Behind the scenes
"The small balcony of the old market square of Santa Cruz de Mompox, Bolivar on April 18 around almost 7pm during the Holy Week procession. The night sky at this time was such a vivid blue that I felt that from this balcony I could touch it, the contrast that the blue of the sky gave with the yellow lights of the Maria Inmaculada Church that I saw in the foreground in front of me was perfect.The thousands of candles that all the people were holding in their hands waiting for the procession and the lanterns that turned all the clay walls painted in pastel yellow a vibrant and beautiful yellow. I smelled the river and felt the humidity and heat in the air; I remembered there every arch, every window, all those fluid shapes that build Mompox. The forge of That little balcony took me to a moment before, when I was walking inside the walls and unexpectedly meeting the water of the river or the lights that run through the town through these forges of organic and unpredictable shapes (...)"
Project Concept
Project Moodboard
This memory of a landscape that remains marked in my memory is what gave life to this project. All this materialized in the moodboard of the project, which was built with images of that trip that I made and also images of Luis Alfredo DomÃnguez, a Momposiono photographer who dedicates a large part of his life to recording Mompox and encouraging tourism to this town. .
I continued to find a craftsman I could work hand in hand with to start this project. In this way I arrived in Cucunubá, Cundinamarca and began to work with the horizontal loom artisan William Contreras in a material exploration in wool. But due to time issues and the need for a lot of space to try and fail in this project, we decided to set out with many material tests in hand and nice learning in his technique. After this, I arrived in Chia, Cundinamarca to meet Lucia Aguirre, a crochet artisan who worked in her house. I fell in love with the detail, the organic shapes and the transparency that it generated in the tablecloths that I had because they reminded me a lot of those forges that I saw in Mompox. Thus, I began to work with her in this stage of material exploration, which was very fruitful for both her and me because we were learning together along the way and thus we reached the final 5 material explorations of this project made with the final color palette. .
Color palette
Colección de Exploraciónes materiales
Thinking about what was most interesting in each of the material explorations and which one created more interesting shapes when modulating it and starting to repeat it in an area; the basic unit that creates the surface was chosen. After knowing that we needed 32 of the same sample, we decided with Lucia that it was better to use more artisans who worked with the crochet technique. In this way, I came to the designer Maria del Carmen, founder of Bordafino, a project where she works with artisans in the crochet trade, she introduced me to Marina Rojas who, after two months of work, brought the piece to life. From her home in Chia, she woven each of the 32 squares that make up the surface and then Maria del Carmen with her crochet needle mounted each square to each of the metal wire frames that she had made in a metal workshop in the autopista norte de Bogotá.​​​​​_d04a07d8-9cd1-3239 -9149-20813d6c673b_​
Basic unit that creates the surface
In parallel, from my house I began to propose different alternatives to start modulating these woven squares, thus reaching different patterns that show the great possibilities in terms of design that my basic 30x30cm woven unit can generate. Still, I decided that 'Proposal #3' was the one I was going to create.
%204_25_56%20p_m_.png)
Basic Unit Design Possibilities
Finally, in my house with the thread and Roman needle I was joining frame by frame until I was able to build the pattern of the final surface. This architectural surface was initially thought of as a space divider, specifically inspired by those forges that allowed the passage of light, the color of the sky and the views of Mompox. But during the same development of the surface, I began to realize that the surface had many more possibilities in interior design; as wall covering, ceiling covering and folding screen.
I invite you to look at this Sketchbook of the project. Here record the entire process; both conceptual and construction of the fabric from its sample stage to the final piece.
Here they found the 'Diarios de los Artesanos' that were made at the beginning of the project. Where the exercise of entering a little more deeply into the life of the artisans and in the practice of their trades was carried out.
Finally, I would like to mention that although I gave you a linear tour of what it was like to carry out this project, actually during the process, many times it felt like walking around in the same place; a chain of many frustrations that ended up leaving me no choice but to trust the process. In this way, little by little I was seeing how many small achievements in the end accumulated to become this surface. The commission with which the project began to inquire about innovation possibilities in design for handicrafts was answered successfully, through each of the approaches I had with Marina, Lucia, Maria del Carmen, William and Ana Claudia at the to work with them in each one of us to challenge ourselves together to materially explore possibilities that they had never tried before and thus make them see through this architectural surface their craft not only as a means to create the same utilitarian objects that they have been creating all their lives, but also as a means to create from an artistic and experimental language.
