In what Mungo Retail refers to as their Working Weaving Museum—housed in the seaside town of Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, the historical homestead of Old Nick Village—the brand has been designing, weaving and crafting a wide…
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Product news: Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta showed this range of blankets in New York.
Snøhetta first presented the Mountain Fold blankets as prototypes for traditional Norwegian firm Røros Tweed tweed last year, but they’re now going into production alongside two new designs by the firm called Color Noise and Islandskap.
The Mountain Fold design features a seemingly abstract geometric design, but is meant to represent the Snøhetta mountain – after which the firm was named – when folded in a certain way.
It comes in six different colours representing six different architecture projects by the studio.
The two new designs were chosen from an internal competition between all the company’s designers.
All the blankets are made of 100% Norwegian sheep’s wool.
The range was on show at ICFF in New York last month, when Dezeen was in town as part of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour. Watch our first movie report from New York, in which Stephen Burks talks about how the city is evolving.
Based in Oslo and New York, Snøhetta recently broke ground on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art extension.
See all our stories about architecture by Snøhetta »
See all our stories from New York 2013 »
See more blanket designs »
Here’s some more information from Røros Tweed:
At the 2013 ICFF, Røros Tweed, the traditional Norwegian Blanket manufacturer, announced the American launch of several new blankets designed by Snøhetta: the Snøhetta Mountain Fold, Color Noise, and Islandskap.
The first design was announced last year when the Mountain Fold was commissioned by Paul Makovsky of Metropolis Magazine, curator of the Inside Norway booth at ICFF 2012. The design was produced as a prototype but due to the overwhelmingly positive response, it will be available at American retailers in August 2013.
By following the strict graphic pattern, the Snøhetta Mountain Fold can be folded into the profile of the mountain Snøhetta at Dovre in Norway, the namesake of the architecture and design studio. The blanket is available in 6 different colors representing 6 different architectural projects designed by Snøhetta.
Each blanket can be also arranged or folded in a different way, presenting itself with different amount of pattern and color, and may serve as a blanket pillow due to its puffy nature when folded.
Following the success of the Mountain Fold blanket, Snøhetta has developed two additional designs, both representing a graphic presentation of architecture in abstract forms. Islandskap and Color Noise were developed after Snøhetta held an internal contest amongst all of its designers from New York and Oslo.
Retailers carrying the Røros Tweed brand include Anthropologie, Design Within Reach and Scandinavian House. Røros Tweed blankets are made out of 100% Norwegian high quality sheep wool.
The post Blankets by Snøhetta
for Røros Tweed appeared first on Dezeen.
Product news: London print designers Eley Kishimoto teamed up with Icelandic design collective Vík Prjónsdóttir for DesignMarch in Reykjavík last week, where they presented a seal-shaped blanket inspired by an Icelandic folk tale.
Above: photograph c/o Eley Kishimoto
First designed by Vík Prjónsdóttir in 2005, the Seal Pelt was designed in reference to the mythical story about a woman who has to choose between being a seal or a human and is transformed after clothing herself with a seal’s skin and fur.
The “remixed” Seal Pelt features a pattern of squirrel graphics by Eley Kishimoto. Guðfinna Mjöll Magnúsdóttir of Vík Prjónsdóttir told Dezeen: “The Seal Pelt has now been united with the great squirrel. These two animals, that until now have not been in a close relationship, will from this moment be knitted together.”
Above: Papageno
The designers presented the Seal Pelt at the Culture House during DesignMarch. They also showed Papageno, a stripy blanket inspired by the colourful feathers of a parrot, which is the latest addition in the bird collection. Other blankets in this range include The Raven, The Flamingo and The Swan.
Above: The Swan
Each piece is woven from Icelandic sheep’s wool.
Above: The Flamingo
Past projects by Vík Prjónsdóttir include blankets inspired by the local landscape and one based on an erupting volcano.
Above: The Raven
Design March took place from 14 to 17 March.
