It was millenniums ago as a design student that I was in awe of French chronophotographer Etienne-Jules Marey, known for his graphic studies of humans, animals and objects in motion. I’m glad to have come across the works of Dutch designer Kirsten Enkelmann who was inspired by Etienne and recalled my interest with motion and its influence on design (read Wear Out).

Folded Fiction is a sports-inspired collection showcasing a dazzling feat of pleats. Working on a mix of low-tech and high-tech constructions, Kirsten utilized the traditional knife pleat on a variety of fabrics from cotton to pigskin, and lasercuts on neoprene to produce stretch pleats. Take a peek!

Iris van Herpen showcased her five new architectural looks alongside her previous pieces for the Haute Couture collection, combining 3D printing with hand-made processes. The result is a remarkable overview of Iris’s works that featured her profound craftsmanship and her skillful grasp of the materials in relation to the body. I look forward to more!

Photos courtesy of Iris van Herpen

Thai artist/designer Saran Yen recently tipped me on her paper cut-out animation. Titled Early Morning Life, the film was inspired by her family, and was produced as a form of critique on the vast gap between the rich and the poor in modern Thai society. The miniature set designs were created from different materials such as paper, fabrics, acrylic or even organic component such as wheatgrass, leaves etc. The result is a folksy, dream-like quality of a typical Thai village scene filled with fantastical rainbow of hues and textures. Check out the animation after the break

Click here to view the embedded video.

Early Morning life is an animated film told through the eyes of a stuck up middle class son about his parents’ poor childhood, their hidden ambitions, and how they escaped from the harsh reality of life. Emphasizing the fact that “class strata” exist even in a family institution, the film’s visual style is taken from neon-paintings that are commonly seen in souvenir shops and usually considered “low” art. It is a critic on modern Thai society where the gap between the rich and the poor is extremely vast. This results in everything from politics, lifestyle, culture, or even in a family institution. Nevertheless, the focus of the film will be on the working class or the mundane Thais and how they create their mental space to escape from the harsh reality of life, also known as the term “escapism”. It is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an “escape” from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness. Some might call it daydreams or ambitions but this escape place either way is a mental cure from the rigors of daily life.

The main message is simple. The appreciation of little things in life, hopes and dreams, can also be very rewarding and that true happiness is there somewhere in the backyard.

Kerameikos is a new paper porcelain collection by designer Siba Sahabi who is inspired by antique Greek ceramics. It comprises of handcrafted, paper-spun vessels, bowls, mugs and vases made from white wallpaper for its strength and light resistance.

Check out her Tea Dance tea set

The aesthetic of Kerameikos reflects on the ancient Greek ceramicists who got their influence from foreign objects discovered via trade. The pieces thus replicate these foreign vessels such as the Egyptian Alabastron (perfume bottle made of alabaster), the Lydian Lydion (metal jar for anointing oil) and the Etruscan Kyathos (metal cup). By creating this collection, Siba Sahabi brings up the idea of how one culture can influence another, and paper as a material is another means of reviving European and Middle-Eastern cultural inheritance.

Photography: Maayan Ben Gal

Bidum is a series of flexible mesh containers characterized more by motion than by functionality. Designed by Lætitia Florin, a graduate of Switzerland’s ECAL (University of Art & Design Lausanne), the containers are made from thin spring-steel strips sheathed in cotton. The flexible form moves and bounces with the slightest touch but can’t tumble or collapse.

Kinda reminds you of the metal slinky, isn’t it?

Check out the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Monday!

Featuring: Pleat Farm’s favorite selection of cut and fold-happy paper typefaces for your viewing pleasure.

empo faceted typeface by losiento

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alphabet relief by tim fishlock. via

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paper alphabet by sculpture today by sonya dyakova. via, via

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folding paper typography by elin svensson

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folding paper typeface by graphiatrist

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paper font by josef ondrik. via

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3D folding paper typeface by jarrik muller

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paper type and illustration by yulia brodskaya

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Old Free Work, paper type by tim badoux. via

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alphabet template by sharon pazner. via flickr

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folded paper type by konstantin datz

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paper and love typeface by chris berthe. via

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origami type by robert lang. via

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folded paper font by daniella spinat. via

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folded hebrew font by garibi ilan. via flickr

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Paper type made of 180 hand-cut, spiraling layers of paper by Bianca Chang

