Wool Week Belgium – Jantine van Peski

 Jantine van Peski has created a wool design being exhibited at the WM Gallery in Antwerp as part of Wool Week in the Belgium. The Campaign for Wool caught up with the designer.

Can you tell us a little about yourselves and how your designs utilize wool?

My work mainly consists of the development of textile objects from my background as a fashion designer. I find the dialogue between the human body and clothes very interesting, but I have no urge to add garments to the already huge offer in the market. I mainly focus on yarns and craft techniques to translate them into a new way of constructing garments. Wool in my opinion is essential as a material for this.

Where do you look for inspiration?

My main source of inspiration is the textile art of the seventies, painting and architecture. For every design or project, I zoom in on one or a few images to display a clear visual story.

What makes you choose wool over other fibres?

I love the endless variety in texture and the game the yarns get into when they are processed. For example, by knotting (macramé) hairy yarns, the structure changes and you can even create a sort of felt. Also the degree of complexity has a visual effect on the appearance of the wool. The range of possibilities is very appealing to me.

How do you source wool?

My collection of wool yarns is constantly expanding, from interesting finds at flea markets to undyed yarns from spinners.

Are there any plans to introduce more wool in to your collection?

Wool already forms a big part of my collection and this will never change.

What is your opinion about The Campaign for Wool en your participation in Wool Week?

In this day and age of the “throw-away-society” it is very important to focus more on tradition and quality, like maintaining the wool industry. These are subjects that are easily forgotten when there is fast and cheap production. It is regretful that a lot of knowledge gets lost and that people don’t know the value of a garment anymore. The Campaign for Wool is a great initiative to draw the attention of the main public and that I support from the whole of my heart.

What does 2015 hold for you?

I hope to be able to experiment more with different textile techniques and to develop new work from there.

This knotted object is inspired by an iconic woolen garment: a cable-knit sweater made from unbleached wool. I developed a braiding technique in macramé and constructed the piece completely out of yarns I dyed by hand with natural pigments.

Materials: 100% merino, pure new wool, brass, leather.

Curator of the Wool Week exhibition, freelance journalist Veerle Windels on Jantine van Peski:

A Dutch native, Jantine van Peski stayed on in Antwerp after graduating in 2011. She’s been switching men’s and women’s collections, but has an absolute knack for handcrafted knitwear and jewellery. Jantine loves experiment to an extreme, making her work a perfect match for art galleries.