Reinventing yourself by creating textile designs

Interview on craftsmanship and textile design by the Country weekly.

The interview was conducted by journalist Fernando Neira @nanonrod . And although some of you may have already seen it printed in the magazine's paper supplement that accompanies the newspaper, I leave the link in case you did not read it:

https://elpais.com/eps/2021-09-15/inventora-de-tejidos-con-latido-gallego.html

It all started one day when I received a call and he told me that he was interested in telling me about my work and visiting my Textile Studio in Allariz. And so I could see live how was my creative process and my day to day creating handmade fabrics.

And of course I said YES.

During one day of the weekend I shared all my work on the loom. As well as how I had started my creative activity within Crafts and handmade weavings.

This is one of my most personal interviews as I tell the reasons why I started knitting.

In these hours of confidences, I showed her my work space, my workshop, as well as the most special fabrics for me, for example the Morno collection. I also showed her the handmade blankets and scarves of the fueguitos collection exhibited in my store or on the web.

Here is the link to the website in case you want to know more about these products: https://rirandco.com/tapiz-de-lana-morno/

We were also able to talk about other aspects of life, how to live in a village, my experiences, my career and how I decided one day to change the course of my life. or how I decided one day to change the course of my life.

Some time ago, I decided to start this adventure and restart my life after an episode in which I was put in front of a precipice by a traffic accident. I took a leave of absence from a permanent position in the State Administration to rethink my future.

Stop and decide how we want to live our lives

Sometimes we have to stop and decide how we want to live our life, what we want to enjoy and what our dream is. 

At that moment I thought that I wanted to see my children grow up with peace of mind and create beautiful objects, with which I could express myself. That's when I thought about weaving, I had been training in it for a long time and it was time to continue and try a new activity in Crafts and Design.

Little by little this creative activity began a new stage in my life and a new way of working that has resulted in what today is my Textile Studio in Allariz.

During my time working in the Administration, I had taken courses with textile recovery programs in the Canary Islands and Galicia. I learned traditional textile techniques with master craftswomen as important as Doña Alcira Padrón, gold medal of the Canary Islands, weaver and poetess or Ana Roquero Caparrós, master dyer and researcher of the Csic among other master textile artisans.

So when I decided to stop for a while, I started weaving new creative products while weaving another way of living and working.

In the beginning the collaboration with other companies and stores allowed me to make creative handmade fabrics for designers and to participate in the Madrid Fashion Week or to participate in a wonderful exhibition at the Museo del Traje.

Tomake these fabrics I have never stopped researching in traditional textiles, in the most ancient techniques of weaving, embroidery, or dyeing.

In addition to photographing and studying all the old textiles that my neighbors in the rural area where I live brought me or those I found in exhibitions and museums I visited. All this joined the new materials when I took a course with Fundesarte- EOi in Materfad Barcelona.

There began my taste for research into new materials in order to merge it with craft techniques and make fabrics such as Vagalume, (Luciérnaga in Spanish) made with optical fiber and woven on our looms.

I showed all this to Fernando while we were also talking about life in the village and how I chose to carry out my activity from a beautiful village in the interior of Galicia, which we were touring while we were chatting.

Being in a place like this allows me to work with peace of mind, and at the same time receive visits from tourists.

In addition to purchasing handcrafted products in our store as the best souvenir gift of your visit, thus betting on local consumption and the development of our rural area, they can also visit the workshop.

All these values, I have enjoyed these years, while knitting, blankets, scarves to give away, textile orders for other professionals as those discussed in the report of different sectors kitchen, fashion or the last the dress of the Gaita of the Galician musician Xosé Manuel Budiño.

Values of respect, lovingly hand-woven fabrics, slowness, fusion of tradition and new design.

It is these values of respect, handmade with love, slowness, fusion of tradition and new design, which are inside the fabrics that are made in the Studio, unique pieces with which I want to extol the individuality of people, who are unique and authentic as my handmade fabrics.

To all these people I owe this report, and all this trajectory that has attracted the attention of the newspaper El País.

They and all those who believed in me along the way. As clients, collaborators and even my teachers who also gave me the gift of their knowledge.

With these and other textile tools and my looms I have been able to make textile designs, handmade scarves, handmade blankets, inspired by nature, painting and books that I am passionate about.

All of them are made with natural materials of soft touch that make them a caress. Fabrics that care and wrap you, so you can enjoy moments of pleasure in life.

I would like to thank Fernando Neira and Francis Tsang for their visit. In addition to capture so well all my creative universe through the words and the beautiful images of this report. In which he talks about how it is possible to reinvent oneself.

In my case through textile designs, and objects or experiences that others can enjoy.

https://francistsang.com/