Design Archives - Meaningful Designs

Antillean Décor and Home Goods Company draws inspiration from the Caribbean

on January 5, 2016 by Jacqueline in Antillean, Caribbean chic, Caribbean living, Design, handmade mats, Home Goods, House Decorating, Interior Design, Jamaican proverbs, Sign Paintings ⋅ Leave a comment

So, you may have been wondering where I have been for the last few posts? I have been off, dear readers, indulging a personal desire of mine in founding Antillean, a décor and home goods company that draws its primary inspiration from the colors, craft traditions and vibrancy of my native Caribbean. I have finally indulged a long held wish of mine to produce products that will see homes enveloped in the warmth and magic of the Caribbean, products that will create a sense of Caribbean chic and Caribbean living, wherever in the world someone’s home may be. We at Antillean do this by working with practitioners in the region to encourage, develop, revitalize, and sustain the craft traditions of the Caribbean.

The Craft traditions of the Caribbean

In fact, Antillean has been a long time coming, and, quiet as its kept, I realize that all along, in profiling craft traditions and craft practitioners from around the world, I was asking myself one simple question: Could I, as well, follow, indeed indulge in my passion for hand crafted home goods and start my very own company? The more I thought about it, the more the idea took hold and, little by little, this is exactly what has happened. I started working with creators in the region to make my home goods dreams come alive. I realized that in so doing that I might, as well, be able to revitalize and sustain some of the craft traditions that I grew up with on my island home of Jamaica, and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Of course I have gargantuan dreams for my little company. I mean, which mother does not look down at her child and not see her, or him, going out into the world and making a place for themselves? Which mother does not see her little one moving from a seed to a sapling and then a gigantic many-leaved tree? But in the meantime I am starting with manageable goals for my little one. A baby after-all learns to creep before she walks. And it is the same with Antillean.

Sign Paintings

A few years ago a friend of mine came to see me in Kingston (Jamaica) when I was home for a visit. He took along with him a gift for me, this friend of mine who is also a well-known visual artist. He was driving by a sign painter on the side of the road whose signs were so arresting that they caught my artist friend’s eyes. One of those signs was the gift he brought me, a Jamaican proverb in vibrant red, blue, yellow and black colors, “Rain Ah Fall But Dutty Still Tuff.” Meaning, the earth is still hard despite the falling rain. Meaning there are difficulties even in abundance. Of course I immediately fell in love with the hand painted sign on recovered metals and ordered more. Before long I found myself working with the sign-painter, via my artist friend, to broaden the range of his paintings and he would subsequently deliver to me, in addition to proverbs and tall handsome Jamaican police officers, paintings of local fruits and flowers that I simply adore. I hope that you will browse and subsequently purchase some of these wonderful paintings.

Kitchen Goods

Speaking of signs, one of the signs of good ‘broughtupcy’ for particularly girls in the Caribbean is our facility both in the kitchen and with a needle. We share this “broughtupcy” in fact with many other women from around the world. But I remain fascinated with the way that this ‘broughtupcy’ is expressed in the Caribbean. There is, of course, our love of the many-colored madras cloth, which harkens back to the multiracial identity of the various islands of the Caribbean. The madras cloth probably originated in India, but has now become idiomatic of Caribbean cultural expression and is often used for head dress and in national costumes. I started imaging this cloth on kitchen goods and before long, the madras cloth had found its way on potholders, hand towels, table napkins, aprons, and on placemats. Then there were the handmade rugs from my childhood in the rural district of Nonsuch, hidden in the high blue Portland mountains, where women would be “turning their hands to make fashion” out of small seemingly useless bits and pieces of cloth.

Ultimately though the story of these home goods products is one of mainly women reaching out their hands to other women. When I approached a cousin of mine about making the beautiful multi-colored mats, someone else saw her making the mats and remembered that she too could make the very mats, and before long the two women were off making the mats. Similarly, my aunt, who made the kitchen goods, ended up working with another woman to make the potholders, hand towels, table napkins, aprons, and placemats that Antillean sells. I was quietly amazed at this, one woman giving a helping hand out to another woman, but as I started entering more fully into the word of handmade things, I started to realize how, as Jamaicans say, “every mickle make a muckle” and that this is an inclusive world that pulls people closer together, particularly women.

Yes, we are starting small at Antillean, but we hope to become big and strong. We hope to become a gigantic tree, and with your help in purchasing our products, we can get there.

Visit the Antillean site at: https://antilleandesigns.wordpress.com

Until next time,

jacqueline

Revitalizing, Sustaining and Propagating the Crafts in India

on March 13, 2015 by Jacqueline in Akshara project, artisan, Baskets, Calligraphy, Crafts, Dastkari Haat Samiti, Design, Dilli Haat, Embroidery, Female Empowerment, Gifts, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, India, interior decorating, Interior Design, Kashmir, Organic Products, patachitra, Scripts, Scroll painting, Textile ⋅ Leave a comment

What I have done so far in Meaningful Designs is conduct an interview, then write a feature based on the interview. This time, however, as I sat reading and rereading the insightful interview with Mrs Jaya Jaitley, the founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, an organization that works to revitalize, sustain and propagate the crafts in India, I realized that I very much enjoyed having the interviewee’s voice as part of the conversation. I also felt that Mrs. Jaya Jaitley could represent an organization she started more than twenty years ago perhaps better than I would be able to write about it. And so in this issue of Meaningful Designs I am the backdrop to this very passionate and dedicated advocate of Indian arts and crafts. So here forthwith is my interview with Mrs Jaya Jaitley!

Can you explain what the name of your organization means?

Dastkari Haat Samiti means Crafts Market Association.

How did you become interested in crafts?

