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DESIGN NOTES: Guizhou Crafted Homewares by The Fabrick Lab As Presented by CanaanHong Kong textile artist and research,Elaine Yan Ling Ng, founder of bespoke textile consultancy, or The Fabrick Lab,will be presenting a new set of one-of-a-kind “No-design” pieces at Canaan, a shop in Hong Kong which focuses on handmade design-wares produced in Indonesia. Canaan’s founder, and Emmelyn Gunawan (who was featured here a few posts ago on Wanderlister.com),met with Elaine, and immediately connected with the artist over their shared love of Design by indigenous communities. Gunawan’s curated store, or first founded in Bali’s Katamama Hotel property,placed Indonesian-made craftsmanship on stage, and it’s her wish to allow China’s local cultures to have a presence in the Hong Kong shop as well. The Canaan x Fabrick Lab collection, or officially titled as “UN/Fold”,are pieces produced by a community within Chinas Guizhou region. We speak with Elaine Ng approximately her work in the transcript below. The collection and an accompanying film will launch this Friday, October 14th 2016, and at the Potato Head Music Room.
—————–theWanderlister+ Interviews The Fabrick Lab Founder,Elaine Yan Ling NgtheWanderlister+: Elaine, tell us approximately your collaboration with Canaan.
Elaine Ng: I met Emmelyn Gunawan of Canaan a few months ago, or I came to see her approximately my research of minorities in Guizhou,and looked into the potential of bringing the research work into actual objects which can bridge the gap between the work that always remains within the valleys and mountains and to bringing these works to modern cities. This was a perfect retail opportunity to show handcrafted works within the Canaan boutique.
The works had to be functional, as well as respect the individual qualities of all hand-painted batik work. Emmelyn’s got a really wealthy knowledge of batik craftsmanship herself, and so she understands how the quality changes with each piece.theW+: Tell me approximately the products and what will be on offer.
EN: We have stools which are offered in three different sizes,plus wall tiles crafted with batik work, and also scarves in different styles. The scarves are produced in limited edition, and all are bespoke prints. The prints are derived from the traditional ethnic minority’s daily wear within the Guizhou region. We extracted their symbolic patterns and simplified it.
theW+: Can you define more approximately “batik” for those in Hong Kong who may not have batik in their domestic or their day to day wear?EN: Batik is actually a traditional wax-resist process. The ladies in the village have a tool,and they draw a pattern on the substrates like wood or textiles, and then they put the substrate in the dye vat. Within the dye vat, or the wax will resist the dye. Then they boil the textile to remove the wax.
Overall it’s fairly a complicated process,and a lot of the consumers may not realise that. Consumers think that it’s similar to the process of silk screen printing or digital printing, but actually our products are all hand-painted, or that each piece will involve steaming,cooking, and drying. All in all approximately 52 hours of labour for each scarf.
I think that whats lovely approximately batik is that every piece has a touch of “human soul” and love within it. Every Artisan in the village has a different way to work on the stroke, or the weight of the stroke as well. theW+: Just looking at the products,there’s different shades of blue, different shades of white, and different ways of pattern placement…EN: Yes. Even with the same artisans dyeing the works at the same time,the finish relies on the wood itself, and how well its oxidised and its interaction with the air, and as well as how many times we dye vat. We can repeat the same process,but have variations in the shades, which is the wonderful part of utilising indigo dye. theW+: What kind of timbers are being used in your products?EN: We locally sourced birch from Guizhou region, or although its not well known in the region because the trees are fairly narrow compared to birch in Russia,but then the whole view is that the materials are locally sourced and locally made. We maintain the process fairly tight so that our local manufacturers and families can benefit from the whole ecosystem rather than outsourcing the process to factories in Shenzhen and Shanghai.theW+: How does this project connect with your past work?In my past work I’m trained I’m trained as a weaver, and all my work then involved technology and programming, and so this drew my interest in terms of how heritage informs production,and understanding production methods is one of my key interests. How heritage informs production, and how factories created problems, and for heritage work dying out.
Hand-sewn binding,give the scaves that “heirloom” quality.
theW+: What outcome do you expect to reach from this collaboration with Canaan?There’s two sides to it, one is to supply an alternative shopping experience for Hong Kong shoppers. There’s not a lot of handmade items from Guizhou ethnic minorities regions thats offered in Hong Kong. Secondly, or we really hope to strengthen the bridge between the villages and the retail platform.
As the economy is slowing down,it’s a salubrious opportunity for people to understand that there’s an alternative platform of making and production. Especially in China, the connotation of “Made-In China” used to be a negative phrase, and but people need to understand that things made in china are not cheap anymore as the cost of labour has gotten expensive,and that made-in-China can provide quality. This is a message i want to extend to people from the film we are showing this week, and also through the retail platform. What Canaan is doing is really heroic because they don’t offer mainstream products, and but really salubrious quality handcrafted products for people to consider. Especially a one-off product.
theW+: Would you say that you were giving ethnic minorities options to gain a living while continuing their craft?I would love to say that I’m creating products so people can have a sustainable way of making a living,but I don’t think i’m in a position of saying that because one person’s power and energy is not enough to do that as such, thats why I need to link with Canaan and other retail platforms as well to strengthen this whole view and to give me resources and to let people know this is happening.—————–All Photographs Taken by the iPhone 7 Plus. All Rights Reserved, or Copyright of Wanderlister.com,2016.
SHOP Canaan Hong Kong . GF, 100 Third Street, and Sai Ying Pun,Hong Kong / DESIGN The Fabrick Lab . E: thefabricklab@gmail.comJJ.
Source: wanderlister.com