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I am Professor Mare Kelpman, head of the Department of Textile Design of the Estonian Academy of Arts.
We had the opportunity to organize a workshop supervised by a foreign instructor as part of the
Baltic Fashion Project.
We were very happy that Lena Berglin from Borås agreed to supervise the workshop.
We prepared for the workshop for quite a while.
We discussed the potential subject of the workshop for months.
I was interested in an idea that had not really been implemented in Estonia previously:
using textiles in an outdoor environment.
Similar ideas have been put into practice on many occasions
elsewhere in the world, where the climatic conditions are more suitable.
But there could definitely be more projects like this. So, we had a week-long workshop in the winter.
I am happy to say that there were also participants who do not study in the Department of Textile Design.
For example, from the Department of Architecture.
They brought different ideas to our group and helped create a new and interesting picture.
We focused on the courtyard of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design,
since the doors of the museum actually open into the courtyard, meaning that people in the street
do not recognise it as a museum.
This is why the museum needed to add an attraction which would encourage people to step into its courtyard.
The goal was to generate a Wow! effect and make people notice the fascinating museum.
On the other hand, we also thought about what people would like to do in the courtyard:
they would like to sit down and spend time here; children would enjoy playing here.
So we tried to create a pleasant environment for visitors in this beautiful courtyard.
We came up with three different ideas as a result of the winter project,
some of which were more high-tech, some less.
When looking for ways to apply these ideas in reality, we considered a wide variety of versions.
In the end, we decided that the project should be characteristic of students,
which means that we would use cheaper and more readily available materials,
and focus on making use of the production capacities of Estonian companies.
And we actually ended up using a great deal of surplus materials left over from manufacturing processes,
which would otherwise have been scrapped.
So, in the course of the project, we actually offered companies an output, showing them
how their surplus materials could be used in a new way.
We had decided to make chairs and our other goal was to create a sort of kite-like
canopy that would rise up to the sky, or simply an eye-catching textile in the sky.
We started by looking for ways to make the seats.
They had to be movable, they could not be too heavy, they naturally had to be very comfortable,
and they had to be made of quick-drying materials so they would not be soaked through after heavy rain.
They had to be durable and resistant to the sun as well as potential acts of vandalism.
And actually we discussed the various options and looked for different solutions for quite a while.
In the end, after visiting several companies, we decided to use the surplus materials left over
from the manufacturing processes of Mistra-Autex, an Estonian producer of car textiles.
The seats are crocheted from cut-off edges of carpets produced for trade fairs,
which would otherwise have been thrown away.
Manufacturers accumulate a lot of these surplus materials, so this was also a positive experience for the company:
they discovered that something could be made from their leftovers.
These will be the covers for the seats in the courtyard of the Museum of Applied Art and Design.
We are using surplus materials from Mistra-Autex to make them,
so this could be called a "green" programme – we are using leftovers.
Minu nimi on Lena Berglin ja ma olen
õppejõud ja teadur õppeasutuses Swedish School of Textiles.
Ma olin siin jaanuaris ja tegin tudengite ja Marega koos workshopi.
Me töötasime avaliku ruumiga, tekstiilidega avalikus ruumis ja meie tegevuskohaks oli Eesti Tarbekunsti muuseum.
Me hakkasime seda ala uurima ja seejärel toimusid ülikoolis workshopid tudengitega,
kes uurisid meeskonnatööna materjale ja nende kasutamist kõnealuses piirkonnas.
Ülejäänud nädalaks jagati tudengid kolme gruppi, mis tegelesid mitmete väga huvitavate ideedega.
Ma mäletan, et tudengid suhtusid suure hoolega tekstiili struktuuri... *** olid sellele keskendunud.
See, mida ma siin täna näen, rõõmustab mind väga, sest siin on kasutatud tekstiilile väga omast väljendusviisi.
Minu arvates on siin rakendatud väga uudseid ideid, sest kasutatud on materjali, mis on tegelikult prügi,
mis peaks tegelikult ära visatud olema.
Ja seda materjali on kasutatud uut laadi toote loomisel.
Tulemus on tootele väga lähedal, sest sajust hoolimata töötavad istmed endiselt väga hästi.
Mul on väga hea meel sellist tulemust näha ja mind rõõmustab ka see, et töötatud on veel ühe kihiga,
mis asub kõrgel õhus, ja kasutatud on täiesti teistsugust kangast.
Seega, jah, ma olen tulemusega väga rahul. Mariliis ja Mare tegid workshopi jätkamisel head tööd.
We are architecture students and, as it happened, we received an invitation
to take part in a textile workshop.
And so we attended the workshop.
It was just the two of us from the Department of Architecture
in this group of textile design students.
What's probably the coolest thing about this project is working together with another department.
The fact that there should be more cooperation between EAA's departments
is being talked about a lot.
The students should communicate with each other,
especially now that we are divided between different buildings.
I think this project was a great example
of the kind of cooperation that could take place between students.
Similar workshops could bring students from different specialties
together in the future.
The process was very interesting in every sense.
It was interesting to meet new people, of course, and to try new things and acquire new skills,
such as crochet.
We got to make something.
Yes, we got to make something.
Our studies are generally focused on creating projects on paper,
but now we had to actually create something and, in a sense, we had more responsibility,
since the project would actually be completed and it would turn out exactly as well as we would make it.
We did not have to think that the quality of the work would depend on our model design.
I enjoyed the format: there was a quick one-week workshop,
which focused on the theoretical aspect and was especially useful for us
in terms of generating new ideas and seeing what textile designers do
and what can be done today.
This was followed by a very long practical period
during which we had to consider prices, practicality and weather conditions
in order to create a proper product.
This project is connected to my Master's thesis,
which relates to the use of surplus textiles from the textile industry.
Since we made these seats from pieces of carpet that we got from the Mistra factory,
it was a great experience to find these solutions and develop our ideas in practice.
The technique of crocheting by hand is an ancient one: it's like the beginning of the beginnings.
It is hard work, but you actually get results really quickly.
It was actually pretty interesting and we had lots of help, so it was great.
During the project, we had to make several compromises and find new solutions to replace unsuitable ones,
in terms of materials, sizes, the right ways to fasten the materials…
I think we all learned something from this:
firstly, how to mobilise ourselves during a very limited period
and secondly, what requirements the outdoor textiles have to meet
and how impressive objects can be created with very simple means.
I hope the students had an interesting experience by participating in this project.
And, of course, the people who actually use these textiles will be happy.
I would like to thank the students, naturally, I would like to thank Lena, who was… who were
willing to come to Tallinn in the winter and who was a very inspiring partner to work with.
And the students, of course.
Especially those who held on to the final stretch and actually created these textiles with their hands.
And Mariliis, of course, who coordinated the entire project.
After some time, I once again had a reliable team – this is not always the case. Thank you!