Photography is by Ari Magg, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s some more information about the Seal Pelt and Papageno:
The Seal Pelt – Folktale
In the Icelandic myths, seals are believed to be condemned by humans. One ancient story from the south of Iceland is about a farmer who early one morning finds a seal pelt laying on the beach. In a cave nearby, he hears voices and music. He takes the seal pelt home and hides it in a wooden chest. Few days later he returns to the beach and finds a crying, naked, young woman sitting on a rock. He brings her to his house where she stays, but he never tells her about the pelt. As time goes by they get married and have children. But the young woman is restless and often stares quietly out of the window at the ocean. One day when the farmer goes fishing, his wife accidentally finds the key of the chest, opens it and discovers the missing pelt. She takes leave of her children, puts the pelt on and before she dives into the ocean she says: “ I am vary anxious, with seven children on land an seven in the sea.” She never comes back but the farmer misses her terribly. Later when he goes fishing there often is a seal near his boat and its eyes are filled with tears. It is said that the farmer becomes a very lucky fisherman. And when his children play at the beach there often is a seal swimming close to land. Sometimes it brings them beautiful stones and colorful fishes. But their mother never returned.
Papageno
The Papageno is a new blanket from Vík Prjónsdóttir and a part of the evolving bird blanket collection. The birds that have until now been part of the Vík Prjónsdóttir collection are the Sea Eagle and the Raven, both of these birds play a big role in the wildlife of Iceland. The Papageno represents the parrot, a bird that is very exciting and exotic in the eyes of Vík Prjónsdóttir.
The post Seal Pelt Remix by Eley Kishimoto
and Vík Prjónsdóttir appeared first on Dezeen.
Product news: Oslo designer Andreas Engesvik has created a series of blankets inspired by the textiles of Norwegian folk costumes.
Bunader are traditional costumes with roots in rural clothes from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and Andreas Engesvik worked with Norwegian manufacturer Mandal Veveri to make the wool Bunad Blankets.
They’re based on motifs from five different regions in Norway: Setesdal, Nordland, Fusa, Bringeklut and Sunnmøre. “Mandal Veveri also had the complete recipes for all types Bunads which made it easy for us to be exact,” Engesvik told Dezeen.
“All the colours are exactly the same as on the bunads,” he continued. “We did a lot of fine tuning off course, and we had to choose eight colours for every blanket as this is the limit for the Jaquard machine.”
“The bunad is one of the most visible and known traditions in Norwegian cultural heritage; the garment is a significant cultural carrier and is central to the passing on of Norwegian handicraft traditions,” he added.
Andreas Engesvik is an alumni of University of Bergen and the National College of Art and Design Norway. He was co-founder of Norway Says in 2000 and founded his own studio in Oslo in 2009. He has previously featured on Dezeen with his coloured screens in collaboration with Norwegian designer Daniel Rybakken.
For more cosy design our top ten rugs and blankets here or our Pinterest board on the topic here.
Here’s some more information from the designer:
Bunad Blankets is a series of blankets launched during the London Design Festival, September 2012. The first Bunad Blankets we will show are based on bunad motifs from five different regions in Norway; Setesdal, Nordland, Fusa, Bringeklut from West Telemark, and mens bunad from Sunnmøre
The Idea for the Bunad Blanket came about one Christmas Eve a couple of years ago. I was sitting in the kitchen – surrounded by my girlfriend, her mother and her sister with husband. They were all wearing bunads from Setesdal. I sat in a chair while the others stood and walked around me. The abundance of colors, stripes and details where overwhelming. It hit me then, that bunads can be experienced as colors composed on a surface.
The Bunad Blanket is a new product category that encompasses recognizable aspects from the bunad tradition. Bunads are composed of color in proportion – that means compostition and disposition of surfaces. The bunad is further composed in a series of different materials and techniques such as embroidery, detail seam, pearls, wool, linen, metal and so on. The Bunad Blankets represents a simplification and transferring of the Norwegian folk costumes. The Bunad Blanket introduces this rich tradition into our daily environments and interiors.
The Bunad Blankets are developed in co-operation with Mandal Veveri and are woven from pure wool in Mandal. Mandal Veveri is a nearly 100 year old textile company, and has a young and ambitious leadership. It is the leading producer of textiles for bunads in Norway today. Mandal Veveri is owned by Stina Skeie.
The Bunad is a range of traditional Norwegian rural clothes and folk costumes with its roots dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. In Norway, it is common to wear bunad at various celebrations such as folk dances, weddings, and especially the May 17 National Day celebrations.