Japanese designer, Makoto Orisaki, together with Olfa, developed the ‘or-ita’ – a special shaped blade that perforate cardboard and any dull materials for folding mechanisms. For the recent ‘Cardboard High’ show at Claska gallery and shop in Tokyo, six designers created some pretty nifty cardboard pieces utilizing the blade.

origami magic ball by makoto orisaki

cardboard houses by makoto orisaki

the olfa ‘or-ita’ rotary cutter blade

cardboard boxes templates mitsuru koga created with the ‘or-ita’

architect ryuji nakamura made a simple, lightweight chair reinforced with dowels inserted into the corrugated structure of cardboard.

detail

via designboom I, designboom II

Reading this post brought back a stream of flashbacks of my days at RISD’s Department of Architecture when Design Principles was (and still is) the first notorious rite of passage for all would-be architects enrolled in the program.

The year-long course presents the fundamentals of design and material performance. Students churned out multitudes of study models using simple materials that vary from year to year (from clay to chipboard and recently, plain paper).

These images showcased the ongoing design explorations by students of professor Gabriel Feld, working under the theme of “Material Operations – from unit to mass”.

a massing representation in charcoal representing the folded unit. (image above)

Interested in learning more about Design Principles? I highly recommend reading this book The Making of Design Principles written by Kyna Leski who is a current professor at RISD Department of Architecture.

via our risd

images via risd2009 Flickr set

Crafted Systems is a wonderful example of a creative project that promotes the art of handicraft and supports local manufacturing through community partnership in Portland, Oregon. By collaborating with the YWCA women’s shelter to create custom-designed felt pieces, Crafted Systems becomes an empowering platform for women-in-transition to develop real-world skills that they can also take pleasure in. The felt vessels are a few of the various products of that collective effort, woven from 100% natural wool felt which are waterjet, diecut, and later hand-assembled.

Industrial designer and founder of Crafted Systems, Aurelie Tu, came up with a series of geometrical ‘modules’ woven together by overlapping the edges to produce the felt vessels. Each basket is unique in texture and dimension due to the hand-crafted quality, and never the smooth and perfectly-chiseled products you get from mass-manufacturing processes.

The bowls, baskets and other products are available for purchase online at Crafted Systems.

Huge thanks to Aurelie Tu for the lovely images!

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small felt diamond bowls

‘teardrop’ felt vases

tall and medium felt baskets

crafting at the YWCA

I’ve just recently came across these fascinating origami-on-textile explorations by designer Anna O’Neill. Instead of paper, folding tessellations are applied to fabric, with the folds held together by stitches. The result is a stunning play in textures, light and shadow, much like Eric Gjerde‘s fabulous folds yet brought up a notch with its wearability.

via Anna O’Neill’s Flickr

Layered laser-cut fabrics are the highlight of Lilly Heine‘s autumn/winter graduate collection for Central Saint Martin’s. The one-half Harrods award winner was inspired by the artworks of Brancusi and Picasso to produce a meticulous range of futurist garments that are dynamic and sculptural.

Read the rest of the entry for insights into Lilly’s design and inspirations in her own words:

Concept behind the recent collection:
For Autumn Winter ’10 I was looking at Picasso’s studies of curvaceous women and his sculptures and at the same time started using fabric to create volume. Once I put these shapes onto the body, it was like sculpting on a person. When the models walked around in the garments, the different layers started to move and looked like sculptures in motion.

Materials and main techniques used for the collection:
Every shape is lasercut and then every layer is pieced together by hand-stitching. It is a very labour intensive collection. Sometimes there were quite a few of us standing around a garment on a mannequin, sewing in different places. Essentially, it is in part a couture collection, disguised by the fact that it looks modern.

What are the most important things you have learned from your teachers and mentors?
To begin with, it is important to have a mentor who you respect and look up to, someone who understands your work and your aims, whichever direction you are taking. That is what I found on the MA at St. Martins.

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detail of the layered garments

Thanks to Lilly for providing the images!

Backstage Photography: Alex Sainsbury

Dabbling with folding techniques on textiles, Belgian artist/ designer, Tine De Ruysser, has amassed an impressive pleat-goodness of wearable accessories, including her latest batch of vessels. Here are a few selections from her portfolio:

Metalized Folding Textiles

Mirror Bowl. Materials: mirror polyester foil and Tyvek

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Using a range of folding patterns onto textile composites, Tine created various multi-faceted and flexible containers that often change in shapes and sizes. The bowls are currently on display at the ‘Still Life from Flanders’ exhibition at Gallery Flow in London.

