typha (cattail)

I return to the Czech countryside with ponds to a forgotten craft. I collect local artisanal material and learn to work with it. During November, I spend hours searching through icy and muddy ponds. I collect it while dressed in fishing pants. I dry it behind a stove at an old cottage in the Eagle Mountains. I soak it not only in a crystal-clear spring and then again at my apartment in Karlín, Prague, before weaving from it. And I create.

I am really dived into the project!

Clutch bags in which I carry with me my memories

to the disapointment and especially the joy of finding a healthy cattail,

for pools with clear ice water,

to large ponds with tall reeds,

on the weight of the wet soaked cattail and its lightness after its drying at the tiled stove in the cottage,

for careful processing of individual leaves,

for the following of traditional weaving of mats,

for making so much mess everywhere around.

This project was presented at Dutch Design Week 2022, BioArt Laboratories, Eindhoven, Netherlands by Studio of textile design 'Symbiosis: Willows and Cattails'

more about 'Symbiosis: Willows and Cattails'

typha (cattail)
school project: Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Czechia
supervisor: MgA. Jitka Škopová
photography: Hana Brandejs, Františka Benčaťová, Jan Brandejs, Eliška Hanušová
keywords: handmade, natural material, wool, typha, catail
production: 2020/2021

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