I have loved art, craft and textiles and the beautiful aesthetics of traditional forms and design since I was a child. Combined with that is a strong commitment inculcated in me by my parents to improve the lot of those less privileged in society. The value of handwork expressed in philosophical, economic and political terms by Mahatma Gandhi also influenced me. I am not an artist, though I do passable sketches and have a parallel interest in literature and writing…hence all the books on crafts. Since I can recognize skill, good design, aesthetics and the potential in creative people it combined perfectly with my desire to engage in social and political work for the benefit of crafts people.

Why did you feel it was important for you to start this organization?

I felt the need to create a platform that united crafts persons from different areas, communities, castes and religions to promote their common need for marketing. Once there is a market other inputs take root. Craft skills and livelihoods can be sustained by creating opportunities that widen the market space for them. It also helps to accord them better respect and appreciation. Our crafts members fund the organization so there is a sense of empowerment and partnership in furthering common interests.

What are some of the groups that you work with?

The Samiti works with every kind of craft group or individual or household that becomes a member of the Samiti. Members work with clay, wood, metal, grasses, bamboo, glass, paper, cane, utilizing a vast variety of textile skills, and traditional art forms. We provide inputs for improving skills, design and product diversification. We organize three major marketing opportunities a year through temporary crafts bazaars in different cities. We create new openings like book illustrating, teaching workshops, participation in fairs organized by others and linking them with architects and interior designers. We conceptualized and partnered with different government agencies twenty-one years ago to establish a hugely popular permanent crafts marketing space called Dilli Haat in New Delhi where crafts people are offered space in rotation to sell directly to customers rather than through middlemen. Its success set off a spate of such spaces, both public and private.

Are the craft forms in India gendered?

In some cases men and women work together on pottery and weaving although their roles within are generally defined according to tradition. Women weave in the Northeast but mainly men are weavers in the rest of the country. Men do embroidery in Kashmir but women do so in the rest of the country. History and cultural traditions have defined these roles but, as with everything else, there are now crossovers that are good to see. Our common marketing platforms where the producers get together help erase gender divisions.

Are craft forms localized in different regions of India?

Specific forms, designs and production processes are localized. The beauty of India’s huge variety of craft skills is that each carries the identity of its region. Occasionally it is obliterated when producers begin imitating something from elsewhere, in which case it loses its authenticity.

I would like to know more about the calligraphic art forms. What history can you share with us about this art form?

India, along with Egypt and China were among the civilizations that were the earliest developers of script. In later years, Chinese and Persian scripts were developed into calligraphy and spread everywhere among those who used similar forms like Korean, Japanese, Arabic or Urdu. India had the Brahmi script that transformed into Pali and Sanskrit. Religious texts carried on being written in Sanskrit. Unfortunately, because of colonization and other reasons, despite having over 700 spoken languages/dialects, and currently 22 official languages and scripts, these never developed into calligraphy, partly because literacy levels also fell drastically and most things indigenous lost value under British rule. There are old stone inscriptions on temples, and fine illustrated writings on paper, parchment or silk, but calligraphy as a separate art is still minimal.

Is there a specific group of people who make this art form?

The artifacts created through our Akshara project were encouraged by me introducing the concept of calligraphy to a variety of crafts people. None of them knew calligraphy before. There are a few traditional calligraphers in India who create works in Urdu/Arabic or Tibetan/Bodhi. These are dying out. My purpose was to encourage literacy, an appreciation for our regional scripts, and using their existing crafts skills to give these scripts an artistic form. This opened up a whole new area of design experimentation in calligraphy for crafts people who otherwise felt unqualified because they were non-literate or did not know English.

Let’s turn our attention to some of the gorgeous paintings that you sell. What can you tell us about the history of these paintings?

All these paintings rest on traditional styles. They have been tweaked in colours or layouts to make them contemporary. Each style has its own history rooted in the local culture.

The long scroll called patachitra is used by artist balladeers in West Bengal to sing stories to an audience. The parrot series is a new version of Odisha’s patachitra. Most stories are religious but this one guided by me is contemporary. It is about a caged parrot being educated and helping an astrologer earn his livelihood. The lady painting the table is based on the tradition of painting murals on the walls of homes in Bihar during celebrations. Art shifted to paper and now to wood, metal and even cloth. These are not considered miniatures although there are male and female miniature artists who took part in the Akshara project.

Akshara, Crafting Indian Scripts is an art book we created out of this project. It tells the entire story from history to cataloguing our own works with the story of how each piece was created, to how Indian scripts look artistic as common wall writing, on film posters and advertisements. It is available on Flipkart.com, at some bookshops and with our organization.

What has been the reception to your organization both in and outside of India?

Our website (dastkarihaat.org) shows the wide extent of our work, including events in other countries, and with foreign artisans brought to India to work with our people. We were very well received in Addis Ababa (2^nd India-Africa Summit), Cairo (India on the Nile Festival Akshara Exhibition), UNESCO headquarters, Paris (Akshara exhibition) , UK (Dilli Haat at Trafalgar Square exhibition, Art in Action art fair near Oxford), Frankfurt Book Fair (Crafts Maps exhibition). The maps made over a period of 15 years are also on the website.

There are large appreciative crowds at all our temporary crafts bazaars in India, and we also run two little not-for-profit shops in a high-end market in Delhi.

In India we are well known because of all our projects, especially the crafts maps documenting all the arts, crafts and textiles in India, and also for setting up Dilli Haat (which is entirely run by the government). We also have recent events posted regularly on our Dastkari Haat Facebook page and a separate one on the Akshara Crafting Indian Scripts.

What are some of your most notable successes?

I cannot judge that, but I suppose the crafts maps (which also became a book called Crafts Atlas of India published by Niyogi Books), conceptualizing and establishing the Dilli Haat crafts marketplace and the Akshara project. More significantly and subtly, the loyalty of crafts people to the organization and seeing them improve in their social and economic status through the Samiti’s work.

What are some of your ongoing challenges?

All challenges are opportunities to create something better!