National romanticism still has a stronghold in Norway, and the bunad is one of the most visible and known traditions in Norwegian cultural heritage. It played a role in building national identity before and after 1905 – when Norway became independent. The bunad is a significant cultural carrier and is central to the passing on of Norwegian handicraft traditions. There are about 400 bunads and folk costumes in Norway today
The quality of the blankets has the right balance between weight and function (not too thick) and it drapes nicely. It is meant as an all-year blanket, to be used both at home and in the summer/winter cabin.
Designer: Andreas Engesvik
Junior designer: Ingrid Aspen
Company: Mandal Veveri, Stina Skeie
Material: wool
Dimensions: 130 x 200cm (without fringes)
Production: November 2012
The post Bunad Blankets by
Andreas Engesvik appeared first on Dezeen.
This wearable cocoon of quilts and blankets by Slovakian architecture graduate Danica Pistekova is just right for people who wish they could take their bed with them in the morning.
Pistekova sewed fabric and duvets into a complex, adjustable structure to create a portable environment for two people that’s meant to be halfway between clothing and housing.
“The project is something in between,” Pistekova told Dezeen. “Between fashion and architecture, small and big, private and public, intuitive and logical.”
“For me, dress is only another state of architecture,” she added.
Pistekova graduated from architecture at the University of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava this year.
We recently featured a collection of folded paper dresses made by another architecture graduate.
See all our stories about fashion »
See all our stories about blankets »
See all our stories about houses »
Here’s some more text from the designer:
The result of the practical part of my diploma thesis is a set of dresses/houses. These objects blur the classic definitions of architecture (‘firmitas, utilitas, venustas’) to reveal the hidden ones.
If, as Zevi says, architecture is an object where I am able to come in, my clothing-house does that. If, as Rossi says, architecture is theatre for life, my soft house offers conditions for different situations by constantly changing the clothes and location in one system.
And if architecture is only the system of transits and boundaries, this process also provides them. For Tschumi, architecture is an event, a turning point, a place of shock.
The clothing-house is also trying to surprise by paradoxical behaviour, discovering in-between spaces or moments where the boundary between interior and exterior is changing with every movement.
The result is architecture as an intellectual and sensual experience. It was created by an architect with the hands of a tailor and wants to remind us that architecture is the way of thinking standing before any built reality.
The post Sewn as a Site
by Danica Pistekova appeared first on Dezeen.
This blanket is embroidered with tiny sensors so it can watch you sleeping.
Called Im Blanky, it maps the positions of 104 tilt sensors arranged in hexagons across its surface, which communicate changes in resistance to a controller that’s stitched to the back of the blanket, which in turn sends the data wirelessly to a computer that digitally recreates the shape of the whole surface (see movie above).
It was developed in the RAD laboratory at the University of Toronto by Studio NMinusOne and Rodolphe el-Khoury, who say that possible applications could include monitoring those with sleep disorders or watching the vital signs of elderly patients who aren’t being cared for in hospitals.
As part of a future where more and more devices are wirelessly connected, it could automatically turn down your central heating or open a window to maintain comfortable sleeping conditions.
Embroidered in swirling floral patterns on green taffeta, the blanket was commissioned by WORKShop Toronto for an exhibition called Stitches that asked participants to marry traditional embroidery and stitching with new technologies.
Read more about how information technology is creeping into everyday objects, turning them into devices and apps that monitor our behaviour and communicate with each other, in our special report for Intel here.
Here’s some more information from Studio NMinusOne and Rodolphe el-Khoury:
IM BLANKY is a blanket with an IP address. The basic v. 1.0 is self-modeling, which means that it is wirelessly linked to a digital model that registers and represents its changing state in real time. The built-in capacity to situate and represent itself in space and time points to a most primitive and essential form of cognition, the sense of one’s own body. This ability constitutes a foundation for multiple additional functionalities that would be enabled with the use of other sensing devices in future generations of IM BLANKY.
Soft tilt sensors arrayed in a hexagrid pattern and sewn into the fabric of the blanket enable the digital self-modeling. The data they generate—variation in current resistance—establishes the vectors from which the shape of the entire blanket is computationally extrapolated.
The electronic components and their circuits constitute figurative patterns. The organization of flows and connections here reproduces the logic of nature in generating intricate and hierarchical forms: stems, flowers and petals are the decorative by-product as much as the motivated form of a functional circuit.
