MAKE MATERIAL SENSE

Material design workshop, 2019
⭢ Floating University, Berlin

A workshop with Ana Lisa Alperovich

To make material sense means to ‘learn through making’ by exploring the possibilities of the local and overlooked resources found in and around the Floating School. Different material senses will be invoked by a series of sensual, practical and theoretical, series of experiments that might include mixing and matching, moulding, melting, cooking, digging, bedding-up, ironing, recycling, dying, glazing, destroying or evaporating matter. Possibilities of what biomaterials could do – or be – will be stretched to their maximum as participants forage for algae, moss, driftwood, grasses, bark, dead bugs, stones or soil, or might choose to work with food waste, wood chips or cardboard.

This three day, DIY, hands-on workshop will create biomaterials to be used for bio-design and bio-architecture through the finding of resources, the making of samples and mind maps, all while developing new neural connections and gaining unique knowledge of the world through their senses. The workshop will result in a group exhibition.

There is just one important rule: no animal cruelty (this includes other human-animals).

My work with woven reedmace.

CIRCLE CIRCLED

Sculpture Project, 2019
⭢ Lichtenfels, DE

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Working with the students from State Vocational Basketmaking School of Lichtenfels and the volunteers from the local community, we constructed woven spaces for creative play for the Lichtenfels Korbmarkt 40th Anniversary.

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Sculpture and contemporary basketry artist: Tim Johnson
Apprentices: Elke Hegmann, Gloria Bohn, Evey Kwong
All images credit to Tim Johnson

Visual by Evey Kwong

SCHWEIZER HANDBESELI /

SWISS WHISK BROOM

Craft residency, 2019
⭢ Habkern, CH

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For generations, the Swiss folks own a tradition of whisk broom-making for their daily use. These brooms, typically made of purple moor-grass are an inconspicuous whisk brooms made by women farmers, braided in fall for the use of cleaning wooden stove surfaces.

This simple utilitarian object symbolises the women’s occupation and matriarchy. Today, the wooden stoves are no longer in use and with the increasingly disappearing marshes, this tradition is lost. With Margrit Linder, i learned techniques researched and inquired by her through the local women in making the whisk.

Optically, the fibre and length looks very similar to the South East Asian mangrove palm, in which the natives uses its stems to make whisk brooms called, “penyapu lidi”.

A happy family of Ybriger, Urner and Habkern Handbeseli with differing techniques made of purple moor-grass species. The bottom mini version is an improvisational Ybriger design by industrial designer, Flavia Brändle.

Visual by Evey Kwong

SILESIAN BESKIDS:
THE LAST SPRUCE ROOTS BASKET MAKER

Craft residency, 2019
⭢ Silesian Beskids, PL

In the Silesian Beskids mountain, I was fortunate to be introduced and learned the skills from the last local basketmaker, Jan Zogata. The main unique material used are spruce roots. What is more exceptional is the construction of the cross-base structure.

Not only the roots are used, but the beech and hazel wood for the structure, base and rim. The fundament of making these baskets are the sheer knowledge of coppicing, with great patience and attention to detail.

For the typical baskets in this region, the types of wood used are beech, ash and spruce. Like every household back then, the basket were a necessary part of farmers’ utilitarian use to pick mushroom or potatoes or to transport perishable goods to the nearby market in Jablunkov.

A medium to large-sized basket takes approximately 3 days to process and weave.

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This workshop is made possible thanks to Serfenta.

Visual by Evey Kwong

WOVEN ORIGIN: SPAIN

Craft residency, 2019
⭢ Caballar, ESP

A second private residency learning from Carlos Fontales Ortíz, a Spanish basketmaker, teacher and researcher.
➝ Read Part II: Woven Identity: Basque Country

Day 1
We started with the soft material: sedges

Day 2
Harvesting and processing rushes from the neighbourhood.

Braiding and coiling

Impressions of weaving with sedge

Day 5
Galician folk split wood basket. Through his contact with the immensed wealth of traditional Galician basketry making that developed among farmers and fishermen, what survived was the memory and the knowledge of some of the oldest people in Galicia.

This basketry method is particularly widespread throughout the north and northwest of the peninsula (Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia). The Galician split wood baskets are known for its sheer elegance in form and fineness.

ORANG ASLI: BUILDING DAY SHELTER
Field trip, 2019
⭢ Gombak, MY

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We joined Encik Raman Bah Tuin, a Semai tribe of Senoi group gentleman to learn to build a day-shelter their way. Among raw material collects are the Bertam leaves (Eugeissona) and the main standing structure from trees.