Having said that, however, I am at present trying to get our government to frame the agenda and format of a new national institution – the Hastkala Akademi – to assimilate the vast and varied cultural heritage that sustains crafts in all their aspects in India. It adds the ‘cultural history’ to each skill and object and gives it a unique identity and greater value. I had proposed the idea, which was formally accepted by the government last year. The building blocks have now to be put in place.

Finally, how would you say your organization has impacted how the crafts are doing in India today and where do you see your organization going in the future?

I have never seriously thought about the future of our organization, but only of how its work can benefit the future of India’s crafts persons. I am sure that 29 years as an organization, and my own almost 20 years of work before that, has played some part in reviving, sustaining and propagating many crafts. There are many other dedicated people doing this in different ways. On the whole, we try to inspire crafts people because their work inspires us to plan new vistas for them. I can’t say when I will stop getting new ideas or run out of steam!

Until next time!

Many thanks to Carmen Fernandes and Annie Paul for help with this interview.

The Island of St. John is home to Avelino Samuels, a Master Woodturner

on February 3, 2015 by Jacqueline in artisan, Design, Design tips, Dishes and plates, Dyes, Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Gifts, Home Goods, House Decorating, Industrial Arts, interior decorating, Interior Design, Organic Products, Plates, Recycled materials, St. John, wood turning, wooden bowls, Wooden furniture ⋅ Leave a comment

And then again, sometimes you fall absolutely in love with something at first sight. You take one look at a piece of work — one of Avelino Samuels’ masterful woodturned bowls, for example — the marks of the wood like a subtle expressionist painting, and you know immediately, that, if money was not an object, Samuels’ wooden works would be all over your tiny apartment in Manhattan.

It was my Facebook friend David Knight who first brought Avelino Samuels’ work to my attention. Knight’s enthusiasm for Samuels’ woodturning skills was so infectious that I found myself researching the artist’s work. Surely the work could not be as fantastic as Knight was saying, I huffed and puffed to myself, or this wouldn’t be the first time that I was hearing about it. But the work was everything he had said it was. In fact, the work was not only as great as Knight had proclaimed it to be, it was better. In a word, Avelino Samuels’ work is masterful. I knew, in that moment of looking, that I would have to talk to the man himself, and try to discover the sources of his inspiration.

Avelino Samuels was born on the island of St. John, which is a crossroads, as he explained it, between being American and Caribbean. He was born in a place where there were no cheap plastic toys; if children wanted something to play with, it was most likely handmade. And this was how Samuels got introduced to woodworking: he wanted to make toys to play with. “From I was a child,” Samuels told me, “I was always making things. I started out making bows and arrows, then slingshots, before I graduated to making craft items. I grew up in a time when you had nothing. My father told me that if I wanted something, and especially if I wanted toys to play with, I was going to have to make them myself. And so I began. Before long I was making afro picks, mini sailboats, masks, all for the local market.”

He continued: “For the most part I worked with wood because wood was always accessible and all around me. And, in time, I came to appreciate the particular beauty of wood. To me, wood almost always looks good and it is one of the easiest, most natural materials to work with. I love even the imperfections in wood, how the grade and grain of various cuts differ, because all of this, to me, is a good representation of nature and life.”

In keeping with doing the things that he saw others around him doing, Samuels went off to train as a teacher and has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Arts Education. “Growing up in the St. John that I grew up in, there were very clear ideas of what a person like myself could become. I could become a teacher, an electrical engineer, or something like that. I chose teaching.” And he taught in the schools on the island for several decades, until his retirement a few years ago. Though he still continues teaching a few days a week, his main job now is woodturning. When I asked him how he feels about this, he admitted it feels good to have more time to devote to his art, but that he also enjoyed being a teacher, and he has turned out a few students who have gone on to do really fantastic work in woodturning.

What was surprising to me in our conversation is that Samuels shies away from claiming the mantle of “artist”, preferring, instead, the title of “artisan”. But, he admitted, “It is the person who engages with the work who defines what it is. I have a particular relationship with my work and that is more of an artisan, someone who builds things, than what I would consider an artist to do.”

I refused to let the subject go, pressing him to give a clearer definition of his relationship to his work. This, of course, was all done in good humor, but it was illuminating nonetheless. I wanted to know if he didn’t consider himself an artist and his work fine art because his work was, at times, functional and decorative.

“I guess, yes, that would be one reason,” he answered frankly.

“Well, what about the work that is neither functional nor expressly decorative?” I asked him, reviewing his latest body of work.

“Well, those,” he admitted, “those are more artistic.”

What I find really invigorating about Avelino Samuels’ practice is that it has steadily become more expressive and less functional. He has increasingly moved away from the more naturalized bowls and vases, as gorgeous as these are, and into an arena that I would classify as fine arts. His latest works have rips and tears and holes in them when they do not have elegant climbing branches shooting out of their tops. They have subtle stippling following the marks on the wood and they come in the most mesmerizing of colors: From rich dark blacks, to beguiling reds, to the palest of blond wooden colors. In turns out that Avelino Samuels is not only a master woodturner, but a wonderful colorist, as well.

Naturally I wanted to know where he got the wood from to make his creations and his views on the environment. As ever, he was pleasantly frank. “I know where you are going with this,” he said, laughing, when I started this line of questioning. “And, yes, you are correct that in making these things one can have a negative impact on the environment. That is just one of the realities that I, as a woodturner, have to live with and face. But I love the environment, and I feel especially blessed to call St. John my home.

“Truthfully, I could not live anywhere else but St. John. I have peace of mind here that I just don’t think I could ever have anywhere else. And that peace of mind comes about in large part because of the natural environment of the island. The wood with which I make my work is almost all reclaimed. I use a lot of salvaged materials in my work, overwhelmingly so. Wood from old houses, old materials, trimmings and so on. That is the wood that I love working with. I love taking something old and making it new again. And I am conscious of the impact that I am making on the environment.”

Avelino Samuels’ work has allowed him to travel extensively throughout the mainland United States and Canada. Two years ago he got the fantastic opportunity to go to Tanzania. He looks forward to going to Australia for the first time in March of this year.

