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Handmade, a rising value

2021-04-26T03:49:00.868Z


Craftsmanship is, more than ever, the key to exclusivity. In addition to its artistic and cultural weight, a reflection of ancestral trades, current designs and greater accessibility are added today thanks to digital platforms. Tradition is in fashion. And in Spain there is a quarry.


They are the mantra of luxury: legacy and tradition.

The chant that is repeated in each firm, house or label in the sector since the exclusivity was called into question, at least five years ago, in view of a huge volume of production that not even the high price of the articles can justify in so much elitist pitch.

Appeal to the unique and genuine object, the fruit of years of expertise and experience, is the solution today.

A claim that also abounds in the current discourse of sustainability: it is not only a durable product, but also made in the most natural way.

By hand, of course.

That is why artisans have become valuable assets in this industry.

And it turns out that Spain is a power in the matter.

The flower pots and decorative elements that he designs are made with jute and cotton ropes.Vicens Gimenez / EPS

In 2018, Chanel acquired the Colomer Group, heir to the former Colomer Munmany, a benchmark in the leather tannery since 1792 located in Vic (Barcelona). It was one of the latest prepandemic moves by a luxury conglomerate in its quest to control the highest quality suppliers. The French firm is a specialist in rescuing and sustaining old artisan trades of union origin - from embroidery to headgear, going through silverware - that otherwise would be doomed to disappearance. A work that Loewe especially praises for its part through its foundation, which in 2016 established the Craft Prize award to publicize the excellence, but also the innovation, of contemporary craftsmanship, one of the objectives set by the designer Jonathan Anderson upon his arrival at the brand in 2013. Three Galician basket makers,Idoia Cuesta, Álvaro Leiro and the As Redeiras collective contributed to a line of bags a couple of years ago. “Actually, I've been working for her since 2011, when they called me after seeing me at the Maison & Objet fair in Paris. From there, I have developed prototypes and projects, such as the Baskets collection presented at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2019. I am delighted with the learning and with continuing to participate together with the designers of the house in both the creative and production processes ”Says Cuesta.like the Baskets collection presented at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2019. I am delighted with the learning and with continuing to participate together with the designers of the house both in the creative and production processes ”, says Cuesta.like the Baskets collection presented at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2019. I am delighted with the learning and with continuing to participate together with the designers of the house both in the creative and production processes ”, says Cuesta.

Ima Garmendia de Adarbakar, ceramic artisan, in her studio studio in the La Ribera neighborhood of Barcelona.Vicens Gimenez / EPS

Basque of origin, but "Galician of feeling", Idoia Cuesta is a clear exponent of modern artisan that explores ancestral methods adapting them to our days. "After several years of training and research, experimenting with natural and vegetable fibers, I have incorporated new materials such as felted wool filament, cotton ropes, jute, hemp ... Even fibers from recycling plastic, paper, cables or textile waste . I think about how to mix the various weaving techniques, how I can use them to create new collections ”, she says from her workshop, located in a Galician biosphere reserve. Cuesta is the spearhead of these young artisans who have been adding to the tradition considerably in recent times: the female presence in crafts already accounts for 37.1%,a relatively low percentage, although 10 points higher than that observed in 2010, according to the study

Situation of crafts in Spain.

Report on competitiveness and main economic variables

, prepared in 2015 by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and the School of Industrial Organization.

The same report - the last one - points out that the value of the sector amounts to 4,042 million euros, which represents around 2.4% of industrial GDP and 0.4% of the total.

Ima Garmendia from Adarbakar manufactures ceramic pieces inspired by nature.Vicens Gimenez / EPS

“Before, crafts were a traditional trade that was even passed down from generation to generation. Now it is more vocational, since there is a market where creativity, innovation and design are valued and allow the artisan to create with more freedom ”, explains Ima Garmendia, a ceramist who in 2004 changed the camera of a reputed photojournalist - she was in the Afghanistan War and has published in

The New Yorker

and the Sunday Herald — by the oven.

