Handprint

"you carry the stories of the people that make your clothes"...

Who really made your clothes?
From Director Mary Nighy and Producers White Lodge comes Handprint, a provocative short film starring Elettra Wiedemann. Premiered at London Fashion Week at the launch of the Green Carpet Challenge

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.

Furry trends in couture and feltmaking

It seems that furry looks have never been that much in fashion as this Fall. I’ve already talked about this trend last year, mentioning collection of Chanel. But it seems that the furry trend reached its peak just this Fall – when you look at the styles showed in so many fashion magazines, when you look at what many shops have to offer this Fall – there’s so much of furry looks. And when you look at the runway for this Fall, for example Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, you see very soft furry collections. Just one idea keeps turning on my mind when looking at it – she could have that much successfully used felt from alpaca rather than fur and would have got very similar looks, just more eco-friendly and cruelty free. And that’s why I feel even more proud for Josephus Thimister, who let this furry trend appear on the runway using the craft of felt making (my felt pieces for Josephus Thimister Fall/Winter 2011-2012 collection could be seen here).

my nuno felt coat with alpaca fleece

 

alpaca fleece in nuno felt

Books

There were couple of books on feltmaking published recently that included images of my felt pieces as well.

One was a very big project I would say - “500 Felt Objects” published by Lark Books.

 

First it strikes you with the versatility of what the felt can be – it is really an enormous collection of various felt pieces in different forms – from tiny crafts to art objects. Endless applications and the most diverse techniques that one ever dreamt of fulfilling or would be so much surprised to discover in this book.

 

  My "Wild Pigeon" in "500 Felt Objects"

 

 

  My "Iris Wattii" in "500 Felt Objects"

 

 

The other thing that strikes you is when you think that all of these works were collected for review in the very beginning of 2010, i.e. almost 2 years ago, and then you think what big path all those feltmakers have already travelled in their creative expressions since that time and how astonishing it must be to see all of their works at this moment.

It’s a beautiful gallery book for people who are interested in felt as a textile medium. The idea of the book was great though there are still some weaker points in its materialization I believe. The idea, design, format, and publishing claim for a solid and solemn publication, though some photos do surprise you in the lack of simplest quality and higher class of presentation of the object. And I am not speaking of the tastes here as they differ so much individually. The other thing that might surprise a person who has a better knowledge of feltmakers’ world already is the criteria the curator chose some photos of a particular author to be published. Some of them don’t really reveal the spirit of the author at all (e.g. the only yellow carpet by Claudy Jongstra and purses of Agostina Zwilling). This makes you doubt if there was enough of time for the publishers to really examine the submitted images and review the authors or maybe a little drop of energy and enthusiasm in bringing the idea to life.

Despite these two little things I felt like mentioning, it is really the book what its title says it to be – 500 Felt Objects. Creative Explorations of a Remarkable Material. A material to be discovered and explored. And get inspired! And a quite true reflection of the felt making world in present times.

 

The second book I was going to mention is written by a Russian author Ксения Шинковская - "Войлок" (“Felt”) – a little encyclopedia of many various techniques used in feltmaking. A very eclectic and informative book that included several images of my felt pieces that you can see on my Facebook page.

taught by vilte

Well…many of you asked for it. It took me quite a lot of time, but…here it is – taught by vilte

 

Some of my students from various countries have talked a lot how great it would be to see a set of images from various workshops held in different countries and compare what people make. I decided it would be even more interesting to see how people apply my techniques later in their own designs, that’s why I have included some of the images of felt designs by my students using the techniques taught by me. I want to thank everyone who emailed me letters with warmest wishes and words, and the links to their websites, and the photos. It takes me quite a long time to reply to everyone, so please be patient…But know, I appreciate your words and always answer you in my mind. There’s a connection, remember? :)

Enjoy my new tumblr site devoted just for the workshops I give – taught by vilte (I am sorry for not listing every workshop I gave there, but I don’t have any photos from some of them).

Why do you do it?