Contact Avelino Samuels at binosam@pennswood.net

Until next time.

Photographs in the article were provided by Avelino Samuels and used with permission

Canadian Eileen Kwan Creates Exuberant Embroidered Landscapes One Patient Stitch at a Time

on January 10, 2015 by Jacqueline in Canada, Design, Design tips, Eco-Friendly, embroidered landscapes, Embroidery, Environmental Conservation, Garden Exuberance, Garden supplies, Gardening, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, Quebec, Québécoise, Uncategorized, Winter Garden ⋅ Leave a comment

Several months ago I had the experience of being part of a reading that featured the works of several visual artists. It was at that reading that I first set eyes on Eileen Kwan’s embroidered landscapes. I spent an inordinate amount of time that evening going back and forth looking at the intricate beautiful work. I felt for sure, given how small and perfectly detailed the works were, that they were made by machine. Not so, Eileen Kwan corrected me, when I asked her about it that night. All her works are handmade. I knew in that moment that I had to hear Eileen Kwan’s story.

Eileen Kwan considers herself a métissage of Canadian Québécois with roots in China, where her parents are from. For Kwan, Quebec, her home city, is the cultural dynamo of Canada. “I just love Quebec,” Kwan enthused when I spoke to her. “I consider myself such a Québécoise!”

Eileen Kwan’s Long Relationship of Working With Her Hands

Kwan has long had a relationship with what she calls “working with her hands” — first as a long-distance bicyclist, then as a successful fashion designer, before transitioning to what she considers her ultimate passion and love affair: gardening. In gardening she found that she loved working with and in the soil, and she loved having to touch things in the environment. For Kwan, it is the “human touch that brings so much beauty into the world.”

But how did this all come about, her leaving a very successful career as a fashion designer, to get her hands all messy? It began, Kwan told me, when she came to the startling conclusion that her designs paled in comparison to nature. “Nature offers up the best designs,” Kwan said, “and I decided that the best I could do is to pay respect to nature in the work that I do. I honor nature by trying to recreate it.”

Nature is an Expanded Canvas

She started puttering around with garden design in her apartment, but after a while realized that this was no longer enough. “For many years I lived in an apartment and did indoor planting, which was fine for a while, but soon I wanted more. I wanted to plant outside, and be even more a part of nature,” she revealed.

By then Kwan had sold her successful clothing line and was being asked by friends to assist them with their gardens. Before long she noticed that not only was she doing more and more gardening for friends, but that gardening had started to give her more than she was in fact giving to gardening.“To see a tomato coming up out of the earth,” Kwan explained, “that is just a gift in and of itself. What a garden teaches us is that there is no time or space to have a bad hair day. The garden keeps giving against all odds. For me, gardening expanded the canvas that I can work with. A garden is a living laboratory. It is coloring with nature.”

Incorporating Winter into the Garden

When I asked her about the short window of time she has to create gardens in Quebec, given that winters there can be so long, she admitted that she liked the time frame she has to do her works. “You see,” Kwan explained, “that short time frame in the summer allows me to have the miraculous experience of seeing things happen up close and in a short time frame. I get to plant things and see them come to fruition all in one season.

“In addition to which, I always try to create a garden for four seasons. Winter doesn’t bother me much because I think of snow like a living sculpture and I incorporate it into the garden. In this way the garden becomes a moving painting. In addition to which, winter is the time I use for embroidery. In the winters I recreate the summer garden on textile. I am so fortunate to be able to do this in the winter. It is all a continuum for me: embroidery in the winter extends the work that I do in the summer.”

Gorgeous Embroidery

And what gorgeous work her embroidery is! They in fact look more like paintings than embroidery, with such carefully modulated and perfectly placed stitches. One has to get really close to examine Eileen Kwan’s work or have an eye for texture to realize that they are not looking at a painting.

“My work with embroidery came from my work with textiles,” Kwan further explained. “That is what I mean about my work all being a continuum.” Here, she paused, reflecting, before continuing. “Maybe, in a sense, my working with embroidery was my first work with textiles, because I remember learning to embroider when I was in grade four, when I was just a small child.

“There is an economy to embroidery that I like. I like the quality of being still and the internal dialogue that ensues. You can literally hear your own thoughts as you embroider, so profound is the silence that embroidering engenders for me. It is almost a sacred space that I enter into when I embroider. And that is why I leave in everything that happens when I embroider. I leave in all the mistakes, because they are all meant to be part of the particular work I am doing.”

Garden Exuberance

Though she is reluctant to see price associated with her embroidery, all the art pieces that she makes are, in fact, for sale. You can contact Eileen Kwan about doing family heirlooms in embroidery; purchasing cushions or framed wall art; or if you would like her to help you create your own personal oasis amid the increasingly fast-paced lives that we all seem to be leading these days.

“I have been in business officially for six years now. I create residential gardens for customers,” Kwan said. “My job is to create a garden that my customers want. For me, this means creating something precious. It is an honor to be able to create beauty in someone’s life, whether that is through using plants like crayons, or whether that is by stitch after patient stitch like I do with my embroidery work in the winter.”

You can contact Eileen Kwan at:

www.gardenexuberance.com

gardenexuberance@gmail.com

Until next time.

All images provided by Eileen Kwan and used with permission.

‘American Made’ Winner Rowland Ricketts Dreams of an Indigo-Making Revival

on December 1, 2014 by Jacqueline in American Made Award, Community Development, Design, Design tips, Dyes, Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Gifts, Home Goods, Indigo, Indigo-making, Japan, small farmers, Table runners, Textile ⋅ Leave a comment

And then again life unfolds by happenstance. When you wanted to spend the summer in Germany, as a junior in high school, but you did not get selected to go on that program. Right next door there was a beginning Japanese class, and you would get to go to Japan for a few weeks over summer break if you took that class. So you dropped the German class, enrolled in the Japanese class and there were three life-changing weeks in Japan. You would not get over that time in Japan, and by the time you went off to college, you ended up studying, well, Japanese … and then after college you went to live in Japan for what should have been a year or two teaching English … but what turned into ten years … and in those ten years in Japan you got introduced to indigo making and, well, there was no turning back now.

