An artistic dolphin woven from plastic bottles

The conscience of a people

When the studio receives a commission for a creative project with as much meaning as the design of an artistic dolphin woven with plastic bottles, it is a challenge for me as a textile designer, since outdoor sculpture is a different element than traditional weaving. In addition, this work counted on the voluntary collaboration of citizens, sincere hands that had to be integrated into the weaving process.

But without further ado I tell you the story of the creative process of this artistic dolphin woven with plastic bottles that has been installed on the beautiful beach of Pedra da Sal in the Concello de Carballo. This city council, very aware of the environment and the care of its marine environment, commissioned Fabián Lage, local craftsman and me as a textile specialist, to make a sculpture with recycled materials, in this case woven with plastic bottles so that citizens and visitors to the beach become aware of the abusive use we make of this material and how it influences the marine fauna, since dolphins (arroaz in Galician) are regular visitors to these Galician beaches.

"Already so the project sounded like a challenge, to artistically build a woven dolphin out of plastic!!!"

This material is malleable to heat, but we needed a weft and a warp to carry on, this "dressFabian had designed a "fabric that could cover the forged skeleton. For this we thought of creating "PET YARN"The machine was designed by this artisan and inspired by many other gadgets that circulated on the net. To make this yarn helped us the students of the special employment center for people with intellectual disabilities ASPABER, who within their training workshops unraveled the more than 300 bottles in 1 cm threads, all champions!!!!

After designing the whole process of elaboration in collaboration with Fabian, each one carrying out his part in relation to the specialization of our work, although in a joint way, it led us to the second part of the challenge: to make the whole sculpture in community with the people. This dress would be made through the work of many volunteers in a workshop of social participation in which everyone contributed their bit for the care of the planet.

Thus entire families, children, couples and ASPABER students again with their monitors, helped us to weave in a mesh, to facilitate the stability of the material, for several days. In this case, creating a pleasant work environment, ensuring that each hand had its mark on the dolphin and that the work maintained uniformity in the weaving was the biggest challenge, along with ensuring that the safety measures and distancing imposed by Covid-19 were present at all times.

I must admit that this part has been very rewarding for me, and I am very grateful as a professional to all these people who have come to contribute their bit, whose work has been impeccable. They can be very proud to see their Dolphin on their beach, as Fabian and myself as responsible for the design and the project.

In our previous sketches we had thought that the structure would be seen through the woven mesh of plastic bottles, and that it would be reminiscent of the iridescent skin of dolphins, as well as the scales of other fish. With the water of the beach in the background and the sky reflected in this structure, the dolphin comes to life and becomes an ethereal figure, almost as if it could float, and seeing it you would not imagine that it is built with plastic.

Besides reminding us with its static beauty, the need to preserve marine life and take care of it by avoiding throwing waste into the sea, it gives us the possibility to think of infinite future projects where the materials to be used could be recovered or recycled, through a new life linked to art.