Bogolan

This weekend I will dip my hands in the African mud. Ok, perhaps it will be a little bit less exciting than it sounds, because I won't go to Africa, but to Amsterdam... I will attend a workshop Bogolan, both cultural and practical. First we will learn somethings about the history of Bogolan and after this theoretical introduction we will dip our fingers in the mud.
Because I am really excited about taking this course, I am doing some research in advance. This blog is about the history and meaning of this special way to paint fabric, then there will be a blog about the meaning of the patterns and I will close this series with an overview of contemporary use of Bogolan.

Originally Bogolan is from Mali and the sub Saharan in West Africa. Bogolan, or bògòlanfini means made from mud in the Bambara language and has become the national symbol of Mali. This ancient way of painting on colored cotton is a longstanding tradition and a point of national pride. Bogolan and its patterns represent the culture of the Bamara, Dogon and Bobo people for generations. The Bogolan craftsmen are considered sacred or magical because of their material-altering nature, they complete the work 'begun by God'. Traditionally the Bogolan painting is only performed by men, just like the weaving of the textile. Narrow strips of cotton (15 cm.) are woven on looms. The only thing women contributed to this process was the spinning of the yarn, it used to be -and sometimes still is - a task of the grandmothers.
Nowadays the Bogolan-industry is very important for Mali. There is a kind of mass-production that serves the tourist and fashion markets, thereby the Bogolan craftsmen are no longer the only people producing these beautiful traditional products.

The Bogolan process is a 4-step process:

1. Mud from the river Niger or it's tributaries contains iron, which makes it suitable for painting. The preparation of the mud/paint starts 2 to 4 weeks earlier. The mud is collected from the river, the best mud, which contains a lot of iron, is found in the middle of the river. In a big container the mud needs to be stirred from time to time, in this way the organic substances can degrade and the iron salts are released.
2. After the cotton strips have been sewn together, they are first dyed, either a rich red from a dye obtained through boiling the bark of a n'peku, or in fresh yellow tones obtained through soaking the dried and pounded leaves of a n'galama. By mixing colors, or dipping the cotton several times a wide range of background colors can be created. The sun also plays a part in colouring the fabric. After each color-bad the cloths are unfurled in the sun to dry. The obtained colors represent the beautiful warm colors of the dessert, from dusk till dawn.
3. Once the fabric is dyed it is ready to receive the mud. The patterns are drawn with charcoal, and the mud will be applied using a toothbrush, a bamboo stick or by using stencils. Through a process of oxidisation the salty mud reacts with the natural dyes of the dyed fabric. This chemical reaction produces a rich black when the mud has dried and been washed off. In order to reinforce the color of the mud, it can be applied several times, thereby the black will even be more intense. 
4. After the mud has dried, the cloth can be softly cleaned, eventually with some soft soap. For the last time the cotton is laid out to dry in the sun. 

Prien at the Swan Market Sunday 23th

The kick off of the 2014 Swan Market season starts with a swinging festival in the Fenixloods. This robust, typically Rotterdam location is the place to be this weekend. Since it is inside, a little bit of rain now and then doesn't matter. There will be food and drinks and more important a lot of cool stuff. Looking for a nice present or something for yourself, don't hesitate and visit the market. It's for free! And there will be live performances as well.

Prien will attend the festival on Sunday. Where my stand will be, I don't know yet, hopefully next to Papiermonsters :)
I will have the new Spring Collection with me and the new Retro Summer Series ...
Hope to see you this Sunday! Enjoy your weekend!

Prien's New Spring Notebooks

Spring is in the air ... so it's time for the traditional Spring Cleaning ... not only for your house, but also for your head. Prien's new notebooks will help you to get organized. These handy sized beautiful pastel notebooks fit in every bag, so you can always have one with you. Choose your colour and print and write down all your to-do-things. Sometimes you can make your live a little bit nicer, just by using the right equipment :)  Enjoy spring!!

  

Feel Good Market

The place to be this weekend is the Feel Good Market in Eindhoven.

Once again Strijp S will be the decor of a vibrant and creative market. Despite the beautiful weather of recent days, it is still early in spring, so the market well be indoors. There will be live music, a lot of delicious food and even more handmade and unique stuff to see and buy.

Prien will join this edition of the Feel Good Market. There will be new series of notebooks and other stationery. So come and visit Prien's market stall to see it yourself!

... just a few more days of hard work to get ready in time :) ... See you Sunday!!

http://feelgoodmarket.nl/

Book Art by Louisa Boyd

Scrolling around on the internet I found this amazing book art of Louisa Boyd. She is an UK based artist who makes amazing books, paintings and prints. She finds her inspiration in nature and especially in the connection between man and nature. She says that even in these days, when most of us live in cities, we are still able to understand the powerful symbolism that nature depicts. For example, a bird that flies through the air represents freedom. This connection with nature is very important and needs to be cherished by mankind. For Louisa Boyd this is the starting point for working with books sculpturally. Some of her books depict birds flying away, released from their binding, others use the edges of the pages to show a broken image of a landscape.

Materials and technique play an important role in all Boyd's pieces, she dedicates a lot of time to experimenting with paper, paint and printmaking, pushing materials and understanding what they do. She sees paper as a material with fragile properties, and she enjoys identifying what it can and cannot do and the sometimes unpredictable nature of the material.