This is what happened with Rowland Ricketts.

Environmentally Friendly Art-Making

Ricketts was teaching a course in photography in Japan when he had a light-bulb moment. One day he started wondering where all the chemicals he was using in his photography class was ending up, and the answer — that it ended up in a river — bothered him so much that he started seeking out more sustainable ways of doing art. More ways that were in tune with the environment. Eventually he found a group collecting plants to make natural dyes, and, before long, he got hooked on making dyes as well, from plants — indigo, in particular. Eventually he would go on to master indigo making. Says Ricketts, “I love the great human tradition of making indigo. I really love the fact that indigo making evolves by each generation taking the skills and applying it to their day and age. There is something very ancient but, as well, strikingly contemporary in indigo making.”

When I challenged him about appropriating the indigenous knowledge of indigo making from Japan and taking it to the United States, Ricketts did not shy away from this discussion. “I don’t have a surface relationship with either Japan or indigo making,” Ricketts explained. ”I lived in Japan for more than a decade. I speak the language. The work I have done is recognized in Japan. The Japanese government, for example, has invited me to have a national exhibition in Japan, so I see what I do as being so much more than appropriating traditional Japanese knowledge. And I always make it very clear, almost painfully clear, to anyone who asks, that I am building upon the knowledge of the Japanese.”

Indigo-Making in Japan

Part of the reason that Ricketts chose to study indigo making in Japan was that the climate was similar to the one in the United States. “Indigo is made in different ways around the world. There is a really rich indigo-making tradition in various countries. The form of indigo making that occurs in Japan is one that is best suited to a temperate climate, similar to the climate in the Midwest where I live. I knew that eventually I would move back to live in the United States, and so I wanted to learn how to make indigo in a place where I could replicate it in the United States.”

Today, from his home in Bloomington, Indiana, Ricketts grows, harvests and composts the plant that he uses to make his indigo. There is something about engaging in the entire process of making indigo — the cumulative knowledge, and the ways that Ricketts himself adds to the process — that is very meaningful to the artist. In fact, this work of growing and harvesting plants and working with natural plants particularly appeals to someone who did not have this awareness while growing up in the United States. ”Growing up in the United States,” Ricketts told me, “there was no making of anything from the raw, from scratch. Anything we wanted, we got from the store. There was no using of plants in one’s immediate environment. For me, in growing up, plants were weeds and to be gotten rid of. When I lived in Japan I lived in the rural area in a very old house. In this house that I was slowly fixing up, I came to have a different relationship with the natural world around me.”

Ricketts’s work is gorgeous. The dye and textile works that he produces often make me think of a sea of unfolding blue when I look at them. What I find particularly exciting about the work that Rowland Ricketts does is how easily he moves between the categories of fine and functional art. He makes a line of table runners that is particularly gorgeous. In recognition of his work Ricketts was recently awarded the American Made Award given by none other than Ms. Martha Stewart herself. “This is so exciting!” Ricketts said to me, barely able to contain his joy the day I spoke to him. “It is exciting and unexpected and it is a tremendous recognition of the work that I do!”

An Indigo-Making Revival in the United States and Beyond

Building on the attention that he has gotten because of the American Made Award, Ricketts has allowed himself to dream big dreams. “Getting this award is so much bigger than just me. It is a recognition of the indigo process. Indigo making entails minimum income for maximum labor. Yet it is all worth it! What I want to do is make more people aware of indigo making and the rich history that goes with this. There is now in the United States a local movement aimed at bringing back small-scale manufacturing of textiles and natural dyes. I am very much a part of this movement and my hope is that growing indigo can become a means to economically support small-scale farmers in my community — and beyond.”

Listening to him speak I found myself dreaming right along with Rowland Ricketts.

But more than that, I felt I was in the presence of someone who could fully realize his blue-upon-blue indigo dreams.

Contact Rowland Ricketts through his website here: http://www.rickettsindigo.com

Until next time.

All images in this article are copyrighted to Rowland Ricketts and used with permission.

UK-based Company ‘Wild in Art’ Uses Figurines As Tools of Learning

on November 1, 2014 by Jacqueline in Art promoting community integration, Art trails, Books About Town, Design, Design tips, Figurine, Furniture, Gifts, Healthy Living, Home Goods, protecting species, United Kingdom, Wild in Art ⋅ 2 Comments

Wild in Art Uses Figurines As Tools of Learning

After several years of working in television, Sally-Ann Wilkinson was looking to do more work with art and using it to bring communities together. She always had a great love for the visual arts, but was getting tired of the way the visual arts was seen as out of touch with the reality of most people’s lives. She and her business partner Charlie Langhorne started looking for a way to bring art onto the street in an accessible, popular and relevant way. That was how Wild in Art was born.

Art That Brings Communities Together

Wild in Art produces mass-appeal events that “engage residents and tourists alike, through the creation of citywide trails of uniquely painted sculptures.” In so doing the company works at putting art and creativity into an everyday context in which various groups get the chance to equally enjoy access to the works created. “We started our company,” says Wilkinson, “because we found that there were huge swaths of the community that did not necessarily integrate with each other. Young professionals might not, for example, integrate with really older residents and so we were looking for a way to bring various parts of the community together. We figured that art was the best way to promote inclusiveness and community integration.”

Founded in 2007, Wild in Art has produced several very successful public art events in cities around the world. To date, company events have raised over five million pounds for charity partners along the way. There have been Gromit sculptures in Bristol, rhinos in São Paulo, elephants in Melbourne and, a personal favorite of mine, the Books About Town project, launched this past summer, which formed a unique trail of “Book Benches” celebrating London’s literary heritage. In so doing, the Books About Town trail successfully brought together two art forms: creative writing and the visual arts.

