded in this energy from the plants and therefore we have such different experiences when facing a live color from the plant rather than a “dead” synthetic color.

 

Dyed with St. John’s wort.

Color

There is something in the colors from the plants that keep you so attracted to them. It gives you comfort. It stimulates your senses that sometimes you just want to soak in that color. It might be a little scrap piece of silk, but you look at it and can’t stop – it’s like something that is encoded in that color from a plant speaks to your subconsciousness while your consciousness subsides. And you don’t have to understand anything at all, you just have to feel it.

It never happens with artificial colors. Even when you look at the color you adore, it’s different. You love it, but it’s just not the same… It lacks that feeling…

I believe it’s my third Summer when I do a lot of dyeing with plants. I can’t call myself a professional dyer who does a lot of studies and makes detailed records (if I would go that deep into dyeing, I would have to stop felting. One man can not live the lifetimes of many, no matter how you want it…) But just when I did my first samples with plants, I felt THAT. There is something that won’t let you go back too. You even don’t notice, but all artificially dyed materials little by little start to step back of your creative life and you find yourself surrounded just with what you call natural and true.

 

 

It’s my first Summer though when I collect quite a lot of dye stuff from my own land myself or use vegetable waste and medicinal herbs that have expired (I always had lots of these as this is almost the only medicine I take for more than 15 years).

 

 

St. John’s wort, sage, tansy – all growing in our fields, around us. I really love the sources that are available here… And I’ve been using them as medicinal herbs for so many years already. Strange that I didn’t think about colors before. Dyeing opens your eyes to the world. It teaches you to notice things, to cherish the world we are living in, to connect and to feel. It heals you.

 

 

And then the color meets the fiber to make a perfect duo. And makes you want to soak in it, to touch it, wander with your eyes in it, get lost and feel safe at the same time.

 

 

Comfort…

White wedding

Autumn has traditionally been a season for weddings in our country. Perhaps that’s why I get most of custom orders for weddings in late August and September.

I have always admired the brides who are searching for something really original, even unusual, handmade and natural. Be it a dress or a wedding bouquet. I know there are tons of gorgeous and luxurious wedding gowns for lease in wedding salons, but… these dresses have always pushed me away with their synthetic fabrics, lack of uniqueness and handmade feeling. Especially when you try to imagine it used by a person for the celebration that is supposed to be the most honest, open, one of a kind in one’s life…

Feel felt felt feeling. Nuno felted wedding gown by Viltė Kazlauskaitė

 

It’s really nice to notice that there are more and more brides who take this natural and unique approach to their weddings. You might ask so where is that point of eco-friendliness if more and more brides would not lease a wedding gown in a salon for one day but would have it created just for her? Well, I think it would be much more eco-friendly to repurpose a wedding gown after the wedding to many useful and beautiful pieces of clothing or accessories or save that unique dress for the daughter or grand daughter compared to all chemical cleaning dresses in salons require.

 

Feel felt felt feeling. Nuno felted wedding gown by Viltė Kazlauskaitė

Anyhow, it’s all a question of choice. Every bride who chooses me to design a dress for her is very different and amazing in her own way. I see them prepare for one of the most important moments in their life and hear the story of how they came to this point of choosing this and not that. So with this post I wanted to make a mini overview of some important aspects for weddings when you choose to do it in a natural and unique way. And I’d like to look at our local artists and artisans this time.

 

Wedding rings. Adding something really dear to it, like a detail of fingerprints of your beloved one, choosing more organic shapes and details, putting a piece of simple beach stone that means something for you rather than diamonds, or putting a stone on the side that only you can see – all those little things make  huge difference…

 

by Jurgita Erminaitė Šimkuvienė

 

by Ugnė Blažytė

 

by Eglė Čėjauskaitė

 

 

by Jurgita Erminaitė Šimkuvienė

 

 

Flowers… the flowers I chose grow in our country – in a wild or in grandmothers’ gardens. They represent beauty, fragility, lightness of feminine nature.

 

White peonies

Heath

or even wild madder! (photo credit from Madara cosmetics)

 

I wish I could show you really unique and elegant shoes for the brides, designed by Lithuanian shoe designers, but… As every bride I met had most troubles finding shoes for her, I had the same trouble searching in the internet for our local shoe designers and.. I am afraid nothing really impressed me..or I was not lucky in my search. So I guess our brides will still have to be content with whatever they choose - high fashion shoes from Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo; elegant dance shoes or…everything else, just waiting for a new generation of local shoe designers to grow up and knock us back.

