Claudy Jongstra: It’s not complex, and it's very nearby, it's so basic. I mean, you could say when people first settled, what did they do? They started weaving, making something like a tent, or a basket, or clothes; weaving is really close to our origin. You could say it's also a world connecter.
My name is Claudy Jongstra, I’m a Mural Artist, and I have been working with wool for the last fifteen years.
The textile itself, I mean the wool, was from this area and the silk coming from China, and the linen coming from Egypt—I mean all these cultures in the world have a relationship to a certain fiber, and in the cotton. Working with them, and the materials, I mean everybody feels very naturally attracted to it, and comfortable with it, working with it. It's not something unknown, even [though] maybe you've forgotten about it. But [what’s] so interesting about it [is] I think it's really in our system and it's the same as with the colours.
So that's why we started the sheep, working with the sheep. And also with the colours, but also with the dyes—I mean the dyes you can also say it's about sustainability, bringing them back into our world. It's about waste, it's about lost craft. I mean it's not there anymore. A lot of the things we do, the techniques and the craftsmanship are also about things we lose, and things, well, that are not sustainable anymore.
I mean, we didn't just start a garden with vegetation, but we also had to discover how the botanics and how vegetation would grow in the North, so for every step of this studio we had to develop a whole new knowledge also. So it's very... the colours are very connected to the region too.
So this is really an indigo, it was grown in the north of the Netherlands on our properties, but it's the development of the recipes; it was a lot of regions too. But I think you could see it in the end, the quality and the depth and vitality of the materials show processes, and I think these processes, they go over time. And time is, I think, the most valuable part of what we do.
I think the Netherlands, the Dutch people, have in some sense, a radical mind. So I can use—in texture—we can do, I think the most expressive works can be here. We're not afraid of something we do not know, so it's very interesting.
The TextielMuseum in Tilburg—they were one of the first offering students but also professionals to develop new products, new textiles, new printing techniques; it's really incredible. So they invested a lot into the lab. And I think by showing that, and also the interaction behind the different mediums, meant a lot not only for the Netherlands but also having a big impact on the way we look at, or our perception on, textiles in the wider sense.
Hebe Verstappen: So my name is Hebe Verstappen, I’m head of the TextielLab, and the TextielLab is the workshop of the TextielMuseum in the Netherlands.
From my childhood I had an interest in textiles because my mother had a spinning wheel, and I always saw that there came bags of wool into the house. And she began to spin and began to knit, or to weave, and it was a magical process to see something, well, making from nothing. There was something beautiful, and it never went away. And [the] most important thing of that process is that the pride we had all, and my mother had a kind of pride of the product.
Hebe Verstappen:We launched the TextielMuseum label and our biggest wish is that we bring design home with the consumer. And that it’s affordable and that people... [know] where you buy a tea towel [from]. This tea towel is from Raw Color. When you buy it, you buy a story, and you buy not only this story of making, but also the story of Raw Color, the story of our museum collection, the story of the identity, and there is also a lot of ambition in each product. So in that way, we bring design [to] the homes of the people.
Christoph Brach: So these are products that are in your interior, on your floors; we also tried to think first of all, always, what would we want to have ourselves. So can I imagine it in my own house? I think that's always a big reference. And then you also try to think a bit like, “Okay, maybe we like things that are more colourful maybe than other people do,” so you also try to get diversity of things. But in that sense, you know, it can be more in the background; it can create atmosphere or mood. So yeah, we try to explore that in different ways.
My name is Christoph Brach, I'm a Co-founder of Studio Raw Color. We are a business, since 2007, and I founded with my partner Daniera ter Haar. And we are a team of 5 people working together across different areas of design, like graphic design, textiles, and photography.
I think because we work in a lot of graphic projects, that also how we design textiles will definitely be influenced by that. I mean in that sense, it's not so different if you make a pattern for [the] textile. Of course, you have a technique; it's different, the technique of printing, or of the weaving. You need to take in account the way of bindings, and to work with yarns. So I think in that sense—the graphic approach for project, I think it's very prominent, always.
Here we have some samples of the process from the Index collection. And here the focus of the materiality was quite clear, because we knew we wanted to make tea towels. And at the TextielLab, one of the available materials that are very good in the blending of colours is biological cotton. And then actually, the big quest was how do you create the patterns and the design of the textile.
One of our tasks is to make something that communicates well to people. And think that that aspect of communication, at least I hope, that's also what we try to achieve in these textiles here. The blocks that indicate the colours, and if you have ten blocks then it's 100% colour, if you have two then it's 20% of the colour intensity.
And of course [it’s] not every person who will take the time to look into that, or maybe don't think it's really interesting, but the people that appreciate that, they might see it and then feel the aspect of this project that communicates to them. And maybe that’s what works, or the tactility, that it—that you can see in it. So maybe that’s the aspect of communication, even in a piece of textile, and the love you put it [in], hopefully that's something that comes across.
