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(Archive) Koraal | een jubileumset

30 years Mariëtte Wolbert Textiles | an anniversary edition

This project was part of DDW 2023
Koraal | thee-en handdoek — © Dennis A-Tjak & Piep van Sante

During the DDW, Mariëtte Wolbert wants to show her own label in quirky kitchen textiles that she has started since 2014. In addition, special attention is paid to her anniversary set Koraal because of her 30 years of designing kitchen textiles.

Koraal | Inspiration

When Mariëtte Wolbert started her career as a textile designer 30 years ago, she was snorkeling in the Red Sea and was enchanted by the colors and the fairy-tale world of coral. Thanks to a recent TV item about 'Burgers Zoo Ocean', she suddenly saw clearly that this wonderful world but also the impending demise had to be the subject of her special anniversary edition.

Coral is actually a group of animals. In the agglomeration of the coral live unicellular algae that give the colour to the coral. All types of coral are protected and now have a very hard time in nature: mainly due to climate change, but also due to pollution and overfishing.

In the design of the anniversary kitchen set Coral, Mariëtte used the fan shape of the 'acabaria splendens', a soft coral species. The circles in the canvases are the larvae that swirl to find a place further down. In the edge she has applied the 'brain coral'.

Glasses towel

In addition to the anniversary kitchen set, Mariëtte designed a half-linen glass cloth that was developed in collaboration with the Weaving Museum Geldrop. She first researched the possibilities in the museum. There were some limiting factors but it was also very inspiring. A visit to museum Bussemakershuis, a museum about the Twente textile industry with great knowledge of linen, led to an adjustment in the binding she had originally conceived.

The warp threads of the glasses towel consist of strips of blue and red cotton. This symbolizes the coral and algae that live next to each other and thus get each other's colour. Due to climate change, the coral is fading. This is symbolized by more spaces between the stripes and also a colour change in the stripes. The blue becomes light blue and the red becomes pink. The weft is made of sand-colored linen. Halfway through, it turns into white. Here, too, you can see the symbolism of the fading

Studio BL, inspired by the Coral tea towel, has developed a 3D printed coral button exclusively for Mariëtte Wolbert Textiles to hang up the towels.

This research was made possible by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie

Jubileumset Koraal, gouden veter, knop, glazendoek — © Piep van Sante

Dennis A-Tjak & Piep van Sante