 

Wedding photography… it’s for my next post.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ruduo – vestuvių metas nuo senų laikų. Galbūt todėl baigiantis vasarai ir prasidedant Rugsėjui gaunu daugiausiai užsakymų vestuvėms.

Visada žavėjausi nuotakomis, kurios planuodamos savo vestuves renkasi originalumą, netgi neįprastumą, natūralumą, tikrumą. Ar tai būtų vestuvinė suknelė, ar gėlių puokštė.

Mane visuomet atstumdavo saloninės nuomojamos vestuvinės suknelės. Taip, žinau, kad ten pilna labai ištaigingų ir gražių, puošnių suknelių. Bet jų dažniausiai sintetinės medžiagos, rankų darbo jausmo ir unikalumo trūkumas veja mane tolyn nuo jų, ypač kai įsivaizduoji, kad tokią suknelę moteris renkasi vilkėti tą savo gyvenimo dieną, kuri turėtų būti nuoširdžiausia, atviriausia, tikriausia, vienatinė jos gyvenime…

Ir tiesą pasakius džiugu stebėti, jog bėgant laikui tokių moterų, kurios pasirenka originalų, rankų darbo, natūralų kelią savo vestuvėms, daugėja. Galite paklausti, kur gi čia tas ekologiškumas, jei kiekviena moteris siūdinsis vestuvinę suknelę, o ne nuomosis. Bet aš manau, kad vestuvinės suknelės “perkūrimas” po vestuvių į daugelį kitų originalių ir mielų širdžiai aprangos detalių, aksesuarų ar kitų dalykų; ar galiausiai tokios vienetinės suknelės saugojimas savo dukteriai ar anūkei, yra daug ekologiškiau palyginus su visa chemija, kuri naudojama saloninių suknelių švarinimui ir atnaujinimui.

Žinoma, visa tai yra pasirinkimo reikalas. Kiekviena nuotaka, kuriai aš kūriau vestuvinę suknelę, skirtinga ir žavi kiekviena savo būdu. Aš matau, kaip jos ruošiasi vienai svarbiausių savo švenčių ir klausau jų istorijų, kaip jos priėmė sprendimą rinktis būtent tai, ką pasirinko. Šiuo įrašu dienoraštyje norėjau tiesiog turmpai apžvelgti keletą svarbių vestuvių aspektų, kurie buvo svarbūs ir mano sutiktom nuotakom. Ir norėčiau pasižiūrėti į mūsų vietinių kūrėjų ir vietinės gamtos kuriamus ir dovanojamus dalykus…

 

Vestuviniai žiedai. Maži dalykai turi didelę reikšmę. Mylimojo pirštų ar delno antspaudų detalė ant žiedo, jūros akmenėlis, kuris turi jauniesiems svarbią reikšmę, o ne deimantas, ar akmenėlis ten, kur jį mato tik mūvintis žiedą, organiškos formos, faktūros…

 

Lietuvoje augančios gėlės vestuvinei puokštei – balti bijūnai močiutės gėlynėlyje, laukiniai viržiai ar net lipikai iš pievų. Visi jie simbolizuoja moteriško prado grožį, trapumą ir stiprumą, lengvumą…

 

Labai norėjau surasti unikalius ir elegantiškus vestuvinius batelius, kurtus lietuvių batų dizainerių, bet…kaip ir visos mano sutiktos nuotakos turėjo daugiausiai problemų ieškodamos batelių, taip ir aš nesugebėjau internete rasti nieko tokio iš lietuvių meistrų, kas iš tiesų pakerėtų savo originalumu, elegantiškomis linijomis.. O galbūt man tiesiog nepasisekė ieškoti. Tad panašu, jog mūsų nuotakos turės tenkintis tuo, ką pasirinks – aukštosios mados atstovų nepriekaištingus batus (Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo), elegantiškus šokėjų batelius, ar…visa kita tol, kol užaugs nauja lietuvių batų dizainerių karta ir savo kūriniais tiesiog nustebins mus visus.

 

Vestuvių fotografija… palikime tai kitam įrašui. :)

Archaic couture or what’s in common between Chanel and feltmaking trends?