Almost in every workshop I give I get this question. Why do you do it or don’t you feel sorry you are giving your techniques to the world for anyone to use and get more rivals? No, I don’t. No, I don’t – for the creative and growing spirits who are just getting a stimulus, an inspiration for their own work and who are going to develop their own signature with time. And the others – I don’t think about them, because if they only follow and not create themselves, thus I will always be at least one step ahead, so why bother? No, I don’t, because I just have 2 arms and a small place for felting – no studio, no staff, no felting machines, and no plans to conquer the world just by myself.

But what I really care about is that the students who come to my workshops would be open minded and have the right motivation to work more and concentrate on the concept of the workshop and not the techniques, it is the process that is important, I am not just teaching how to do it, I am talking how to think about it, I am encouraging the students to feel it. If someone comes and asks just to look at the way I apply some techniques in felting, I am saying – no, I don’t teach like that. If you are not interested to actually live it through, feel it, experience and listen to what I have to say, don’t come to my workshop.

Of course I don’t like it when people you teach later on try to hide that they were taught by me and present the techniques as an invention of their own. I don’t like when people don’t give credits. I don’t like when people become dependant and don’t want to continue on their own – when they take the same principles, inspirations, goals, approach, even ideas they heard me discussing with someone else and don’t think of anything on their own.

For a long time I was just a self taught felter, but that’s how I developed my signature in felting, later my first and only teacher was Claudy Jongstra who literally set me free from my own brakes. And since then I happily and always give credit to her teaching and recommend her workshops. And I think that’s the way it should be.

There are hundreds of feltmakers with really excellent felting skills, but there are so little who reveal their uniqueness in their felting. My workshops focus more on the latter. I believe a key to uniqueness can be discovered in encouraging creativity, in adding a feeling to the process, in developing a communication with the materials and a piece. I often call my fiber work – poetry of fibers. That’s what I expect from my students. It might be blank verses – a stream of subconsciousness, very intuitive poetry of fibers, a haiku or a poetry with complicated rhyme scheme, it doesn’t matter, it’s just a different approach to the felting process, not just a demonstration of perfect felting skills.

 

 

New techniques that I am teaching during the workshop is just the language that we are going to use for the particular subject of the workshop, it’s not the focus. I believe that creativity training and ability to connect with yourself (thus developing your own unique signature) is the most essential of all.

I have just returned from my workshop in UK with which I was really happy and enjoyed a really creative company of English feltmakers (as well as some who came from the Netherlands and Canada, and of Russian origin too). And I also had such well known students as Sheila Smith, Liz Clay, Lizzie Houghton, Chrissie Day, who have long ago developed their own signatures and taught others and I am sure they just came to try to speak “in my language” and will tell their own in felt if they do like it. It’s that other approach that I was talking about – when people don’t really need the techniques “step 1, step 2, step 3- bye bye”, they just learn your language to speak their own stories.

 

Photos – kimono coat – an example of wild fibers and manipulation to be taught in my workshop in the Netherlands

Workshops

When I came back from the Netherlands I found a CD waiting for me in the post. Agostina’s (Italian Felt Academy) husband Gosta Zwilling was taking photos during the workshop and sent them to me as well. It was really interesting to see these photos after some time has passed after the workshop in Italy ended. There is always something you see and realize in the moment it is happening, and always something else that comes to your perception when the time passes.

I pay a lot of attention to working on samples during my workshops. And here are some of the samples the participants made in Italy. Their concept for the workshop was combining archaic spirit of the woman using raw fleece with modern, subtle femininity using tactile surfaces from various fabrics.

The workshop in the Netherlands was taking place in a perfect studio of Truus Huijbregts. It is always more inspiring to work in the surroundings like these and create a healthy environment for creativity in a relaxed way without the stress  that is no good at all during such workshops.