Using Figurines to Engender Student Learning

Wilkinson sees the work that Wild in Art does as a great opportunity not only for bringing people together (and thereby fostering a sense of belonging) but, as well, as a primary means of getting people, particularly students, to engage with contemporary issues, in a non-threatening way. Says Wilkinson, “We have created a full curriculum for students that we call a creative pack. In this curriculum we use art as a device not only of learning but also of creating. In this curriculum, for example, we encourage discussions about endangered species, and we have figurines and other activities that go along with learning about endangered animals. We have found that if you put a baby elephant in front of a student, even as a sculpture, then that baby elephant becomes real to the students and the need to safeguard and protect that elephant becomes very real to the students, as well.” In the creative pack, students, through the use of figurines and pictures, are taught biology, issues about mothering, among other subjects.

As I listened to Wilkinson talk about the work that Wild in Art does with students, I was charmed. I could practically see young students sprawled out around a teacher and, using the curriculum that Wild in Art developed, not only having an appreciation of the visual arts, but also of the need to safeguard and protect threatened and vulnerable species, and areas, of the world. I could see the students falling in love with the small, delicate figurines that were part of the curriculum and subsequently falling in love with the natural world around them, and the species — endangered and otherwise — with which we share this world.

Wild in Art Pieces as Home Goods

For Wilkinson creating the smaller-scaled figurines is important, since the large-scale sculptures that line the Wild in Art trails are often auctioned off at charity. As she spoke I began to foresee a long line of these small, intricate and very beautiful figurines on a long wooden shelf in my home. I also began to see, too, that some of the larger sculptures would work equally well as decorative pieces in a home setting. I began seeing Wild in Art’s Book Benches popping up in areas of the world that I particularly love — New York City, Jamaica, Morocco. I began seeing my own writing and visual arts coming together on one of those very benches. Yes, indeed, I was charmed.

Wild in Art’s most recent project is all about owls, and is aptly titled, “The Big Hoot!” In this project, roughly three hundred gigantic owls were placed all over Birmingham City, including at the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. “In England,” Wilkinson explains, “the owl stands for wisdom and learning and discovery. We placed these owls in places not only where people would most likely see them, but also in places where people do not ordinarily go. In a sense, we want people to discover and rediscover their local community, and through the trails that we create, people have a chance of doing just that.”

Art Trails That Encourage Healthy Living

The idea of an art trail has blossomed and grown in interesting ways. Now, Wild in Art trails are seen by some in the medical community as a means of encouraging public health and preventative medicine. The trails have become part of a “Health by Stealth” campaign being advanced by health-care workers in the United Kingdom. “The nature of our trail is that people walk alongside them, work alongside them, or cycle by the trails we create,” Wilkinson adds. “In this way the trail encourages mobility, and especially social mobility, with people moving not only in and out of a city, but around a city as well. We are thrilled that our trails are now recognized for promoting a healthy lifestyle!”

So by now you, like me, must be wondering how to get a Wild in Art project into your beloved community. It turns out that this is not as challenging as it might first seem. The most important part of getting a Wild in Art trail in your community is getting a city on board with having a project. Then you can reach out to the Wild in Art team via their website to get the ball rolling.

http://www.wildinart.co.uk

Wild in Art produces tailor-made projects for individual communities all around the world. In so doing, it stages art events that are of particular interest to the local community. The company works equally with well-known and emerging artists, and has a refreshing way of engaging communities to be participants in creating the art that is placed around and among them. Maybe this is the reason for its enormous success?

Until next time.

The Books About Town photographs are credited to Chris O’Donovan. Merchandise images are credited to Stephen King. Go! Rhinos images are credited to Jason Brown. All other images are credited to Wild in Art.

Handsome Home Decorating Products from Vietnam

on August 5, 2014 by Jacqueline in Baskets, Design, Design tips, Dishes and plates, Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Fashion accessories, Furniture, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, interior decorating, Organic Products, Plates, Recycled Paper, Recycled Tires, Vietnam ⋅ 1 Comment

Home Decorating Products from Vietnam

It happened years ago, on a crisp summer day when my grandmother and I were walking from the tiny district of Nonsuch to the even tinier district of Cambridge, high in the Blue Mountains of Portland, Jamaica. We were walking by some tall wild green grass, grass which was much taller than a young girl walking beside her grandmother. I reached over to touch the grass but pulled back my hand quickly, and searched to see if the sharp green blades had sliced my palm. They hadn’t. My grandmother searched my palm, too, and when she was satisfied that nothing was wrong with her cherished granddaughter she told me how, as a young woman growing up in Nonsuch, she would use that very same grass to make baskets that were so good she ended up selling some of them. I guess it was in that moment that I developed an almost irrational love of baskets, and so I am always on the lookout for a good basket, which is exactly what I found at the Vietnam Handicraft Company. The company makes furniture, bowls, trays, cutlery, platters, pots, and of course both large and small baskets, and other home goods and fashion accessories, from bamboo, rattan, sea grass, water hyacinth, fern, straw, palm leaves and, of all things, fashion magazine paper and recycled tires.

As I conducted the interview, I have to admit that I was surprised that something aesthetically pleasing could be made from recycled tires, or even fashion magazine paper for that matter. But I soon found myself looking at these coolly elegant baskets and vases. Fastidious home goods shopper that I am, I could immediately appreciate the craftsmanship, durability and beauty in the work. Based in Hanoi, Vietnam, the Vietnam Handicraft Company is a manufacturing and trading company that specializes in making home goods and fashion accessories from natural resources. Says Mr. Vu Duc Hoan, founder of the company, “We use a lot of natural and recycled products in our company, which are local to Vietnam, to create eco-friendly products. We also use a lot of repurposed materials because we are trying to do our small part in protecting our environment and safeguarding our earth.”