  There is no surprise why there is a big trend of all the wild things in feltmakers world. If you saw Chanel’s ready to wear collection for Fall 2010 you will not ask why. If Karl Lagerfeld can get that wild in couture world, sure we, the feltmakers, can :)



















These photos of my eco-friendly nuno felted dresses with raw organic Wensleydale and Drenthe Heath wool are the prelude to some news to come. Soon :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kas  matė 2010 rudens “ready to wear” Chanel mados namų kolekciją, nesistebės ir šiuo metu veltinio pasaulyje vyraujančia laukiniškumo tendencija. Jei Karl Lagerfield gali taip sulaukėti, galim ir mes :)
Šios mano veltų suknelių nuotraukos yra preliudija į tam tikras naujienas. Jau greitai :)

Dunes. Dragonfly meadow. Weddings

My soul land – Curonian spit.
The brides who choose a very unique, natural and handmade look for their special day.  And feel so free like the dragonflies.
Brian Western: “Everything about these images evokes a sense of calm serenity--the felt is practically alive!”


 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mano sielos kopos.
Nuotakos, besirenkančios unikalų, natūralų, rankų darbo įvaizdį. Tokios laisvos lyg laumžirgiai…

I’ve got slippers from OSmanufacture!

I’ve got hand felted slippers from OS manufacture – brainchild of Ramunė Toleikytė! Natural, eco-friendly, comfortable, flexible, soft, warm, cozy, durable, contemporary – and all 100% handmade! What else would you want???

Her set of slippers inspired me to take a photo shoot in concrete surrounding (I love concrete!). So – all the slippers are by Ramunė Toleikytė and all photos are by me :)

 

 

 

Oh, and no butterfly was harmed for making this photo shoot.  Butterfly wings were found and collected after the spiders or birds had their share.

 

 

And this is in my future studio, with a wall hanging I felted myself, and Ramunė’s slippers. They match, don’t they?

 

 

 

And one more.

 

 

 

Not about felt. About feeling I guess – lightness on the concrete. A swan’s feather.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gavau tiesiog nerealias Ramunės Toleikytės, OSmanufacture, šlepetes! 100% rankų darbas, natūralios medžiagos, patvarumas, švelnumas, jaukumas, modernumas…ar galima norėti daugiau???

Jos įkvėpė mane šiek tiek pažaisti “fotografą” – taigi nedidelė fotosesiją ant nuogo betono, kurį, beje, aš labai myliu.

Tiesa, ką domina drugelis, joks drugelis nebuvo paaukotas fotosesijos labui. Tai tiesiog radiniai po matyt įvykusios vorų ar paukščių vakarienės… Natūralus gyvenimo ciklas.

Ir dar – mano veltas kilimėlis mano būsimoje studijoje ir Ramunės šlepetės. Dera.

Ir…tiesiog. Ne apie veltinį. Turbūt apie jausmą. Lengvumą ir betoną. Gulbės plunksna.

Eco dyeing. Happy Easter

Just can’t wait for the Summer when I will be collecting plants again and doing lots of solar dyeing with plants. What’s most exciting about eco dyeing with plants is that there’s always a factor of the unexpected. There are so many influences in this technique that dyeing becomes a close communication between the dyer and the nature.

I loved dyeing Easter eggs with plants this year as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laukiu nesulaukiu vasaros, kuomet vėl rinksiu augalus ir užsiimsiu dažymu jais. Toks dažymo būdas matyt labiausiai žavi savo nenuspėjamumo prieskoniu. Yra be galo daug veiksnių, kurie dažymą augalais paverčia artimu dažančiojo bendravimu su Gamta…
Šias Velykas  ir mūsų margučiai buvo numarginti augalais.

Growing Spring on my skin

  Fragile as the beauty can be. Tender sprouting of Spring on my skin.

Growing Spring on my skin

silk ponge, merino wool

eco dyed with plants

I like it slow

It was like enlightening – I really don’t like to be pushed! I like it slow…

Slow fashion, slow art, slow cloth… Slow process. Whether it is the process of making or the process of thinking about it.

Any idea is like a baby who grows in his mother’s womb for a certain time until he is let out to the world. (Yet there are brainstorm ideas as well that are brilliant. But this is fast only on conscious level as any enlightening is a result of a long process hidden in the subconsciousness).