Anemone I & II. Materials: plywood and polyester fabric

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close-up of Anemone I

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Wave I Copper. Material: copper and polyester fabric

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Wave I Plywood. Material: plywood and polyester fabric

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Wearable Metal Origami: Tine’s PhD collection at the Royal College of Art

Shoulder Cape. Material: copper and polyester fabric

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folding detail of the shoulder cape

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Three bracelets. Materials: copper and polyester, gold plate silver and polyester, silver and polyester

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Bracelet turning into bag. Material: copper and polyester

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Skirt that changes in length. Material: copper and polyester

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Banknote Jewelry

Linked bracelet made from US dollar bills, turned inside-out.

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Tine created the ‘banknote’ collection made by folding paper money as wearable accessories. They can be used as valid currencies by dismantling the jewelry as component banknotes.

6 necklaces from 6 continents.(from inside-out: China, USA, Australia, Europe, South Africa, Argentina,)

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Check out Tine’s website for more information.

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Dutch designers Wendy Plomp of WND and Edhv teamed up to construct the Paper Cave installation at the exhibition space of the Verger shop in Milan. The whimsical space consists of hundreds of paper cones pasted on the floor and ceiling to re-create the look of ‘icicles’ in a limestone cave.

images via edhv

t 4 3 (Tea For Three) is a jewelry label dedicated to friendship and a favorite pastime of tea-drinking. Spearheaded by Singapore-based jewelry designer, Serene Wong, The label features tea-inspired, hand-crafted jewelry collections by a trio of designers and former classmates from Central St Martins. Below is a showcase of a few selected works by Serene Wong and Szufen Huang:

Scent by Serene Wong

Inspired by the scent of various teas and its often calming and relaxing effects on one’s mood, part of the series combines aromatherapy and jewelry to stimulate the senses and evoke nostalgia. The collection consists of several vessel-like pieces that contain assorted contents ranging from colorful floral tea leaves to aromatic oils. This enables the wearer to change its contents or dispose of the tea leaves accordingly. They can also be personalized by varying the scents according to the wearer’s preference.  These jewelry pieces are hand fabricated using acrylic and sterling silver.

*Available for order in a variety of colors (subject to availability).

Price available upon request.

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Jurassic by Serene Wong

Designed for Hansel’s Fantastic Jurassic Collection, these jewelry were fabricated in acrylic and inspired by 3D dinosaur puzzles. Each one is handmade and can be re-engineered to size to fit the wearer. Jurassic first debuted on the runway at Audi Fashion Festival 2009 in Singapore.

*Available for order in a variety of colors (subject to availability).

Price available upon request.

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Art by Szufen Huang

“花開富貴” (hua kai fu gui) – meaning “Fortune Blossoms” – is the auspicious name of a Chinese tea which blooms from a ball into a beautiful flower when immersed in water. These Chinese characters have been branded onto the delicate fabric to bring fortune to the wearer and add texture to the designs. Carefully hand-pleated in silk organza, the collection is also inspired by floral forms and skeletal structure of tea leaves. These qualities are expressed through the use of translucent and lightweight fabrics and lively details such as intricately hand-painted motifs.

*No longer available for order.

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About the designers: t 4 3 (Tea For Three) is a jewelry label that is dedicated to Friendship and a favorite pastime. The three designers love the way that Tea brings people together and hope that their jewelry can do the same by serving as conversation starters. Hailing from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London (2002), the former classmates Nana Akashi (Japan), Szufen Huang (Taiwan) and Serene Wong (Singapore) are currently based in three Asian countries. They constantly look to challenge themselves as designers and welcome opportunities for collaboration.

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The Air Vase by Tokyo-based Torafu Architects is formed from a flat perforated paper stretched on each side into shape. Each side of the paper comes in different shades so that the vase ‘switches’ color viewed at various angles. Check out the instruction video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Torafu Architects Youtube channel

via dezeen

Designer Leanne Marshall recently unveiled her Fall/Winter 2010 collection with plenty of textural goodness. Inspired by topography, Leanne incorporate undulating layers similar to landscape contours on a map, which also give shape to her garments.

