Salad days #5

PARKAN showcases Stefan Spiteri's research into the history, use and possible future of traditional woollen blankets called Parkan, from Malta. By visibly repairing a number of old, locally made blankets, contemporary interpretations of a forgotten tradition are created. With this collection, the designer aims to breathe new life into this traditional craft.

More work: @stefan.spiteri

Emme Neirick (Textile Design, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent) demonstrates how a year of research into form, colour and materiality in textiles can result in a sustainable and wearable collection. Through a collaboration with the weaving and knitting industry, her research, based on the line as a basic element, was translated into experimental jumpers, scarves and other garments. The pieces embody craftsmanship and tactility, allowing them to transcend trends and fast fashion.

More about the designer and her label: Serge

The organic-looking objects by Gayaneh De Coster (Sculpture, Glass and Ceramics, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent) resemble dried foodstuffs, but at the same time carry erotic references. Their tactility invites touch and an encounter with the viewer. They embody a way of creating in which material research, process and touch are central. Attraction and repulsion are sometimes closely related in this context.

The tactile objects in the 'Jugs and Pitchers' collection bear traces of everyday, slow and attentive actions. Filling a pitcher, arranging objects, touching materials. In her work, Esther Alvoet (Sculpture, Glass and Ceramics, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent) explores the importance of these sometimes ritualistic actions that bring us into contact with the sensory and create space for slowness and introspection.

In his design projects, Jaron Vandevelde (Autonomous Design, KASK) explores the collaboration between humans and animals. Coot and woodworm are the co-authors of this surprising graduation project, which explores new ways of coexisting and collaborating between different organisms. The designer created safe nesting sites on the waterways of Ghent, where coots build nests with plastic “waste” they collect from the water. After the breeding season, the nests are collected. This allows the material to be sorted and the coots to contribute to solving the waste problem. Together with the woodworm, new ways of biological woodworking are being sought, complementing existing techniques.

More info on the project: Meer koet, minder afval

Inspired by her feminist activist Danish grandmother, Beate Bloch Christensen (Graphic Design, KASK) created replicas of the protest material used by the Rødstrømpebevægelsen (Danish women's rights movement). Through the use of woodblock printing, slogans from the 1970s are activated in a contemporary context and used as a useful and living archive for a new generation of women.

As a photographer, Maroesjka Lavigne (Textile Design, KASK) is fascinated by landscapes and how they constantly change due to atmospheric influences such as light. Our memories of a landscape are also constantly in flux. Photography and textiles come together in her work in poetic textile objects that attempt to capture this changeability. Through the use of techniques such as weaving, fraying, pleating and printing, and a play of light and shine, different interpretations and memories of a landscape come together in a single image.

Find everything about the designer here.

The tactile and inspired handicraft creations of Abril Adell Piña (Textile Design, KASK) provide a counterbalance in a world of soulless mass-produced goods. They invite slowness and connection between people and objects. Colour, line, shape and material represent and inspire. They embody the importance of craftsmanship as a radical gesture to restore the connection with the physical world that surrounds us.

Discover more of her work here.

With the Folded Alu Series collection, Auguste Carels (Interior Design, KASK) explores a design system without additional connecting elements such as bolts, screws or welds. All the furniture is constructed from laser-cut, folded aluminium sheets and profiles, forming a recognisable and coherent collection consisting of a coffee table, lamp and shelving structures, which can be expanded in the future with other types of furniture.

More about his work here.