Hebe Verstappen: If you see how we are buying clothes for €5 at H&M or the other shop, I think it starts with getting to know what the story behind your clothes or your fabrics are. And we talk a little bit about what we are doing, the process of making the fabric, but before that, there is a whole process about fibres and spinning the yarn on that way or that way. I mean, the pride of a product and the whole process, and the love that it’s in [it]. That’s for me, flexible materials and textiles.
And for the professionals that are using our machines, innovation always starts with something you hadn’t expected and yeah, when you only work with computer-controlled techniques, there will not be so many times a moment where something is unexpected. And when you are weaving something and then print by hand, or embroider by hand, something on it, then you are really having the attention on the fabric or on the thing you are going to make.
Mae Engelgeer: I think the perception of textile being fast, or coming from this fast fashion industry, I think with the work that I create is—I think that you can see a lot of love has gone into it, but also a lot of techniques, crafts. And by that, I think you take away the fastness. I'm not creating pieces that you will use and throw away, and that's just by using mostly natural material: wool, or silk, or cotton.
My name is Mae Engelgeer and I'm a Textile Designer. I have a studio based in Amsterdam where we do different projects with textile as the main material.
I even worked in fashion a bit, after graduation, but then still the material was… it felt so important to me, so I was like , “Okay, but I want to focus more on that.” Also to be from fashion, to going into the field between art and design, and having the textile as a medium was a great way to find out more about design ‘cause that was actually new to me. And also the fact [that] the material could be the result, or could be the most important thing instead of the shape.
I think the role of textile will grow a lot. And I think this is really the moment that people maybe revalue, but also see what the softness and the richness of the material can do for them, but also for a space. And of course I want to make something that is aesthetic, like something beautiful in a way, but that's just how I see it.
But on the other hand, if it at the same time [it] can work good for the acoustic, and will also be a piece of jewelry almost? I think, for example, with the rugs, if you can see the craft, or how it's made, it is jewelry so why not name it like wall jewelry? Or like a piece of art, I don't know, a special piece for interior, or for the walls.
Hebe Verstappen:I feel also that we have the importance to do research and development because wool hangings is one, but on the other hand, on the same machine, you can make this kind of three-dimensional freaky fabrics. And that’s so beautiful that you see a blanket, that you have a wool covering for an architect’s interior designer. That’s an important role for us, I think. Trends for wool covering and curtains, that’s nice, but for us, most important for now is that we give the market new ideas and that’s how we do that.
I believe that if you know the technique and you are a creative person or a designer, you can drive the technique forward. Most of the time these two worlds are very separate from each other, but by combining them and almost pushing them together, the technical world has positive effects because the designers ask very different and very difficult questions. I think we get three questions a week about if it’s possible already, to weave conductive threads or to embroider LED yarns. And I feel in everything that the next question is going to be can we build a house with a woven structure?
Samira Boon:Besides the functional aspect these Archi Folds carries, it was also serving as a—people constantly are intrigued, like, “How how does it work, this system? Or how does it change, this place constantly?” And I think when it has a couple of combination of things which you can discover, or which you can question about, so the relationship between the inside and outside, the perspective is constantly changing.
My name is Samira Boon, and I studied architecture. And while studying architecture I became very interested [in] and I think there [are] a lot of qualities in dynamic spaces. So you see a lot of transformations in the old Japanese and Asian culture and that really struck me or interested me. So that's how I actually also got interested in textiles, ‘cause I think textiles is the ultimate medium to facilitate dynamic spaces.
I even would say like, it's like our third skin, you know? Like our clothes are the second and this is like the third, and then the building structure is a fixed structure. And I think there is also where textiles can become very interesting and really add value. That to maintain and to keep using buildings over a longer time, with constantly changing needs of usage, textiles is a perfect medium to serve this constant change. And that is also, how you could say, sustainability; it really makes a building flexible for different circumstances.
My heart is very much at the research of textiles, but I also feel it is very much relate[d] to implementation, so where do you see it is connected to today's demands.
Because of the three-dimensionality or, heat-sensitivity for example, you are in constant interaction with the textile and with your surroundings. And especially the textiles, the angle changes so what you see is different, and I think that makes you more aware of your surroundings.
There is a lot of flexibility. So with the same piece, exactly the same piece, you can create a kind of endless possibilities.
I think it's interesting when you still talk about textile or when it's—what is the definition of textiles? In my definition of textiles, I really see it as a way—how materials are interlocked with each other, rather than how it should be a certain dimension or a certain material on it's own already. It even can be a bamboo-stick in different treatments.
So yeah, I think building with textiles, that is what I and also how I experience and also approach textiles. That you can build spatial structures, and it still should be flexible, I think that is my definition of textiles.