The last time we looked at the work of Jipke Lezwijn, she had radically transformed the flag of The Netherlands, re-weaving it for Dutch artist Sanne Vaassen.
The artist and weaver has got news for us: she recently completed her MA at London's Royal College of Art. Her new works are inspired by origamis: Lezwijn seems to have pleated and folded her knitted surfaces to create innovative and colourful pieces.
Her "Origamy" collection includes a selection of knitted origami objects made with sustainable materials and innovative knitting techniques.
The results look visually pleasing, geometrically intriguing and fascinatingly complex, as if the bold geometrical knits in bright colours by the late English designer Kay Cosserat (Lezwijn is a recipient of a Kay Cosserat Bursary) had taken new and more exciting three-dimensional configurations (View this photo).
On Lezwijn's Instagram page you can get a view of some of the pieces, most of them woven in a variety of colours, forming three-dimensional triangles, hexagons and other structures than can be turned inside out and mutate their patternb at each turn.
But Lezwijn didn't stop at the mere surface of things: the material engineer with a passion for observing the world and for socially engaging people, hopes with her practice to benefit others, contribute to a brighter future and bring joy and positivity, so she developed the collection also as a way to provide comfort and infinite tactile joy.
The Coronavirus pandemic has socially distanced us, reminding us to avoid frequently touched surfaces and wash our hands often and thoroughly. Lezwijn's pieces are conceived as sustainable fidgeting tools that replace the usual fidgeting plastic toys. The pieces invite people to touch and play with them. This simple exercise centred around joy and positivity, is supposed to be a sensorial journey, and aims at relieving stress while fidgeting with these objects and at improving our physical and mental health, reconnecting also with other people.
The simple gesture of folding and unfolding the textiles contributes to tune fine motor skills, helps us retaining fading memories, and encourages us to recover our happiness.
Do you like the idea of woven materials inspired by paper structures or are you intrigued by designs made by combining textiles and paper? Research them further. Check out for example these Hanji Paper bags in white or black (dyed with charcoal).
These shopper bags are made of cotton and 'Hanji' (traditional Korean handmade paper made from the inner bark of Broussonetia papyrifera, colloquially known as paper mulberry) by one of the leading Hanji artisans, Park Sung-man.
The bags are available for sale on the Tatami Antiques site, an independent online marketplace for Japanese antiquities that often offers intriguing textile pieces and ideas for fashion designers, including patterns, kimonos and mini-kimonos for dolls (the bags are sold by antique seller kikue, specialising in Korean pieces).
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