Photographs: Getty Images

via coutorture

Paper Installation by French artist Lenancker Romain for video game magazine, Amusement.

Puzzle Game – Consumable page for Amusement magazine
Paper Installation Artist : Lenancker romain
Photography: Gregoire Vieille
Retouch : Elodie Campeanu

via elastika

The Morpholision (Morphology + Vision) bag collection is inspired by forms of nature and sonobe – a Japanese paper folding method. Designed by Si Kim (a graduate of London College of Fashion), the collection is a gorgeous mélange of polyhedral forms resembling sea creatures.

In Si Kim’s words:

Personal/design background:
“I come from a fine art background, having studied many forms of art from a very young age. After my fine art degree i went on to study a design management Masters, and worked as a Graphic designer for 2 years. I then went on to do the MA in fashion artifact.”

Describe your collection, and what are the inspirations behind it:
“My collection was inspired by the different shapes present in nature, like for example the swirling shape of a seashell with its intricate pattern and texture. Or the fine detail in the eye of an insect, or the pattern left by the wind on the desert sand. All these things we see, but not necessarily pay any attention to the continuity and the flow of these patterns. And then the stark contrast between that and the hard lines and angles in geometry and man made structures. My collection is influenced by contemporary art, but also by some traditional art forms such as origami.”

Photography: Diego Indraccolo
Stylist: Kay Korsh

Dutch fashion design duo, Malou Verharen and Ferdinand Sebastiaan Hartgers of Malousebastiaan, recently showcased their autumn/winter 2010 collection at the Amsterdam International Fashion Week replete with breathtakingly sculptural garments.

Known for their conceptual and hands-on approach, malousebastiaan created textured garments in silk, wool and leather, each adorned with striking cube-shaped details, with the leather being ‘boiled into shape over mold’. The designers carefully hand-dyed each piece, resulting in hues of reds and purples reminiscent of the skies at dawn and dusk.

About malousebastiaan:

Malou Verharen and Ferdinand Sebastiaan Hartgers started their women’s label malousebastiaan in 2008 during their graduation year at Utrecht School of the Arts. Their outlandish yet ultra feminine aesthetics, and their rather conceptual and artisanal approach to fashion got them noticed right from the start; malousebastiaan was invited to show during both 2009 editions of Amsterdam International Fashion Week. Malousebastiaan made their debut in front of the Dutch fashion set at the highly regarded C’est BRILJANT show on February 1st 2009, as one of the selected young fashion talents to host the latest eyewear trends. In the next edition of AIFW, malousebastiaan starred at the prestigious Lichting 2009 show, competing for the G-Star Raw Talent Award amongst the very best of Dutch fashion academy graduates. Lichting introduced these fresh talents to the very core of the Dutch fashion industry and a handful of international influencers. Super-trendwatcher Lidewij Edelkoort was quick to pick malousebastiaan for her Talent line up at Designhuis in Eindhoven, and selected several of malousebastiaan’s leather sculptures to star in Studio Edelkoort exhibition in Tokyo. Apart from their compact handcrafted collections, malousebastiaan have been producing an ongoing series of short films about their design streamed on their website.

Photography: Peter Stigter

Thanks to designer Naoko Ogawa who provided the images of her Gather collection: a fun and versatile set of accessories that emphasizes on how we interact with our clothes.

Comprising of patterned aluminum plates in squares and circles, ‘Gather’ allows the user to create folds on a garment, even hold two or more garments together by pinching the plates on any parts of the shirt, dress or scarf, and all done to the user’s whims and fancies.

Designer’s note:

The plate transforms the style of your clothes in many different ways, depending on not only your everyday emotions, but also the pattern or design of the plate, including new patterns of the plate drawn by crush as well as metal fatigue itself. You can enjoy an unlimited amount of designs on the silver plate and clothes since they never change in the same way.

It is my intention to make this jewelry enjoyably sensual, to let your hand touch and feel your body line (or silhouette of your clothes) with this plate and then to redefine it through crushing. By doing so, you find the idea of your everyday clothes destroyed and / or turned into something new with the beautiful gathers which you could not imagine or predict. The gathers made by the redefinition of the crush creates a new body line (or silhouette of your clothes) and wraps you up for the day.

Gather is available for purchase on NJAL.

Naoko Ogawa