OFF GRID: LONG SEMADO

Field trip, 2019
⭢ Long Semado, Borneo

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5 days living off-grid with the Lun Bawang ethic communities in Central Northern Borneo: Almost all of the traditional economical and self-sustained activities of the Lun Bawangs are related to rice plantation, and they cultivate both rice on hill and from paddy field. The production of rice is related to ones' prestige/financial status, as excess of rice harvest are traditionally consumed in huge irau feast, signifying wealth and fortune. Cooked rice is wrapped inside banana leaves called Luba' Laya, and rice is also brewed into rice wine or burak for practical reasons.

Manual harvesting is common across Asia. It involves cutting the rice crop with simple hand tools like sickles. The harvesting method is very effective when a crop has lodged or fallen over, however it is labor intensive. Manual harvesting requires 40 to 80 hours per hectare and it takes additional labor to manually collect and haul the harvested crop.

We went through different stages of turning paddy to rice. As paddy is farmed traditionally here, the work involved is highly laborious. Ripe stalks of paddy are hand-harvested, threshed, sun-dried, cleaned, and finally milled with the help of home scale milling machine.

The “Walden Two” experimental community finds that self-sufficiency is not even practical. (They found the price of ready-to-eat chicken far below the price of chicken feed alone.) Though not self-sufficient, the community strives to be self-contained, it takes from the outside world what is needed and strives to minimise use of consumer products.

These groups encourage supportive endeavours such as farming, pottery and weaving which provide essential capital and personal satisfaction. Work is accomplished, skills are developed, harmony is maintained, and a few quiet places are preserved for individual members. Human good is a collective endeavour; competition is de-emphasized. (wip)

Thinking by making: site specific weaving with bamboo and rice straw.

Go to top ↑

MAKE MATERIAL SENSE

Material design workshop, 2019
⭢ Floating University, Berlin

A workshop with Ana Lisa Alperovich

•
To make material sense means to ‘learn through making’ by exploring the possibilities of the local and overlooked resources found in and around the Floating School. Different material senses will be invoked by a series of sensual, practical and theoretical, series of experiments that might include mixing and matching, moulding, melting, cooking, digging, bedding-up, ironing, recycling, dying, glazing, destroying or evaporating matter. Possibilities of what biomaterials could do – or be - will be stretched to their maximum as participants forage for algae, moss, driftwood, grasses, bark, dead bugs, stones or soil, or might choose to work with food waste, wood chips or cardboard.

My work with woven reedmace.

CIRCLE CIRCLED

Sculpture Project, 2019

⭢ Lichtenfels, DE

Sculpture and contemporary basketry artist: Tim Johnson
Apprentices: Elke Hegmann, Gloria Bohn, Evey Kwong
All images credit to Tim Johnson

Visual by Evey Kwong

SCHWEIZER HANDBESELI / SWISS WHISK BROOM
Craft residency, 2019
⭢ Habkern, CH

Optically, the fibre and length looks very similar to the South East Asian mangrove palm, in which the natives uses its stems to make whisk brooms called, “penyapu lidi”. (wip)

Visual by Evey Kwong

SILESIAN BESKIDS: THE LAST SPRUCE ROOTS BASKET MAKER

Craft residency, 2019
⭢ Silesian Beskids, PL

•
In the Silesian Beskids mountain, I was fortunate to be introduced and learned the skills from the last local basketmaker, Jan Zogata. The main unique material used are spruce roots. What is more exceptional is the construction of the cross-base structure.

A medium to large-sized basket takes approximately 3 days to process and weave.

•
This workshop is made possible thanks to Serfenta.

Visual by Evey Kwong

WOVEN ORIGIN: SPAIN

Craft residency, 2019
⭢ Caballar, ESP

•
A second private residency learning from Carlos Fontales Ortíz, a Spanish basketmaker, teacher and researcher.
➝ Read Part II: Woven Identity: Basque Country

Day 1
We started with the soft material, sedges

Day 2
Harvesting and processing rushes from the neighbourhood.

Braiding and coiling

OFF GRID: LONG SEMADO

Field trip, 2019
⭢ Long Semado, Borneo

Thinking by making: site specific weaving with bamboo and rice straw.

ORANG ASLI: BUILDING DAY SHELTER

Field trip, 2019
⭢ Gombak, MY

MAKE MATERIAL SENSE

CIRCLE CIRCLED

SCHWEIZER HANDBESELI /

SWISS WHISK BROOM

SILESIAN BESKIDS:THE LAST SPRUCE ROOTS BASKET MAKER

WOVEN ORIGIN: SPAIN

OFF GRID: LONG SEMADO

Go to top ↑

MAKE MATERIAL SENSE

CIRCLE CIRCLED

SILESIAN BESKIDS: THE LAST SPRUCE ROOTS BASKET MAKER

WOVEN ORIGIN: SPAIN

OFF GRID: LONG SEMADO

ORANG ASLI: BUILDING DAY SHELTER

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SILESIAN BESKIDS:
THE LAST SPRUCE ROOTS BASKET MAKER