The students made lot’s of beautiful and promising samples, as well as dresses, but I didn’t take any more descent photos to be posted. One of the reasons is that after the workshop the dresses are still quite wet and the process of working with textures is not finally finished, thus I never get to see them in a full beauty, but knowing the technique and what it gives, I always know, what the students will discover when they go home with their dresses and finish them 100%.
Workshop in Belgium gave me an opportunity to meet one Lithuanian woman living in Belgium and also making felt. We had quite a lot of conversations about creativity and felt making during the workshop and the time after as Sigita accompanied me on the trips to Antwerpen where we also visited MOMU – Mode Museum with an exhibition on knitwear in fashion “Unravel”.  And I felt really happy when she sent me a photo of a dress she made straight after returning from my workshop, inspired by what we did and talked during the workshop and the knitting exhibition we saw. When I see something like that, I understand that my student got the point (which is not always easy, especially for people who are used to working just inside the box), and that my teaching is not just a mere play of techniques, it makes people create using the language I teach. And that is my goal as a teacher.


P.S. You can always check my schedule of workshops on my blog which should be updated soon with more workshops in Autumn, 2011.

“bored with seeing collections that have no soul, no feeling, no seduction”

Some of you were quite curious to know more about Josephus Thimister, the designer with whom I had honor to collaborate for his AW 2011/12 collection this year. I found some quotes on the internet I would like to share for others would get at least a little sense of uniqueness of Josephus, and some photos from his last year collection, some looks I just love.

                

“So what made you decide to start over?
Actually, it happened quite naturally. My intuition told me so. When I observed the fashion world over the last eight years, I saw a declining story. But recently I started to make clothes for my own pleasure, to show that I still have things to say and share. With experience, you know what to do and what not to do, and at the same time you’re much more free creatively. I am stronger now than I was ten years ago. And I was bored with seeing collections that have no soul, no feeling, no seduction—just a product on a hanger. I am not a bling-bling person.”
Read more: Josephus Thimister Haute Couture S/S 10 Paris - Page 7 - the Fashion Spot http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f60/josephus-thimister-haute-couture-s-s-10-paris-95032-7.html#ixzz1Haq68bLD

                 

“and that's the beauty of Thimister. nothing is ever without meaning....nothing is ever shocking for the sake of shocking. everything is so bound together with utter poetry”.
Read more: Josephus Thimister Haute Couture S/S 10 Paris - Page 8 - the Fashion Spot http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f60/josephus-thimister-haute-couture-s-s-10-paris-95032-8.html#ixzz1HarjzI3h

                   

THIMISTER
The origins of Josephus Thimister are eclectic: he is Russian, French, Belgian, Orthodoxe, Catholic, Jewish... A mix that he bluntly calls "garbage". After passing through Karl Lagerfeld and the fashion house of Jean Patou, he worked as a decorator before being named artistic director of the very prestigious fashion house Balenciaga. During these 5 and a half years, he gave Balenciaga a breath of fresh air, then he created his own Parisien label in 1997, under which he has since presented his Haute Couture and ready-to-wear collections. At the same time, he became art director for the Italian brand Genny, and from 2005 to 2007 for Charles Jourdan. He has also worked for a number of ready-to-wear brands as well as being a consultant. The creations of Thimester posess a certain lightness and poetry which creates an elegance devoid of any vanity. Thimester seems to rejuvinate the traditional Haute Couture, notably by using unconventional materials.

photos from: 2e-bureau.com and Fashionologie

P.S.: Some internet sites offering THIMISTER: Barneys New York, Boutique Roma, Anastasia Boutique, Case Study Space, Antonioli

News. Workshops

If you haven’t yet noticed, I have made a section “News” on the right column of my blog where you can find all updated information about the workshops I give: News

 

Workshops:

March 11-13 and March 15-17, 2011 - "Archaic felt in modern couture" at Italian Felt Academy
April 8-10 and April 11-13, 2011 - "Beyond the surface: fabric manipulation in making nuno felt dresses" at studio Filt Viltwerk, the Netherlands
April 15-17, 2011 -  "Beyond the surface: fabric manipulation in making nuno felt dresses" at VrouwWolle studio, Belgium
May, 2011 - "Beyond the surface: fabric manipulation in making nuno felt dresses", " Beyond the surface: fabric manipulation. Creative samples". UK - info will be updated.
June 21-23; 24-26, 2011 - "Beyond the surface: fabric manipulation in making nuno felt dresses". Moscow, Russia, Проект "Шерстяные чудеса" совместно с интернет-магазином "Шкатулочка".