I’ve been told many times that my felt items seem to have special aura or soul, story behind them. I guess this comes from being slow with what I do and giving time for that soul of an item grow and develop.

I like taking my time for thinking about felt, sometimes even months or years. And though fast results are tempting I prefer it slow.

I’ve been thinking about this tunic for a boy for several months before I started making it. Though  the result might look simple, it really had a deeper meaning for me.

And this piece took about 3 months to dye with plants the way I wanted it. Another few months of thinking of using it in felting.

And this neck piece took 2 Summers of constant exposure to the Sun until it was bleached as white as I wanted it!

The bleacher would have done it in a day or so. But it wouldn’t have put any good energy or soul to the cloth…

Though I like being on Etsy, at some point it is out of my comfort zone as there’s so much pressure – list list list, upload, give new works every day if you don’t want to drown in the ocean of all items listed there. And it’s simply not my way of working. I am not baking pancakes… When I feel pressure (and again – it’s not the same thing as having to work for a thrilling project with a deadline that actually mobilizes all your inner processes, insights and effects the actual making with adrenaline), I start to rebel or shut myself inside and feel paralyzed, not being able to do a thing until I cure myself from any thoughts of pressure. Creative ideas are something like a fox and the Little Prince trying to domesticate each other, just a little step towards each other in a day.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kartais imi ir suvoki staiga – man tikrai nepatinka spaudimas! Patinka lėtumas…

Lėta mada, menas, lėtos medžiagos… Lėtas procesas. Ne tik lėtas darymo procesas, bet ir lėtas apmąstymo procesas.

Kiekviena idėja yra tarsi vaisius, augantis įsčiose tam tikrą laiką, kol yra paleidžiamas į pasaulį. (Žinoma, yra ir genialių žaibiškų idėjų-nušvitimų. Visgi jos yra greitos tik sąmoningame lygyje. Kiekvienas nušvitimas yra ilgo pasąmoninio proceso rezultatas).

Daug kartų teko girdėti, jog mano veltinio darbai turi ypatingą aurą, sielą, pasislėpusią juose istoriją. Tikriausiai tas jausmas gimsta iš lėtumo tame, ką darau – laiko, per kurį kiekvienas darbas vystosi ir auga.

Man reikia laiko galvojimui apie tai, ką aš darau. Kartais net mėnesių ar metų. Ir nors greiti rezultatai visuomet viliojantys, paprastai renkuosi lėtumą.

Daug mėnesių galvojau apie baltą komunijai skirtą tuniką vienam berniukui prieš pradėdama ją daryti. Nors galutinis rezultatas gali atrodyti paprastas, visgi man jame slypi daug gilesnė prasmė.

Dažymas augalais kartais trunka ir 3 mėnesius, kol išgauni tokius subtilius tonų perėjimus, kokių norisi. Dar keli mėnesiai skiriami apmąstymams, kokiam veltinio objektui skirtas tas medžiagos gabalėlis.

Išbalinti balikliu turbūt galima per parą, tačiau kartais prireikia 2 saulėtų vasarų, kad saulės išbalintas šilkas ir vilna įgytų tą teigiamą energiją, dvasią, kurią, tikiu, sugeria iš saulės…

Buvimas Etsyje labai dviprasmiškas. Man patinka siūlyti savo darbus Etsy-je, tačiau iš kitos pusės nori to ar nenori, patiri spaudimą kelti vis naujus darbus, atnaujinti senus vien tam, kad nepaskęstum Etsy’io pasiūlos jūroje. Tai nėra mano stilius. Aš nekepu blynų…  Jusdama spaudimą (nemaišykite to su kokiu nors įkvepiančiu projektu, turinčiu terminus, kuris išties tik mobilizuoja visus vidinius procesus, įžvalgas bei įjungia antrą kvėpavimą dirbant), pradedu maištauti arba užsisklendžiu savyje ir jaučiuosi paralyžuota, negalinti nieko daryti tol, kol neišsilaižau visų minčių apie spaudimą. Kūrybiškos mintys yra kaip lapė ir Mažasis Princas, bandantys prisijaukinti vienas kitą pamažu, po mažą žingsnelį vienas kito link.

Into the woods series

Finished some scarfs and collars in modified shibori technique for my 2009 Autumn series "Into the woods". Very organic forms and natural colours bringing you deep into the woods...

