Scraps, hosted by Pilar Navarrete of Artesanías de Chile

Online event, hosted on Zoom by Pilar Navarrete of Artesanías de Chile

Lu Mason of Lu Mason, England
Lu Mason moved to York in the 1990's and soon become fascinated with the tradition of rag rug making in the North of England, and the textures, colours, and unpredictability of what “rags” you might find in rag rugs. Clothes, fabrics, and off-cuts found at local jumble sales became the source and inspiration of Lu's rag rugs, with the ambition to only use recycled materials. She has sold and exhibited her rugs all over Yorkshire.

Brief outline of talk:
Rag Rugs

Lu will speak to us about the history of rag rug making in Yorkshire and the process of rag rug making, a craft that runs in her family.

Gönül Paksoy of Gönül Paksoy, Turkey
Gonul Paksoy is a Turkish academic and designer, born into a family with distinguished history. Her great-grandfather was Governor of the then Ottoman province of Mossul and one of the most prominent mathematicians and astronomers of his time. Her parents cultivated her appreciation of food, dress, architecture and history. 

There are not many designers who have published academic papers on ‘the separation of Tar into its components and its definition’: still fewer hold a PhD with a doctoral thesis on root dye chemistry. Designer, collector and renowned chef, Gönül absorbs elements of old and new, east and west in an astonishingly creative compound. Transformation and the desire to create perfection, from materials both base and beautiful, is at the root of her work.

Outline of talk:
Gönül will provide a flavour of how her academic background has shaped and directed her creative practice, as well as sharing her current projects and where her ideas for them have stemmed from. 

Riddhi Jain of Studio Medium, India
Riddhi Jain Satija is an Indian textile designer and artist working with diverse crafts like weaving, dyeing, kantha, and surface manipulation techniques. She is the founder and creative director at Studio Medium, a textile design studio in Delhi.

She creates distinct silhouettes with textiles that are created from scratch at her studio. Riddhi started her studio by designing the traditional Indian textile, the saree, but of late she has been working on more contemporary & free size/zero waste pattern silhouettes. All her designs have an element of play that comes from either the choice of colours, the silhouette itself, her interpretation of the craft, or how the garment interacts with the body.

Much like Riddhi's commercial practice, her art practice is also an amalgamation of skills, techniques and memories picked up over time. Riddhi's play with geometrical shapes derived from resist dyeing on textiles is her signature. 

Outline of talk: 
Studio Medium

Riddi will introduce herself and Studio Medium. She will discuss the ideas behind the Studio Medium and the Bor(r)o(w) project, highlighting the variety of weaving and dyeing techniques she uses to bring her ideas to life. Riddi will give us a taste of the creative and technical processes behind making a variety of objects, and provide insight into the processes of playing with shape, drape, and technique.