Down to Earth — 9 European artisans leading the sustainable craft movement
Sustainable, ethical, organic. These are all keywords for today’s conscious consumer. Yet when you peel back the layers, you won’t always find, for example, that organic equals sustainable. That’s why we take an even closer look at the artists we choose to feature. We want to know the whole story. Where are they sourcing their materials? How are their products created? Assembled?
And what we have found is that there is a whisper that is slowly becoming a roar in the field of sustainable products. Smaller makers and designers are now leading a burgeoning sustainability movement that is attempting to transform the artisanal into the essential.
Perhaps if we fan those flames enough, a new word might be added to the lexicon of the savvy shopper — handmade. By turning our focus to traditional, handmade objects, we can start to encourage people to think more long-term about the products that they buy. After all, handcrafted objects with their attention to detail, ensure a durable, long-lasting finished product.
In a world where people discard things so easily, I personally find my own need for tangible and real materials growing stronger by the day. And that is how the idea for this edit came about. We want to show an alternate world where yesterday’s factory becomes today’s atelier.
Where the world’s best artisans are crafting wearable art and unique home goods from sustainable materials, using traditional construction methods.
Yes, all of our edits focus on handmade, but this time we took it one step further. These skilled craftspeople, renowned for the work that they do, some locally, some internationally, are working with found, natural materials. These artists draw inspiration from the environment and, in turn, help us better understand our delicate relationship to it.
We believe they are leading the conversation around sustainability and changing the way we think about the products we bring into our lives. For example, artist Maria Sigma states on her website, “My concept of textile design and production reflects my dedication to Zero Waste design. I strive to decrease to the minimum yarn waste and unnecessary cuts, carbon footprints, the use of machinery, water and electric energy. By adhering to a Zero Waste philosophy, I aspire to make hand-weaving an even more sustainable craft.”
Now, we would like to introduce you to nine artists at the forefront of the true sustainability movement. All hand-crafted, hand-dyed, hand-carved, hand-woven or hand-knit just for you.
the edit
Copito by Clara Taylor
Once we discovered Copito’s incredible crayons and watercolor paints, made from foraged materials in the Garraf region of Spain, we needed to know more about the maker. Copito founder Clara Taylor, mother of three young boys (4, 2 and 1), spent most of the summer in the Spanish Pyrenees, and the “plant + earth pigment enthusiast” filled her days with berry picking, cooking with the kids, picnicking, melting wax, and generally surviving the chaos and cherishing the joy. Armed with her tools and materials for making dyes, candles and crayons, Taylor’s working vacation included continuous experimentation with land and plant pigments. Her non-toxic crayons are made in small batches using locally sourced beeswax, carnauba wax and soy wax. They are carved by hand, one by one, each crayon unique in its color and shape. They come with a small card explaining which plants and minerals were used to produce their color. The natural watercolor paint palette includes six colors made from stones foraged in the Pallars Sobira district. “I process the pigments by hand and mix them with a natural binder (made from tree sap and vegetable glycerin), and clove oil which acts as a natural preservative,” she says. “The pigments come from minerals which are millions of years old so the colors are as stable as they come!”
Handmade in: Spain
Buy here
Follow: @shopcopito
Elaine Bolt
Ceramic artist Elaine Bolt believes objects can tell stories. Working with clay and mixed media, creating works and compositions guided by a sense of narrative and steeped in the context of the local surroundings, her woodland vessels and wall pieces incorporate elements from nature, including willow and wisteria twigs combined with stoneware berries and porcelain acorns. “My wall pieces feature found materials along with hand-built ceramic objects which aim to blur the boundaries between the made and the found. These works are complemented by a range of vessels, thrown on the wheel. On a larger scale, I have also developed a body of outdoor tree-like sculptural works that are informed by and embrace the landscape.” Finished in a muted color palette, all of the pieces echo the hues found in the South Downs, from deep flint blacks through soft stony gray glazes to ghostly chalk tones.
Handmade in: England
Buy here
Follow: @elainebolt
Unurgent Argilla by Nina Salsotto Cassina
“Unurgent Argilla is a vocabulary of wild materials, a study of what’s around us, repeated on spherical vessels, which I use as canvas to convey a spatial narrative,” says ceramicist Nina Salsotto Cassina. Cassina focuses on what’s below her feet (clays, rocks and minerals) and works with her hands using locally sourced, non-commercial materials. She juxtaposes the ancient with the contemporary. “I aim at seeing and respecting both my local environment and ceramics as contexts with their own language.” Last summer, Cassina spent time in Pantelleria where she foraged some volcanic clay. “The result is a small collection of round vessels all made with pure wild clays, turned at the wheel and fired to stoneware temperatures,” she says. “Each is made only of the specific place it was collected from. The colour, texture and form are an immediate reminder of the geological and creative processes that made both the volcanic clays and the vessels.”
Handmade in: Italy
More here
Follow: @unurgent.argill
Woola La! by Sandrina Fernandes
Sandrina Fernandes created the Woola La brand in 2016 out of an environmental concern. Aware that textile production has an ecological impact, Woola La has chosen to work with natural organic fibers and uses only non-toxic dyes from the earth. Each piece of fabric is meticulously transformed using traditional dyeing processes, a skill Sandrina has painstakingly acquired over the years from professionals, her own studies and countless hours of practice, giving each piece a unique and singular appearance. Partnerships have been set up with local restaurants and florists near her studio in Lyon for the recovery of organic waste and flowers intended to be thrown away. Grateful for this growing network who share her philosophy, she cherishes and respects the materials she has been gifted. “The fabrics are dyed by me daily. For that I need water and some vegetable and mineral additives in small quantities. When I create a color bath, I make sure to use it a few times until the color runs out before I throw it away,” says Sandrina. Finally, she favors end-of-stock and old textiles for an ethical and sustainable supply of her fabrics. Curiosity and passion are part of Sandrina’s signature, and she considers each piece a painting made in collaboration with nature. Her limited edition small batch of silk slip dresses, naturally hand-dyed using local flowers, are indeed works of art.