Mr. Hoan created his company as a way of providing meaningful income for people living in the rural areas of Vietnam. As he says, “Our country, Vietnam, is still a developing country, and there are many people who still plant rice, for example, by hand. After crop season, many of these people, unfortunately, do not have work, and life for them can become quite difficult. In creating the Vietnam Handicraft Company I was looking for a way for these individuals to continue earning money throughout the year, and I wanted to do this by utilizing the used, natural, or discarded materials in Vietnam.” Such a project, Mr. Hoan believes, “would bring real value to the people of Vietnam while helping us to reconnect with the materials of our country, and the materials discarded in our country.”

I cannot think of a more worthwhile thing to do.

In addition to rightfully taking pride in the products that his company creates, and, indeed, how he creates these products, Mr. Hoan also takes immense pride in the many services—especially the customer service—provided by the Vietnam Handicraft Company. “We offer buyers worldwide complete service: from sampling, to packing, shipping, the opportunity to order smaller quantities in mixed lots, and all of this will be delivered at our customers’ door.Our expertise is manufacturing the right product, at the right price, with the best quality for our customers. We back customers’ orders with our commitment to providing peace of mind to our customers on anything they have purchased.”

A great product, at a great price, with total commitment to customer service, while working to safeguard the environment? Sounds like a winning combination to me. Here is where you can place orders for goods from the Vietnam Handicraft Company: http://vietcraft.vn

Until next time.

Ceramics is a Family Business in a Small City in Southern Spain

on July 3, 2014 by Jacqueline in Ceramic, Design, Dishes and plates, Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Garden supplies, Gifts, Home Goods, Pottery, Spain ⋅ 5 Comments

Sometimes I realize that I was looking for something only after I have found what it was that I was looking for. And so it was, one Saturday morning I was browsing through a large department store when, from a distance, I spotted and immediately had to have some brightly colored and richly designed ceramic plates and bowls. My hands were crowded with the things I had been picking up along the way, but the moment I spotted the Cerámica Del Río Salado bowls and plates, I put all the things that now felt like heavy burdens in my hands by the wayside and walked purposefully over to examine the beautiful delicate ceramic plates. These plates, I decided then and there, were really why I was in the store that morning, and mentally I saw them replacing the dishes I had at home.

As I stood looking at the observable differences on each of the pieces — the plates and bowls handmade with great care — I wondered who, in this day and age, made handmade pieces that could be bought in a large department store.

So I went to find out the story behind these beautiful ceramic pieces.

Cerámica Del Río Salado is a family-owned business located in La Rambla, a small town in the Andalucían region of Spain. Today the company is owned and operated by four brothers, but, says co-owner Jesus Del Río Salado, “It was my father who started the company in 1969. My father at the time was working as a young man in a company that fabricates ceramic. He really liked what he was doing and he came home and was telling my mother about it. He and my mother decided back then to start their life together by creating and operating their own ceramic company. They named their company Jose Del Río Salado, which was my father’s name. This is how our company came into the world of ceramics.”

Given the rich history associated with the company that his father started, I wondered what brought about the company’s change of name from Jose Del Río Salado to Cerámica Del Río Salado. “We are four brothers who now work in, own and manage the company,” Jesus told me. “When my brothers and I took ownership of the company, we changed the name to give a sense of our new role in a new company.”

The company makes a wide variety of ceramic products for the kitchen, for decorations, to be given as gifts, and for the garden, as well as producing one-of-a-kind pieces upon request. “Our designs, which are exclusive and patented, are made by a team of four designers who work to develop pieces that show the human handprint in the making of the pieces.”

Of course when I told him how much I liked his handmade pottery, so much so that I wanted to feature it on Meaningful Designs, Jesus was delighted. “My brothers and I, we grew up working in ceramics and we love working in ceramics. We are always on the lookout for something new, and we are always experimenting with new designs and new colors. We are always on the lookout for new customers. Part of the work that we produce and sell is for our local and national market, here in Spain. But in the last decade or so we have been reaching out to an export market, and so we are delighted that you have such a positive reaction to our products. We try to personalize the work we do here at Cerámica Del Río Salado, so that we can reach as many people in as many countries as possible.”

This method of personalizing ceramics for individuals and different markets in different countries seems to be working. The small family-owned business has quadrupled its sales volume in recent years and has expanded the list of countries that it exports to. It now directly employs twenty individuals to work in the company’s facilities, while another twenty individuals work indirectly in trying to meet the increased demands for their products.

Not bad, for a small family-owned company.

Cerámica Del Río Salado also offers a series of national prizes for ceramics. “The national prizes are held every year in Córdoba City,” Jesus told me, “and I guess we started them because for many years my father won many prizes in ceramics, and my brothers and I won some too. We started thinking that it would be a good way of ‘giving back’ to a community that has given so much to our family, by having a prize associated with the place where our company is located and where our family is from. So we have these ceramics prizes and competitions in various categories including one that is open to candidates on pieces of ceramics with no decoration, to valorize just the shape and the craftsmanship of the piece. Another prize concerns ceramic painting and drawing by hand. We have several categories, and very much enjoy putting on these competitions.”

Following up on the theme of “giving back” and safeguarding of traditions, Cerámica Del Río Salado pays particular attention to environmental concerns. “The place where we work is known for its stunning clay which has given a certain look to ceramics from this region for years going back to the Bronze ages. Our company is based in an area in Spain known for its primary materials, and for having a rich history linked to the production of pottery. The clay from our area, however, is no longer used in ceramics and pottery, so we now make our products largely with imported clay. We urge the companies that we buy our clay from to pay attention to the environment, and to work to safeguard the environment, as we do in our work. After all, this earth is the only one we’ve got!”

Contact Cerámica Del Río Salado at: http://www.delriosalado.com

Until next time.

Soumia Aamar Ikrame helped with the reporting on this article and Michelle Vassallo worked on translations.