IM BLANKY was commissioned by WORKShop Toronto for “Stitches,” an exhibition that invited artists and designers to project traditional embroidery and stitching practices into the 21st century. IM BLANKY aligns ornamental craft with digital electronics and computation to invest the intelligence and knowledge built into traditional materials and forms with a renewed purpose and relevance in increasingly networked environments.
(soft) Hardware:
The blanket measures 7’7” x 4’2” and comprises 104 tilt sensors. They are arrayed in a hexa-grid formation and distributed uniformly over its entire field. The flower-like sensors consist of 6 conductive petal-like pads, radiating from a conductive tassel attached to a powered double-arabesque of conductive wire. The resistance in the current flowing through petal and tassel varies depending on which petal is in contact with the tassel (The R value thus indexes the direction of the tassel). The flowers are arranged in 16 clusters and their stems connected to computational node (Multiplexer). The nodes communicate the fluctuation in current resistance recorded at each flower to a microcontroller stitched to the back of the blanket (Arduino Lillypad). The data is communicated wirelessly to a computer (XBee Shield)
Software:
Each flower occupies a hexagonal cell, surrounded by six neighbors. The computation script extrapolates directional vectors from current resistance data and models a slope based on the orientation of that of that cell in relation to that of its immediate 6 neighbors. The algorithm generates a field of peaks and valleys that is fine-tuned into a smooth polygonal mesh by negotiating local conditions at each cluster within the behavior parameters of the overall figure (Processing).
The research for this project was conducted at RAD, a laboratory of embedded and situated technology at the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto
Credits:
Studio NMinusOne in collaboration with Rodolphe el-Khoury
Principals in Charge at Studio NMinusOne: Christos Marcopoulos and Carol Moukheiber
Fabrication Team: Valentina Mele, Sebastian Savone, Yie Ping See
Programming: Jonah Ross Marrs, Samar Sabie, Dina Sabie
Lebanese design duo Bokja have created embroidered maps of the Arab world that present a tapestry of changing politics and traditions.
The first of the two embroideries is entitled Arab Fall,while the second is named Arab Spring and shares its name with the wave of demonstrations and protests that began in 2010.
On the Arab Fall map, the sea is made from pairs of imported jeans to demonstrate how the rise of imported cultures has led to the replacement of native traditions.
The Arab Spring map is woven onto the centre of an old carpet, which is intended to represent the worn-out but cherished values of the Arab countries.
Both tapestries also contain a range of symbolic imagery, which includes a genie eating fast food and a flying elephant.
Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri of Bokja often use vintage Middle Eastern fabrics in their work. See a couple more of their projects here.
Here’s a few more words from the designers:
Bokja’s map of the “Arab Fall” interweaves imported jeans as a backdrop for the sad reality of an Arab world where imported fads and fast foods have replaced timeless traditions and native delicacies.
The flying elephant serves as a reminder of all the inane slogans that have been forced upon generations of an incredulous citizenry across the region.
It is this awakening that delineates Bokja’s Arab Spring map.
The background is an old valuable carpet (representing our core values) that should be the basis of any new start.
The carpet is in a dilapidated state, like many of our discarded ideals and is in need of resurrection.
The mood is that of optimism and rejuvenation.
The symbols are many, among them a woman riding a horse on the road to a new and unknown world.
Geometric-patterned scarves and throws by two Montreal textile designers
Pairing mathematics with craftsmanship, the textile designers behind Montreal label String Theory weave quality yarns into beautifully-patterned super-soft scarves and throw blankets. The two-person team behind the brand works closely with small-batch manufacturers, allowing for wide experimentation with techniques. This artful combination of tradition and innovation results in everyday accessories with Modernist geometric appeal.
Though the designers recently played around with a beautiful blue tone, currently String Theory’s Euclidean designs come in simple black and gray motifs, using mostly Alpaca, cotton and bamboo. Initial designs include intricate String Theory 101 scarf, which mimics the weaving process, and the Big Mess throw, an elegantly scrambled composition.
String Theory sells online, ranging from $120-320.
Saint Petersburg designer Yaroslav Misonzhnikov has attached two strips of felt to a chair for keeping cosy while working in winter. (more…)
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