Jansen / Engelgeer
Process Book DDW 2017
Heritage / Revival
Index
Collaborators Profiles House Story Factory Documentation Know-how Yarn Selection Factory Development Heritage Process Aim Heritage Revival
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Heritage / Revival An old factory in the countryside, an attic full of beautiful coloured yarns: this place was screaming for a revival —
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Collaborators
This is a project together in collaboration with Crafts Council Nederland. CCNL is the all-encompassing platform for contemporary craft. It is the place where art, fashion, design and heritage all unite and where craftsmanship is nurtured and passed on to a new generation. The process is followed by photographer Iris Duvekot. From childhood, Iris Duvekot has been an observer. She sees the beauty in things, even if that beauty is not immediately visible. In her work, interaction and contact are key. She creates a personal bond with her subject and creates a trusting environment. This enables her to depict people in a natural way. Iris captures the whole process of this project. Special thanks to Bertie van Keulen, the connector.
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Profiles
Jos Jansen, owner of a weaving factory in Ruurlo inherited from family. His father lived in Amsterdam but moved to the Dutch countryside where he ran his successful weaving company, selling to high-end interior stores and private clients. He was an awarded textile designer creating beautiful rugs, curtains and furniture fabrics. Jos grew up surrounded by textiles and craft and for the last 40 years he has taken over the factory and continued to create beautiful heavy rugs in a variety of colours. Obviously Jos is a real craftsman, a skilled weaver with a lot of soul for the process, which is visible in all the pieces he creates. Now that Jos has retired, the factory is still there, longing for a takeover.
Dutch designer Mae Engelgeer attended the Amsterdam Fashion Instituut where she specialized in textile design, graduating in 2004. Later she was accepted to the prestigious Master Course in Applied Arts at the Sandberg Instituut and developed her first collection of textiles at the TextielLab. In 2014 Engelgeer opened her own studio in Amsterdam, working on product design and development, installations and international collaborations. Her work is characterised by a typical use of colour, geometric shapes and linear elements. An eye for detail and sense of composition are important in her designs when it comes to introducing balance. Her style has an open character that could be described as minimalistic with a playful twist. She cleverly combines craft, new technology and materials into beautiful textiles that enrich any home, without losing ground on refinement or quality.
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Heritage/Revival
house and factory _ Ruurlo
House
Heritage/Revival
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Story
Last fall we came in contact with Jos Jansen, owner of a weaving factory in Ruurlo, a small village in the east of The Netherlands. What we found there was like a treasure, especially for a textile designer. Heritage An old barn with a few big massive weaving machines, an attic with lots of nicely coloured wool in various thickness and quality. Boxes full of colour swatches and combinations
Heritage/Revival
and a full archive of hand woven samples, giving us an idea of the rugs that were made in the past. For the last 40 years Jansen has been weaving woolen rugs and sold them to high-end interior stores or private clients. The craftsmanship is visible in every part of the product and was taught to him by his father. Revival The work of Mae Engelgeer is
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mostly inspired by old techniques and crafts, but always in search to be translated this into a modern version. No surprise this became the goal of the project, a Heritage/Revival. With the archive in mind and enough yarns to finish, we started to created small woven samples in which we play with colors and referring back this heritage. The aim is to create at least ten unique big size pieces.
Taking the swatches out of the factory into the studio directly transformed them into objects —
red _ sample swatch
Heritage / Revival
13 swatch _ factory
notes _ factory
Factory Documentation
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Factory Know-how
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Heritage/Revival
Custom made
Carefully collected yarns attached to any piece of cardboard Jos Jansen could find. Names like Dakar or New York state the type of the rug or the client they were made for.
The red bunch
Various red toned woolen yarns in different thicknesses, collected years ago yet still contemporary.
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fancy yarns _ the attic
Yarn Selection
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Heritage / Revival
Guided in the process of hand weaving, we started to create small woven samples —
Heritage / Revival
The way Jos Jansen collected all the colour combinations made in the last 40 years was a treasure by itself.
Factory Development
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Heritage Process
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yarns _ the attic
Crafts The process of weaving came naturally to Jos since he was brought up by a family of textile designers and weavers. The heritage needs to be passed on to a new generation. The method has to be shown and continued. We want to keep this intensive process, and the knowledge that comes with it alive by our Revival.
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Jos Jansen _ hand weaving machine
Heritage / Revival Strings of wool to select from and to re-combine into new colour combinations —
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creating new samples _ factory
Aim
Heritage / Revival The aim is to finish his yarn stock and create 10 unique big scale pieces —
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first Revival test weave
Heritage Revival
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Collaborators Jos Jansen Crafts Counsil Nederland
Photographer Iris Duvekot
Thanks to Bertie van Keulen