There might be some spots left in the workshops in the Netherlands and Belgium or probably just the Netherlands during the dates April 11-13, 2011. So if you were interested in learning how to felt nuno dresses my style, hurry up.

Workshop updates

As you might have noticed I have added News section to my blog where I will be updating information on the coming workshops and other events connected with my felting.

As the first workshop at the Italian Felt Academy has been filled, the second workshop has been announced in March 15-17, Verona, Italy. More information on Agostina’s website.

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Na ir kalėdinis siurprizas lietuvaičiams, mylintiems veltinį. Nors buvom nusprendę nebekartoti mano knygos “Veltinis” leidimo, bet, vis gaudamas Jūsų prašymus, leidėjas nusprenė dar kartą išleisti šią knygą. Redaguotą, papildytą nauja informacija, naujais skyriais, dar daugiau patarimų ir atnaujintų fotografijų! Tikiuosi kažkam tai taps gražia ir naudinga kalėdine dovana :)

Feeling of a white wedding. Through one’s lens

After all the celebration is gone, you are left with photos of the day that evoke feelings. It’s not just the feelings of the actual day, these are also the feelings that a person behind the lens has encoded in your photography. There are lot’s of talented photographers with their own signature, I guess it’s sometimes even hard to choose, but if I had to, the main criteria would be that footprint of feeling that photographer leaves in the memories of your wedding day.

I chose to introduce you to 3 different Lithuanian photographers who also do wedding photography. Yes, I am acquainted with all of them and that’s probably why I chose to introduce them here. Because I get a better feeling of what they do.

Svetlana Batura takes a very sensual, spiritual approach, she captures something that is beyond. Perhaps it’s more feminine look at the world, or I should better say sense, not look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viktorija Vaišvilaitė Skirutienė has a talent of capturing the very true pulse of life – very sensitive reality, those uncovered true moments in life, the touching point of soul and body, the relation. In reality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Victor Morozov, very cinematic approach, passionate and stylish. Lot’s of flight. Everywhere – in people’s relation, life or even exaggerated reality. But he is a master of creating a phenomenal day in one’s life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kai baigiasi visas šventės šurmulys, lieka nuotraukos, kurios sužadina jausmus. Ir tai nėra tik tos tikrosios dienos jausmai, čia įsipina ir žmogaus, stovinčio už fotoaparato objektyvo, nuotraukose užkoduoti jausmai.  Yra nemažai talentingų fotografų, turinčių savo braižą, tikriausiai sunku ir pasirinkti, bet jei reikėtų rinktis, vadovaučiausi būtent tais jausmų pėdsakais, kuriuos fotografas palieka savo kurtose vestuvių dienos fotografijose-prisiminimuose.

Norėjau pristatyti 3 skirtingus lietuvių fotografus, kurie užsiima ir vestuvine fotografija. Taip, pažįstu visus tris ir tikriausiai būtent dėl to pasirinkau juos pristatymui savo dienoraštyje. Dėl to, kad galbūt geriau jaučiu tai, ką jie kuria.

 

Svetlanos Baturos fotografija persmelkta jausmingumu ir jautrumu, dvasinga įkrova, jos objektyvas fiksuoja kažką, kas yra virš viso matomo. Tikriausiai tai labiau moteriškas požiūris, tik turbūt reikėtų sakyti jausmas.

 

Viktorija Vaišvilaitė Skirutienė turi ypatingą talentą užčiuopti ir fiksuoti patį gyvenimo pulsą – labai jautrią realybę, atvirus, tikrus momentus gyvenimo plotmėje, dvasios ir kūno sąlyčio tašką, santykį. Realybėje.

 

Ir Victor Morozov – labai kinematografiškas, aistringas ir stilingas. Begalė polėkio. Visur – žmonių santykiuose, gyvenime, net ir suintensyvintoje realybėje. Jis tikras meistras, kurdamas išskirtinę dieną savo personažų gyvenimuose.