More inspiration and ideas from Maison et Objet, Paris
Donna Wilson´s quirky knitted creatures
textilesnaturales gets sidetracked from weave by this British designer´s very appealing – but never sentimental – creations.
8 reasons to like them
- Quirkyness.
- Hybrid craft. The way that hand-embroidery adds value to machine-knitted objects.
- There´s something comfortingly traditional in Donna´s creatures, but they are, at the same time, very contemporary.
- Both adults and kids love them. This makes commercial good sense – adults are often the people who buy toys! But they could sit quite comfortably in a grown-up room too.
- Made in Britain is increasingly being used as a kind of informal quality symbol and one of prestige. In recession Britain, post-Olympic games, I sense a definite increase in patriotism and so the Buy British tag is particularly good. At least for UK sales – I live in Spain and am not sure whether people would pay much attention to this though (I noticed, in the price list of another British design company recently in Maison et Objet that the British price list mentions products as being “made in Britain”, wherease the euro price list describes products as being made in the EU).
- Sense of humour but without sentimentality – I love the hidden jokes in some of the objects. Jasper… Carrot. Get it? (as long as you´re in your mid to late 30s or 40s and British that is).
- Price – It´s a price that works and Donna´s creatures ARE very popular. Here in Spain it´s popular lament that “people won´t pay for craft”. But professionalism, quality and a sound marketing policy pays off. Obviously many people do value well-crafted objects today!
- Prototype cushion by Anna Champeney Estudio Textil
This prototype draws on the idea of the childhood comfort blanket, the idea of a textile which you can snuggle up to. More information and images at the textile blog of Anna Champeney.
New weave course offered at Anna Champeney Textile Studio in October
Scarf weaving course – 24 hour hour intensive 4 -day course – Starts 20 October 2012
In principle the course programme for this year has finished (with the exception of the assistantship course in november – for which one place has just become available due to a late cancellation) but Anna has responded to demand by creating a 4-day scarf weaving course which includes setting up the loom.
So if you fancy an autumn break in the spectacular Ribeira Sacra in north Spain to practice your Spanish and enjoy learning to weave you know where to come! Email for more information.
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