Month: February 2021

Denise Voie de Vie

indie dyer + designer

For the last four summers, I have been coordinating a worldwide summer design project: “Progress, Hope, & Happiness.” Conceived and started in 2017, the project was my (albeit humble) antidote to the worldwide contraction starting to occur (Brexit, the U.S. election results, etc). I wanted a way to continue to work with my fellow indie designers during a time in the year outside of the holiday season, when the Indie Designer Gift-a-long usually takes place. 

Incorporating indie dyers as well, creating these summer collections of knit and crochet wearables has been an absolute balm and joy. The accompanying make-a-long is always friendly, composed of makers around the world, and most participants walk away with a sense of accomplishment as well as new friends made. Most importantly, our collective ability to create some things both beautiful and functional across time and space each summer has been nothing short of amazing. Many designers have created designs for multiple collections, and makers return each summer to chat with and make alongside fellow hand stitchers. 

I have been a designer, artist, and maker of many things over the last nine+ years, and the Progress, Hope, and Happiness textile project remains one of my brightest ideas – it has brought me so much light and comradery.

To find out more about Denise’s work, see voiedevie.blogspot.com and on Twitter @denisevoiedevie and on Instagram @denisevoiedevie. 

Flo Awolaja, London, England

textiles

Regarding creativity and the art of storytelling through our practice, @Maverikartz shared this with me via Twitter: 

“Textiles can accrue meaning and significance, acting as triggers to people, places and times, but all too often they lie in limbo, unused, too precious to throw away but in need of a new purpose.” Zoe Hillyard 

Fragments: Memories of my past. The interweaving of physical emotions. Exploring the narrative of textiles in a digital age. Memories of the past and dreams of the future. An exploration into the physical manifestations of this through Afrikan textiles.

I have often wondered about the art of textiles and the conversations therein. The making of African materials is not an insular activity it is collective. Within African societies the art of fabric making is a communal and labour intensive activity. 

My interest in creating the collages stems from identity and looks at ways in which stories can be told and conservation had. Much in the way Zoe Hillyard describes an opportunity to rediscover and celebrate…. reviving a worn-out out favourite item or creating something new.

“Mother Tongue…Who says it has to be English!”

There is a richness that speaking in your Mother tongue brings….it binds and strengthens you to your roots, culture and heritage. A means of preservation a means of continuity, passing on why would anyone want to lose that?

A graphic designer by trade, as a textile designer, Flo now mixes oration, and communication within her work.

They are pieces constructed from snippets of conversation through oral history, serving to maintain a rich cultural identity and heritage.

Flo’s current work focuses on the playful relationship between language, proverbs and the textiles practice.