Gorgeous Recycled-Paper Goods from Women in Morocco

on June 9, 2014 by Jacqueline in Design, Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Female Empowerment, Furniture, Home Goods, Interior Design, Morocco, Organic Products, Recycled Paper ⋅ 3 Comments

Five years ago when a friend gave Asmaa Benachir a small beautiful bag made of recycled paper, her friend had no idea how she would be changing the artist’s life. Ms. Benachir was instantly enchanted with the little bag and started experimenting with recycled paper. The result was Au Grain de Sésame, an arts and crafts initiative that trains disadvantaged women to design and create organic products based on an innovative technique of recycling paper. Based in Rabat, Morocco, Au Grain de Sésame specializes in producing a great many home goods from recycled paper, including center tables, stools, baskets, vases, trays, bags, and a host of other products. Indeed Asmaa Benachir, though the work of the Au Grain de Sésame, is pioneering a new form of furniture made only from recycled paper. Ms. Benachir sees the work that the women of Au Grain de Sésame do as “preserving and promoting the local art and cultural heritage of Morocco. Au Grain de Sésame contributes to raising awareness of environmental conservation, while encouraging the choice of eco-friendly purchasing.”

But can paper possibly be sturdy enough for such things as center tables, waste baskets and stools?

Yes, Asmaa Benachir answers emphatically. You can make home goods, she says, in paper that will hold up as much as any other household product does. The trick to all of this is in knowing what you are doing, and building something that is durable.

I first became aware of Asmaa Benachir when she came to an exhibition I had in Morocco. When we got to talking, so fascinated was I with the idea that recycled paper could make household goods that I went to visit her at her gorgeous little gallery in the medina in Rabat. I saw the many paper-goods she had in the gallery, including an astonishing series of furniture, but a part of me still wondered, despite how sturdy they were to the touch, if they could actually hold up. So in 2009 I decided to take Ms. Benachir up on her challenge.

I commissioned from her a large suitcase-like bag that I would use to carry artwork back from Morocco to the United States. Let me be clear here, I told her, the bag would not actually fly with me in the plane, would not be part of my carry-on luggage, but instead would be checked onto the flight. And it would be carrying some of my precious artwork.

No problem, Ms. Benachir said. I can do that for you.

I am happy to report that so many years later, that bag is still going strong.

When I said this to Ms. Benachir in preparation for this article, she was delighted. “And it’s a natural product!” she said, leaning back in the workshop of the new and larger space in Rabat that she has just opened. “And think about it. Paper will not harm the environment, and that is one of the reasons I so enjoy working with recycled paper. It is sturdy and strong and it will not harm the environment! That is what I am trying to impart at Au Grain de Sésame. I am trying to sensitize women to the socio-economic importance of protecting the environment, and I want as many people as possible to know that you can do this by working with recycled paper, and that you can make beautiful yet durable things from recycled paper.”

The work of the Au Grain de Sésame is twofold. On the one hand, the space functions as an artistic gallery. However, as Ms. Benachir explained to me, the larger aim of the work of Au Grain de Sésame is “the empowerment of women.” Ms. Benachir is of the belief that art can be a means of development for countries like Morocco, and this is what she is showing and showcasing through the gorgeous handmade recycled paper works at Au Grain de Sésame.

And it is important, too, for Ms. Benachir that she works with women.

Says she, “One of the things that is known about Morocco is that we make beautiful products. Women in particular make absolutely beautiful products, artisanal products. Women in fact make these products quite easily.” What was missing from the work that women do, though, Ms. Benachir found, was a way for them to “professionally market and sell their products.”

She was also quite troubled by the ways in which female artisans were “dependent on a maâlem—a person who has extensive knowledge about a certain craft but who is often reluctant to transmit this knowledge to others.” These are some of the obstacles for women that Ms. Benachir seeks to overcome in the work she does at Au Grain de Sésame.

Benachir achieves her goal through a series of workshops. “The workshops that we run,” she told me, “include book-binding, artistic packaging, furniture decorating, art framing, and a workshop on making strong durable furniture from cardboard. We also have a print workshop and run a gift shop and cafe, as well.”

She admits that the work of development is hard, with one of the main challenges being securing funding to keep the enterprise going. “We were lucky to get a SEED grant recently,” she says. “And we have three enthusiastic American volunteers who are working with us. But every day it is a struggle.”

But for Ms. Benachir it is a struggle that is clearly worth it.

Because of her strong belief that there is a lot of unchanneled creativity particularly in women in developing countries, she hopes that in the work she is doing with Au Grain de Sésame she is launching a project that can be duplicated in other countries.

She points to the name of her collective, to explain why she remains optimistic despite the many challenges she faces in doing her job. “A grain is such a small thing,” she says from her new workshop, bright sunlight pouring through windows and doors as we talk. “A grain is a seed, something that, if you take care of it, can give you a lot. The first seed that you plant and take care of can give unintended results. Beautiful results. A seed can be magical. In fact, a seed is a magic formula—like in the myths of ‘open sésame.’ When you bring the two ideas together—Au Grain de Sésame—you bring together will and work to realize dreams.”

And a little bit of magic too, I would add, looking at the beautiful works that Ms. Benachir and the women of Au Grain de Sésame create.

Asmaa Benachir and Au Grain de Sésame can be contacted through their Facebook page. In a few weeks their new website www.augraindesesame.com should be up and running.

Until next time.

Meaningful Designs

Category Archives: Design

Antillean Décor and Home Goods Company draws inspiration from the Caribbean

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The Island of St. John is home to Avelino Samuels, a Master Woodturner

Canadian Eileen Kwan Creates Exuberant Embroidered Landscapes One Patient Stitch at a Time

‘American Made’ Winner Rowland Ricketts Dreams of an Indigo-Making Revival

UK-based Company ‘Wild in Art’ Uses Figurines As Tools of Learning

Handsome Home Decorating Products from Vietnam

Ceramics is a Family Business in a Small City in Southern Spain

Gorgeous Recycled-Paper Goods from Women in Morocco

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