World of Wearable Art 2014

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And the story behind it? I’ve heard about this competition a few years ago and was always curious to enter it. So in 2014 I decided to do it. I designed a beautiful garment of the East princess in my mind and bought some fresh water pearls for decorating it, just to finally realize that I misunderstood the conditions of the contest and had to send the pictures of the finished piece already, because I was a first year entrant, and I didn’t have another 2 months to do that, as I thought. So I had a choice – do I step back, because it was the last day to send the photos or I send just any photo of my finished pieces? I decided to send what I had – I chose the blue dress I made for ballerina and sent it. To my surprise it was accepted and I had to reproduce the dress to send it to New Zealand. Wish I could have seen my Princess of the East Wind performing on the stage, but New Zealand was just a little bit too far, but just a little bit Glad to be the finalist of the contest though.

Another sense of fashion. Beige

nuno felt dress: wool, silk. Natural dyes: walnut

Little felt lace dress

nuno felt: silk, wool. natural dyes: madder

Ballerina dress

It was one of those personally very special projects – designing a dress for my so beloved ballet dancer Beata Molyte, performing Anna Karenina in a dance play by my beloved choreographer Anzelika Cholina (ACH theater).

photography by Svetlana Batura

Fiber Sculpture

 

Fiber manipulation/sculpture technique, developed by me. ©

Cochineal+madder+walnut in fiber manipulation

Natural colors in natural textures – fiber manipulation/sculpture technique, developed by me. ©

Labyrinths

Stopped by to visit my blog today, yes, I am more a visitor here, barely a blogger. Though all this Internet thing has broadened the world to many of us and opened windows, if not doors, many times it still feels like getting into the labyrinth of all the information and different sources just coming in crowds at you as soon as you open your browser window. Too much and too many. Especially blogging. Or maybe I just have difficulties to choose the path in the labyrinth, preferring to hold on to my silk yarns in my fingertips at the spinning wheel…:)

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

The Wool Lab–trends for Summer 2013

It was really an honor to collaborate with the Wool Lab company in their trends booklet for Spring Summer 2013, - a guide to the best wool fabrics and yarns in the world. My pieces were chosen for one of the trends named PURE.

One of the most important things is to bring inspiration to people’s hearts. Isn’t it?

 

The Net. Connections

Meeting people, getting into mysterious situations of coincidences, especially during my recent travels with my workshop program, always deepened that feeling of the NET, the connections in our lives. There have been so many situations when I meet people who are somehow related to the people I already knew, no matter where on Earth they lived, or me myself, when I meet people I never knew in this life but got a feeling we just parted yesterday and met again, that I really stopped to wonder. I can even say I am really looking forward to every single meeting of “my people” that is yet to come. I don’t ask why I do meet those people, I am not really trying to remember what could have connected us in lives before this one, I just accept and respect every meeting. No matter what it brings – is it me or someone else paying the debts from the past lifetimes, it’s that feeling of connections in humanity, in life, the net around us and in us – it’s like closing your eyes and putting your finger on your wrist to feel the pulse of one LIFE for all that doesn’t start and doesn’t end with birth and death.

This net, the connections have been my theme lately in life, and my focus in my new felt pieces – fragile, yet strong, flowing without a start and the end – every fiber entangled with one another, embracing each other in knots that never get undone, building connections, the net…

Music by  Joe Hisaishi

 

 

 

 

“Meetings are not flowers. They do not fade and die without any traces, stepping into shadows.  … you have to open your mind and heart and to understand people not only as personally closely related, but as the companions to the truth. And then all meetings will be blessed.”   (C.Antarova “Two Lives”)

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.