Boyd about bookbinding:'The process of bookbinding has become as important as the sculptures themselves and the concepts behind them. Recognising the beauty and skill involved in making books is just as much part of the work. It is a slow process, and requires patience, concentration and practise, but it is calming and rewarding. The hand bound book stands out in an age where we are used to fast results and machine-made objects.'

Book 'Dit is meesterlijk' - about craft

A few weeks ago I bought the beautiful book 'Dit is meesterlijk' from Nicole Uniquole, about the unique qualities of craft. Everything about this well-designed book invites you to pick it up and actually read it. I think everyone recognizes the feeling that you browse through a book, take a good look at the images or pictures and you might do that two or three times and after that the book ends on a big pile of other books you never will read. This book is different, I actually read everything, and enjoyed every part of it.

Of course it is about my passion; craft - but these days everything is about craft. Craft is hip and happening. A lot has been written about this topic, but only few articles involve the past in their story. This books analyses craft over the years and link it at the dynasties in the 14th and 15th century. One of the conclusions is that craft is not only craftsmanship, but also art, originality and love. Contemporary craft mixes these old techniques and knowledge with new materials and productions methods. 

What makes craft so special according to this book? In response to mass production, pollution and uniformity people want transparency. Products and their raw materials should be traceable, so people get back their trust in products and manufacturers. This narrative power also provides craft with its distinctive value. Who knows and experienced the dedication with which crafts have been made, will never non-committal purchase such a product.

In November 2014 Nicole Uniquole will again organize the event 'Meesterlijk' in the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam ... perhaps there will be a new book as well  ... I hope so, because it's well-designed, informative ans inspiring!

Vakpracht

Craft is the newest hottest thing in The Netherlands. A lot of Dutch Design, exhibitions such as Hand Made in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the event Meesterlijk in Amsterdam are examples of the new idea of craft, how to use it and how to value it. In recent years there has been an upgrading of the phenomenon craft. But what exactly is craft and who are the craftsman behind all these beautiful objects?

Vakpracht is a new Dutch website gathering all those craftsmen. At this site you can find craftsmen such as a soap boiler, an embroiderer and even a bookbinder :)
If you are looking for a specific product or genre, you can use Vakpracht to get in touch with the craftsman you are looking for. But connecting consumers with craftsmen is not the only purpose of this site, Vakpracht also supports craftsmen by sharing knowledge about doing business, giving workshops and by being a forum so craftsmen can share there knowledge, or ask questions at colleagues.

Want to know more about this practical site, take a look at www.vakpracht.nl. You can subscribe yourself to the newsletter, or you can follow the blog at the homepage. Of course you can also find Vakpracht at several social media channels, such as Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest. Since a few days Prien is also part of the Vakpracht community at http://www.vakpracht.nl/profiel/prien/ ... only in Dutch ...

Photo Book Flamboya by Vivianne Sassen

Sometimes it is nice to visit your old friends in the bookcase, such as Vivianne Sassen's photo book Flamboya. After visiting an exhibition you often buy a book, read it, it's on your coffee table for a few weeks and after that it disappears in your bookcase, because there are so many other things to see, to explore, to read. But, after a few years, it is always nice to read and explore those books with fresh eyes.

I bought this book before starting as a bookbinder, just because I liked the photographs and the opening text by Moses Isegawa. What strikes me today, besides the photographs, which I still admire deeply, is the way this book has been bound. To do justice to the photographs, they are printed book height in the right proportion, which means that a picture is often wider than one page. The solution is that the quires consist of cut off pages. Besides a good platform for the wider photographs, it also offers an exciting view to the next page.

Prien's Photo Boxes

A few weeks ago we were on ski holiday with some friends. It was such a great week! We had a lot of hard and long good laughs, interspersed with serious talks and it was just great to be with each other. Of course we skied a lot as well, the snow was great and we even had some sunny days.

Afterwards I had such a good time sorting the photos. All those crazy selfies were hilarious. The quality of the photos -especially the indoor and night photos- wasn't always good enough for enlargements, so I chose for Polaroid sized photos. To make the photos firmer I glued them on white photo board, this gives the images a tough look. One can shuffle as much as he or she wants. Line up all the selfies, or show the area, or the way he or she skies. In short - a very flexible and stylish way to stock photos.

To keep the photos together I made photo boxes in several colours, matching the person the box was for. It was a precise, but nice job to do the maths. Thinking, cutting, glueing, good music, some sunshine and good memories ... in short a happy moment for a bookbinder!

Object Rotterdam

Today was a a typically Dutch day, grey, heavy showers and a lot, and I mean A LOT of wind, so it took me some courage to decide that I really wanted to see the Object Rotterdam Fair at the other side of the Maas. Luckily, in the afternoon the showers were blown to the east and I only had to deal with the wind, so the decision was made; GO.
The design objects were located in Rem Koolhaas' new building The Rotterdam, Rotterdam's biggest building, overseeing the city from the south side of the Maas. The enormous building offered a great exhibition space. The main exhibition was at the ground floor and in the lobby, but the more interesting objects were given a more interesting location as well; the apartments in the tower. So we also got a chance to enjoy the beautiful view from the 30th and 44th floor. Unfortunately for the present designers the spectacular view took away a lot of the visitor's attention ...
Besides the view, one of the most beautiful and inspiring objects I spotted during my visit was this amazing 'Japanese Binding' closet of Studio Makkink & Bey. Of course that's not the real name of this special design, but it's the first thing that came in mind seeing this beautiful designed cupboard. The typical Japanese bone clasps are extremely enlarged, which gives the closet it's Asian look.