Scarf "Into the woods. Blueberry"


Collar "Into the woods. Wetland"

Scarf "Into the woods. Moss"

Collar "Into the woods. Juniper"

Artists from under the bark

While walking in the country land and rediscovering the plants I never payed attention to before, my sight was caught by a piece of wood from a pile of chumps. Brown shades overflowing each other and..texture - similar signs all over the piece, as if it was some mage's stick from the black Continent...magical signs. And the damnedest thing was that all that art was made by the tiny artists that lived under the bark - bark beetles (Scolytinae)...

Just a thought that something in nature drives those tiny beetles feed moving in a certain scheme - like drawing a silhouette of a branch of conifer seams miraculous... It's like a little touch to a code of life, matrix of life again...

I put that piece of wood into garage... I don't know what I'll make from it yet, but I will...

Wild Angels on Haute Nature

Haute Nature - blog, covering ecologically based creative ideas, art & green products for your children, home and lifestyle...an eco guide blending high style with sustainability, has featured my felted bracelet - Where the Wild Angels Live.

Thank you! And I am honoured!

Design for a Living World

Some say that using sustainable and eco-friendly materials for designing has become a fashion. Though it's not. It has become essential and the only way for survival. It's not a fashion, it's a natural way of living.

"Design for a Living World asks us to think about the products we use - where they come from, how they are made and the impacts they have on our planet.

The Nature Conservancy invited ten designers to create new objects from sustainable materials sourced from around the world. Wood, plants, wool and other organic materials were transformed into intriguing objects, revealing extraordinary stories about regeneration and the human connection to the Earth's lands and waters. Together, designers and consumers can reshape our materials economy and help advance a global conservation ethic by choosing sustainable materials that support, rather than deplete, endangered places."

"Design for a Living World" was another great find I came across browsing the internet and its exhibition is on view from May 14th through January 4 at the Cooper-Hewit National Design Museum in New York.

These are just some designs to admire:

fsc-certified red maple - striking pieces of furniture from red maple by Maia Lin:


'I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. It is about making people aware of nuances, changes in depth, and height-perceptions at a very subtle level-and focusing on a new way of looking at their surroundings, at the land"




chicle latex - Maya forests, Mexico - Dutch (!) designer Hella Jongerius:


"I'm a designer who uses a lot of ingredients to get to a product - not only form, but also history, tradition and contemporary inspiration".



bamboo - China - Ezri Tarazi:


"Rather than use the material as a surface, our project enhances the material to become and object in itself".


vegetable ivory - micronesia - Ted Muehling, jewelry designer.

organic wool rug tiles (yes, FELT! It is knitted from a felted thick yarn) - Dutch (!) designer Christien Meinderstma:

"A lot of the value of a product lies in knowing where it comes from, how it grows, and in what amounts."

Visit the Nature Conservancy site to read and see more.


As a felter myself I tend to choose natural and sustainable materials. Though I know I am not best at it - I am not sure of the processes used to prepare some of my wool I use for felting, but I am proud that I also do buy organic raw wool from the first hands - the sheep keeper. And this year I have discovered wonderful sustainable material I love to use in my felts now - banana fiber.

(Yes, it would be perfect if I was raising my own flock of sheep and were using local plant fibers for my felts :) )

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Eko” nėra mada, tai natūralus gyvenimo būdas.

“Design for a living world” – dar viena įdomi paroda New York’e , kuri skatina susimąstyti apie medžiagas, kurias naudojame – iš kur jos ateina, kaip jos gimsta ir kokią įtaką jos turi mūsų planetai.

10 kviestinių dizainerių, pasitelkę medį, vilną, augalus ir kitas organiškas medžiagas kūrė intriguojančius objektus, pasakojančius apie atsinaujinimo galimybes, žmogaus ir Žemės ryšius.

Savo darbuose visuomet naudojau natūralias medžiagas, taip pat ir organiškas, tokias kaip iš pirmų rankų pirktą vilną, kuri nėra mačiusi jokių pesticidų bei kitos chemijos, arba atsinaujinančią maisto pramonės sub-produktą - medžiagą – bananų šilką. Visuomet traukė natūralių medžiagų taurumas ir tikrumas.  (Kaip ir nedrąsios svajonės apie savų avių, laisvai besiganančių savose pievose, vilną…)