THIMISTER MMXI-MMXII

I’ve just returned from Paris fashion week where I was to see a collection of Josephus Thimister, for whom I made 2 coats and several capelets. And… I don’t want to say more right now except the text of Josephus that accompanied the collection…


THIMISTER MMXI-MMXII
SNOW MYSTIC CIRCLES OF FALLEN ANGELS
DARKNESS STARES OUT THROUGH ENDLESS TIME AND YOUTH, TAKING FORM OF FALLEN ANGELS – BLACK COMPILES ILLUSION AS INNOCENT SOULS ENLIGHTEN SHADOWS – BROKEN WINGS GROW OUT OF CIRCLES, TOUCHING EARTH WITH FLOWING MEMENTOS – INTRICATE CUTTING OF FABRICS, ENVELOPE BODIES LIKE FLUID SCULPTURES RUNNING FROM MEDIEVAL CLOISTERS AS MODERN WARRIORS – BIG BLACK COATS BECOME SHRINES OF SOULS – CONFUSED THOUGHTS ARE FROZEN INTO WILD KNITS AS WHITE OPPOSES BLACK – THUNDER AND LIGHTENING STRIKE THROUGH THE MUSIC THAT RINGS IN OUR EARS ACCOMPANIED BY THE ECHOES OF SHATTERING HEELS – EPHEMERAL WRAPPINGS STORM AROUND BODIES WITH HURRICANE FORCE – THE SOIL IS ALIVE AND PROCESSING WHILE NATURE RECOGNIZES ITS BALANCE – STORMY CLOUDS DESCEND UPON SHOULDERS COVERING THEM IN HUES OF GREY – NORTHERN LIGHT APPEARS FROM THE DEEPEST PROFOUNDNESS – SNOWFLAKES MURMUR QUESTIONS AS BLACK SNOW BREEZES SOFT POETRY – BIBLICAL WOOL OF JACOBIN SHEEP IS FELTED IN ANCESTRAL WAYS INTO CAPES AND COATS TRAILED BY ETHEREAL CHIFFON – SNOW BREATHS THE REMINISCENT AIR OF OUR DEAR TOLSTOI
- JOSEPHUS MELCHOIR THIMISTER

 Photos from style.com

These are the felt pieces I made for Josephus. See the whole collection at style.com

White wedding

Autumn has traditionally been a season for weddings in our country. Perhaps that’s why I get most of custom orders for weddings in late August and September.

I have always admired the brides who are searching for something really original, even unusual, handmade and natural. Be it a dress or a wedding bouquet. I know there are tons of gorgeous and luxurious wedding gowns for lease in wedding salons, but… these dresses have always pushed me away with their synthetic fabrics, lack of uniqueness and handmade feeling. Especially when you try to imagine it used by a person for the celebration that is supposed to be the most honest, open, one of a kind in one’s life…

Feel felt felt feeling. Nuno felted wedding gown by Viltė Kazlauskaitė

 

It’s really nice to notice that there are more and more brides who take this natural and unique approach to their weddings. You might ask so where is that point of eco-friendliness if more and more brides would not lease a wedding gown in a salon for one day but would have it created just for her? Well, I think it would be much more eco-friendly to repurpose a wedding gown after the wedding to many useful and beautiful pieces of clothing or accessories or save that unique dress for the daughter or grand daughter compared to all chemical cleaning dresses in salons require.

 

Feel felt felt feeling. Nuno felted wedding gown by Viltė Kazlauskaitė

Anyhow, it’s all a question of choice. Every bride who chooses me to design a dress for her is very different and amazing in her own way. I see them prepare for one of the most important moments in their life and hear the story of how they came to this point of choosing this and not that. So with this post I wanted to make a mini overview of some important aspects for weddings when you choose to do it in a natural and unique way. And I’d like to look at our local artists and artisans this time.

 

Wedding rings. Adding something really dear to it, like a detail of fingerprints of your beloved one, choosing more organic shapes and details, putting a piece of simple beach stone that means something for you rather than diamonds, or putting a stone on the side that only you can see – all those little things make  huge difference…

 

by Jurgita Erminaitė Šimkuvienė

 

by Ugnė Blažytė

 

by Eglė Čėjauskaitė

 

 

by Jurgita Erminaitė Šimkuvienė

 

 

Flowers… the flowers I chose grow in our country – in a wild or in grandmothers’ gardens. They represent beauty, fragility, lightness of feminine nature.

 

White peonies

Heath

or even wild madder! (photo credit from Madara cosmetics)

 

I wish I could show you really unique and elegant shoes for the brides, designed by Lithuanian shoe designers, but… As every bride I met had most troubles finding shoes for her, I had the same trouble searching in the internet for our local shoe designers and.. I am afraid nothing really impressed me..or I was not lucky in my search. So I guess our brides will still have to be content with whatever they choose - high fashion shoes from Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo; elegant dance shoes or…everything else, just waiting for a new generation of local shoe designers to grow up and knock us back.