Maria Sigma
Inspired by nature and her Greek heritage, Maria Sigma makes vibrant, but minimalistic, contemporary textile artworks that creatively interpret long-established traditional craft techniques. “By removing any superfluous elements, my work aims at creating high-quality hand-woven textiles designed to become timeless heirlooms,” says Sigma. All of her her pieces, whether blanket, cushion or rug, are handwoven, hand-knotted and hand-brushed in muted, natural colors – some adorned with Aegean blue details reminiscent of the sea where she grew up. “My approach to design is based on the idea of creating beautiful textiles through ‘zero waste’ design and craftsmanship. High-quality and sustainable natural fibres are key to the philosophy of my work, in which the aspiration for textile longevity through simplicity and sensibility is essential,” says Sigma. “Weaving is my way of putting the everyday chaos in order and make something honest and beautiful out of it.”
Handmade in: the UK
Buy here
Follow: @mariasigma_woventextiles
Loopy Ewes by Katie Allen
Katie Allen, with her coined phrase “flock to shop”, is reconnecting farming and fashion. Allen calls herself a shepherd and a maker, a custodian of the land, an advocate for her flock of sheep. “I’m working to connect people with the reality that our clothes come from farming, just like our food,” she says. “My knit collection demonstrates how British wool can be grown regeneratively, processed simply and result in clothing that is beautiful, good to wear, honest, and good for the earth.” Every one of her products embodies the journey of her shepherding life. From delivering lambs and watching their fleeces grow throughout the season, to shearing time and handing over her wool clip to the mill, she connects profoundly with her work. “When I run the threads of yarn through my hands on the knitting machine, I know I’ve spent the year caring for the animals that produced it.” Her sweaters and blankets and pillows and throws … we love it all!
Made in: England
Buy here
Follow: @loopyewes
Ceramic and Nature by Lidia Bosevski
Lidia Bosevski has always loved observing and living with nature. Admiring the details of the textures and structures, she has found a way to organically translate the natural elements of the earth into tangible works of art. “It was a wonderful moment when I realised how much clay is alive,” she says. For Bosevska, the process of creating her ceramics begins outside. She travels extensively across her home country of Croatia, searching through clay pits, quarries, building sites, along paths and rivers, getting to know her country both above and below the surface. “Dipping her hands in every bit of soft ground that she finds on her explorations, she goes on to create works that combine the surrounding influences and intimate experiences. Searching for yet another handful of some wild and unfamiliar substance, she uses her small trowel to deposit her precious finds in a canvas bag that she always carries, all in an effort to expand the building of her opus summum,” from the catalogue of her most recent exhibition, Materia. Bosevska uses purified clay as pigment for colouring canvas, and occasionally she grinds pure materials into powder. Accidentally found samples serve as construction materials, often applied in free layers. Some are mixed to get natural glazes. Bosevska is a well respected ceramicist and if you are interested in learning more about her nature-based process, you might just be lucky enough to join one of her sought-after workshops.
Handmade in: Croatia
More here
Follow: @ceramic_and_nature
Teinture Sauvage by Celine
Teinture Sauvage roughly translates to “Wild Dye”. Celine, the woman behind this atelier, calls herself “a craftsman in 100 percent natural and ecological vegetable color,” but we would argue that Celine transcends craftsman. She is a teacher, a botanist, a chemist, a poet. “My aim is to make natural colors with fully compostable dye baths thanks to the unsuspected power of plants. This way of making vegetable dyes requires more work, but it is ecological, sustainable and completely natural,” she says. “Besides the well-known dyeing plants such as madder, indigo, weld and the lesser known logwood, I like using wild plants. They are easy to find and possess medicinal properties.” Ten years ago, Céline and her husband bought an abandoned house in the country. She needed to escape the city, to embrace nature, to make things with her hands. Thanks to her new garden, she started experimenting with vegetal colors with the plants she could grow there. Then she took a course for several weeks and eventually opened Teinture Sauvage in 2017. It’s been a difficult adventure, as the process of removing alum, a non-renewable natural resource, from textile dyes is an arduous task. “I started experimenting. A lot,” she says. A peek at her Instagram photos reveals the beautiful, and successful, fruits of her labor. Subscribe to her newsletter to find out when new stock is added to her online boutique, including dye kits, dyed wools and cozy socks.
Handmade in: France
Buy here
Follow: @teinturesauvage
Henry Neville Wood
Henry Neville Wood is a wood carver and sculptor originally from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. With a penchant for wanderlust and adventure, Henry has carved on tiny Swedish islands, on Bulgarian mountains and in Australian barns. He now calls London home, where he is lucky enough to carve next to the Heath. Wood is currently working on “We went to mars and it was a disaster”, a collection of works exploring a failed attempt to colonize Mars. And only he can tell the story of this endeavor (see the video on his website)! Utilizing his green wood working skills, using forged Hungarian axe heads, Swedish knives and gouges, and carving on his lap, Henry has produced work that represents sophisticated futuristic technologies to help man consume the heavens. The works are clues to a disaster narrative. As he explains on his site, “Earth is paradise, so why leave?” Unless that paradise is destroyed. Join him on his “make my own space adventure.”
Handmade in: the UK
Buy here
Follow: @henrynevillewood
