CRAFTING PEACE
2008 - ongoing, worldwide
CRAFTING PEACE is using craft as a method to enlarge compassion in the world, stitch by stitch, bead by bead, color, by color...
Designlabel Crafting Peace
Crafting Peace is a designlabel and philosophy that uses craft as a method to enlarge compassion in the world: stitch by stitch, bead by bead, color by color. Our approach is to co-create design products with craftsmen in fragile countries. On the one hand crafting is an method of tapping someone’s (often undiscovered) potential using hand, head and heart, on the other hand crafting – however graceful, authentic and artistic it may appear – simply means putting bread on the table in some parts of our world.
Crafting Peace Lab and Products
Crafting Peace is divided in two symbiotic parts: Crafting Peace Lab and Crafting Peace Products. Experiment, ideas, cross-fertilization and worldwide talent are joined in the lab using craft as a tool to create worldwide compassion. Crafting Peace Products resulting from the Lab are sold commercially under the Crafting Peace label. The profits are reinvested in the Lab to initiate design projects in other fragile areas.
The first experiment in the Crafting Peace Lab was an invitation to several craftsmen worldwide to craft and embroider a 70 cm soft fabric bird - as a graceful icon of peace. The result was eleven beautifully embroidered birds, sent to Amsterdam from countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, Cambodia and Afghanistan.
From Lab to Product
Among the eleven artists, one craftsman and producer, Boumi, located in Kabul, Afghanistan, made an over-the-top fabulous bird. The Boumi bird laid the foundation for a commercial collection of a Crafting Peace Product: an interior-cushion in the shape of a bird.
Crafting Peace with Boumi
To co-create a collection of birds with Boumi, Afghan crafters were asked to share words describing their current state of mind. “Happy, peaceful, cordial, liberated, anxious, hopeful, interested, determined, grateful and astonished” were used as inspiration for 30 new designs. Even though trapped in conflict, the essence of people in Afghanistan is strikingly similar to the essence of people outside Afghanistan. Who isn’t hopeful, astonished, anxious or grateful at some point in their lives?
Designs of Crafting Peace with Boumi
The final designs of the birds are co-created by Afghan crafters and Dutch designers in collaboration with an Amsterdam based Afghan calligrapher. The birds - that measure 80 cm wide - are marketed under the name ‘Crafting Peace with Boumi’. They will be sold in 30 designs, in three price classes.
PR and communication
In December 2010 two Butterflies will travel to Kabul to meet the Boumi crafters and guide the process of co-creating the birds. Being there, it is the perfect occasion for something more: a ‘Crafting Peace Story’ that actually explains the background of each individual bird, to help us create awareness and enlarge compassion.
Crafting Peace is an initiative of Butterfly Works and Studio Duizendschoon. The first collection of Crafting Peace with Boumi will be launched during Maison & Objet in Paris on January 21-25th 2011.
About Boumi
Boumi is an Afghan social entrepreneurship combining business innovation with a determination to bring about social change by empowering the impoverished. The Afghan men and women of Boumi create and manufacture home textiles.
www.boumi.com
About Studio Duizendschoon
Jola Hesselberth writes songs, draws, creates animations, dolls and theater shows. Jola Hesselberth’s work is about small and big human emotions. She creates a world of dreamy atmosferes, fairytales, to inspire living life like a dream…
www.craftingpeace.com
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