Thea Dam Søby at Muji

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Until Sunday 10th April, Thea Dam Søby is showing her textiles and demonstrating sewing and repair techniques at the Danish flagship store of MUJI on the 4th floor of the Illum department store in Østergade in Copenhagen. Given how much she has been inspired by Japanese techniques for working with textiles it has been an appropriate venue.

Many of the works shown - both clothing and high-quality household textiles - have been given a second life by using various techniques of tie dye and resist die and by beautiful repairs that become part of the story of the piece.

Thea has demonstrated some of the sewing and patching methods for classes held in the store and for that work she sells amazing Japanese needles - the best in the world - and kits with sewing needles and thread.

We talked about this for some time. My mother and both my grandmothers sewed and knitted. They made curtains - not out of necessity but to get exactly what they wanted - and both grandmothers repaired and darned. All three - my mother and both grandmothers - had drawers or boxes or large bags full of thread and offcuts of material and buttons and patches. Anything and everything was kept in case it could be useful because that was what most women of their age did.

Now, Thea cannot assume that women who come to her classes have needles at home or even a grasp of basic skills.

On Thea's Instagram site there are photographs of a re-dyed white-denim jacket she produced for a fashion journalist ... and I then realised that I had completely forgotten that there was a period when people wore white or faded denim .... jacket, trousers and shirts ... the whole works.

I'm not convinced that I could get away with wearing one of Thea's kimono-style jackets but the household textiles are amazing. The strong colours - mostly deep blue but also some mauve - are striking and where they are applied to antique linens the textures and the patterns of the weaving are incredible and they have a feel and a quality that is rarely matched by modern textiles.


Theas Handmade Textiles
Thea Dam Søby on Instagram

 
 

FindersKeepers at Øksnehallen - March 2022

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This weekend saw the return of FindersKeepers to Copenhagen after a break of two years because of the pandemic.

FindersKeepers organise large design markets in Copenhagen and Aarhus to show the work of young artists, designers and makers and small new independent companies who present a wide range of ceramics and glass, jewellery, textiles and fashion with interesting indoor plants, household objects and some furniture.

This weekend, set out in the large and well-lit space of Øksnehallen in the old meat market, there were 200 designers and "creative entrepreneurs."

With such a wide range of work on show, it is difficult to make broad assessments or suggest more than a general overview although it was obvious that there was more pattern, more complex shapes - rather than designs being stripped down and simple - and there were darker colours and echoes of the 60s with more denim than I have seen for a couple of decades and even rag rugs and tie dye so, maybe, the hipsters are being edged out by new hippies!

This time, there was also a large area of second-hand and high-quality vintage clothing that indicates a significant and growing movement away from big-brand names and a clear move towards buying accountable and sustainable clothing.

FindersKeepers

 

silicone bibs for kids from Danskk
Le Lune Ceramics
tables from Bønnebordet

rag rugs from Nyt Liv
hand-turned lamps from Retrogade
Uma Studio

Isabel Anne Ceramics
illuminated sculpture from flacoDesign
Petit Cadeau

 

The FindersKeepers market provides an opportunity to look at the work of a wide range of makers and designers. Here, I have focused on four very different designers or companies to illustrate the diversity of the works shown under that broad umbrella of Danish design but also show the huge amounts of talent, inspiration and dedication and focus that can be found across the board.

 

Flickering Light

Sofie Østergaard Neble has taken the opportunity of maternity leave to develop a simple but very effective idea for mobiles that capture and reflect light through strips of film in a carefully-chosen range of colours. They were shown against fine linen and would be amazing suspended in a window reveal. Designers work with colour and texture but rarely seem to explore shadows and the potential of reflection in this way.

This is a brilliant (pun intended) example of the way young designers realise ideas and push forward to production. Sofie told me that she had received extremely positive feedback and so she is now trying to move her ideas forward.

 Sofieneble@hotmail.com

 

Simone's Sprælledukker

I thought that these “jumping jacks” are brilliant.

They are laser cut from birch plywood and many are specific commissions to commemorate events or relationships.

The style is a comfortable merging of gentle cartoon impressions of individuals but with a strong element of the simple outlines and strong colours of illustrations from books for children.

One of the figures is from the book Sticky Monsters and is a collaboration with the author John Kenn Mortensen.

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THEAS handmade textiles

Thea Dam Søby is a textile designer and a teacher who uses a range of techniques including tie dye and resist.

There is a distinct Japanese quality to her choice of colours and to the techniques she uses that are inspired by Japanese shibori or tie dyeing and the practice of careful and appropriate repair and patching of cherished textiles with stitching and embroidery called Sashiko.

She finds and repairs and then dyes antique linens that have an amazing quality.

Thea organises demonstrations and sessions of teaching and from the 28 March through to the 10 April she will be be showing her work at MUJI in Illum’s department store in the centre of Copenhagen.

Theas handmade textiles

Pure Dansk

Astrid and Malene Søgaard come from a farming family in Jutland and they have set up Pure Dansk to promote and to market Danish dried peas, beans and lentils.

These are traditional Danish foods that have rather gone out of fashion so the company, as part of their marketing, has produced good and up-dated recipes to inspire cooks.

These recipes are printed as cards that can be found at events like this but they are all also available on the Pure Dansk web site.

Graphics for the web site and through the full range for packaging are good and shows how important it is, at all levels, to get the details right.

The current range includes:

Ingrid Ærter / Ingrid Peas
Anicia Linser / Anicia Lentils
Hestebønner / Broad Beans or Horse Beans

Pure Dansk

 

the beans and peas at Irma … my local food store