“I always thought that my vocation was photography and I dedicated myself to it for two decades, until I discovered that I was just as good at ceramics.

And I'm passionate about it ”, he continues.

At Adarbakar, her firm and workshop in Barcelona, ​​this natural woman from Tolosa creates elegant, minimalist and organic pieces.

"My inspiration comes from nature, and all my works are functional because my goal is to bring beauty to everyday life," he explains.

He uses the modeling technique and decorates them with rubbings of his own photographs, which are accompanied by verses by the poet Jesús Aguado.

Alex Añó Frohlich, from Alexfrosum, a glass craftsman, in his studio studio in the Sants district of Barcelona.Vicens Gimenez / EPS

Like her, Nando Cornejo also decided to take a professional script twist in search of enriching experiences that money cannot always buy. She planted

ready-to-

wear for women —he was a founding member of the Potipoti firm— to make knitted blankets in a family workshop in Béjar (Salamanca). “I wanted to explore other avenues focused on interior design. And the blankets are an ideal format to express my concerns in an artistic way. They are like a blank canvas, ”he says. Under the Mantas Cornejo banner, it weaves home clothes in merino wool, an exceptional material "due to its great possibilities, its warmth and its versatility". The months of confinement have helped him: "They have got people excited about beautifying their houses." Artisan blanket and

streaming

movie

.

Some of the pieces that the craftsman himself designs and blows.

Vicens Gimenez / EPS

This year of indoor life has, of course, contributed to the handmade fever.

See macramé, a millenary technique in which Persians and Assyrians were used and which is now enjoying another fashionable moment, according to Ikram Maymouni, from Abha, a center of Barcelona, ​​in the Poblenou neighborhood, specialized in manufacturing and dissemination through of knotted thread ornaments workshops.

"The people who come to the courses greatly appreciate that this type of handicraft, so ancient, can be made with just a stick, threads and your hands," he says.

Vicens Gimenez / EPS

It is more complicated for those who want to discover glass blowing.

"He is going to face many difficulties in being able to train," says Alex Añó Frohlich.

From his workshop in Barcelona, ​​Alexfrosum, he insists on teaching new generations and not so much: "Artisans from other disciplines sign up, such as potters or jewelers, who want to work or learn about different materials."

Frohlich, who also designs and creates glass pieces that are as beautiful as they are useful, is clear that craftsmanship is on the rise, but he also thinks that “there is a lack of a circuit where you can see and buy quality work.

That and that there is no awareness of the high cost of producing artisan objects in Spain ”.

Some of the pieces that the craftsman himself designs and blows.Vicens Gimenez / EPS

The timing, for that matter, is right, and the internet has made it even easier. "We feel very fortunate to have been born together with social networks," say Andrea Caruso Dalmas and Alberto Gobbino Ciszak, architects of La Clínica Design. Its origin was the design and interior design studio Ciszak Dalmas, but after winning an award from the Youth Institute, they decided to invest the money from the award in producing "simple and simple furniture that adapts to each environment", like those multipurpose carts that have been used for them. given international fame. “The craftsman was very living in the workshop because his task is usually laborious, but today you can show your work to the world live and for free via social networks.What happens is that what starts out as a game becomes another task almost as important as the work itself in the workshop ", Ana Ferichola (Madrid, 1980) and Natalia Figueroa (Bogotá, 1982), ceramists trained in the Madrid School of Art Francisco Alcántara and partners in the firm Tánata.

Vicens Gimenez / EPS

That craftsmanship is considered a luxury item today causes them some suspicion: “There are many workshops and brands that manufacture in a close and artisanal way and we would not consider them luxury.

They are nothing more than products with fairer prices than others that we buy because they are cheap.

Of course, that a brand or a designer bet on craftsmanship will always be a declaration of intentions ”.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-04-26

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