 

Wedding photography… it’s for my next post.

 

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Ruduo – vestuvių metas nuo senų laikų. Galbūt todėl baigiantis vasarai ir prasidedant Rugsėjui gaunu daugiausiai užsakymų vestuvėms.

Visada žavėjausi nuotakomis, kurios planuodamos savo vestuves renkasi originalumą, netgi neįprastumą, natūralumą, tikrumą. Ar tai būtų vestuvinė suknelė, ar gėlių puokštė.

Mane visuomet atstumdavo saloninės nuomojamos vestuvinės suknelės. Taip, žinau, kad ten pilna labai ištaigingų ir gražių, puošnių suknelių. Bet jų dažniausiai sintetinės medžiagos, rankų darbo jausmo ir unikalumo trūkumas veja mane tolyn nuo jų, ypač kai įsivaizduoji, kad tokią suknelę moteris renkasi vilkėti tą savo gyvenimo dieną, kuri turėtų būti nuoširdžiausia, atviriausia, tikriausia, vienatinė jos gyvenime…

Ir tiesą pasakius džiugu stebėti, jog bėgant laikui tokių moterų, kurios pasirenka originalų, rankų darbo, natūralų kelią savo vestuvėms, daugėja. Galite paklausti, kur gi čia tas ekologiškumas, jei kiekviena moteris siūdinsis vestuvinę suknelę, o ne nuomosis. Bet aš manau, kad vestuvinės suknelės “perkūrimas” po vestuvių į daugelį kitų originalių ir mielų širdžiai aprangos detalių, aksesuarų ar kitų dalykų; ar galiausiai tokios vienetinės suknelės saugojimas savo dukteriai ar anūkei, yra daug ekologiškiau palyginus su visa chemija, kuri naudojama saloninių suknelių švarinimui ir atnaujinimui.

Žinoma, visa tai yra pasirinkimo reikalas. Kiekviena nuotaka, kuriai aš kūriau vestuvinę suknelę, skirtinga ir žavi kiekviena savo būdu. Aš matau, kaip jos ruošiasi vienai svarbiausių savo švenčių ir klausau jų istorijų, kaip jos priėmė sprendimą rinktis būtent tai, ką pasirinko. Šiuo įrašu dienoraštyje norėjau tiesiog turmpai apžvelgti keletą svarbių vestuvių aspektų, kurie buvo svarbūs ir mano sutiktom nuotakom. Ir norėčiau pasižiūrėti į mūsų vietinių kūrėjų ir vietinės gamtos kuriamus ir dovanojamus dalykus…

 

Vestuviniai žiedai. Maži dalykai turi didelę reikšmę. Mylimojo pirštų ar delno antspaudų detalė ant žiedo, jūros akmenėlis, kuris turi jauniesiems svarbią reikšmę, o ne deimantas, ar akmenėlis ten, kur jį mato tik mūvintis žiedą, organiškos formos, faktūros…

 

Lietuvoje augančios gėlės vestuvinei puokštei – balti bijūnai močiutės gėlynėlyje, laukiniai viržiai ar net lipikai iš pievų. Visi jie simbolizuoja moteriško prado grožį, trapumą ir stiprumą, lengvumą…

 

Labai norėjau surasti unikalius ir elegantiškus vestuvinius batelius, kurtus lietuvių batų dizainerių, bet…kaip ir visos mano sutiktos nuotakos turėjo daugiausiai problemų ieškodamos batelių, taip ir aš nesugebėjau internete rasti nieko tokio iš lietuvių meistrų, kas iš tiesų pakerėtų savo originalumu, elegantiškomis linijomis.. O galbūt man tiesiog nepasisekė ieškoti. Tad panašu, jog mūsų nuotakos turės tenkintis tuo, ką pasirinks – aukštosios mados atstovų nepriekaištingus batus (Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo), elegantiškus šokėjų batelius, ar…visa kita tol, kol užaugs nauja lietuvių batų dizainerių karta ir savo kūriniais tiesiog nustebins mus visus.

 

Vestuvių fotografija… palikime tai kitam įrašui. :)