{"id":203999,"date":"2022-12-07T11:42:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_news&p=203999"},"modified":"2022-12-07T11:42:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:42:12","slug":"claudy-jongstra-2022-interior-design-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"id_news","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/designwire\/claudy-jongstra-2022-interior-design-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Claudy Jongstra: 2022 Interior Design Hall of Fame Inductee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Rooted,
Rooted, 2018, in the dining area of a New York residence by 2Michaels. Photography by Jeroen Musch. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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December 7, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Giovanna Dunmall<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Claudy Jongstra: 2022 Interior Design Hall of Fame Inductee<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Dissatisfaction with working in the fashion industry was a major career catalyst for Dutch textile designer and artist Claudy Jongstra. \u201cWe had to produce eight collections a year so there was no time for refinement or aesthetics, it was just machinery, production,\u201d she recalls. The endless turnover in fabrics made her unhappy, too. What she had loved about fashion as a little girl, whose mother made the family\u2019s wardrobe out of \u201cbeautiful fabrics,\u201d and as a young woman studying fashion design at the Utrecht School of the Arts, was the freedom it provided. \u201cBy making your own clothes, you develop your own identity and individuality, and it gives you a feeling of independence.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudy Jongstra Discovers a Passion for Textiles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Visiting a 1994 exhibition at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, Jongstra was bowled over by a traditional nomadic yurt. \u201cIt was literally a house made of felted wool,\u201d she says, still sounding excited so many years later. She quit her fashion job, got work cleaning offices in the evenings and, locked up in her Amsterdam atelier, devoted herself \u201cto finding out everything possible about this material.\u201d Two years later she showed the results of her labors to the curator of that exhibition. \u201cShe immediately purchased four pieces for the museum collection,\u201d Jongstra says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I thought, Okay then, this is really the path I have to go down.\u201d So Jongstra spent the rest of the decade creating innovative felted materials that spanned the categories of art, craft, and fashion. John Galliano, Donna Karan, and Christian Lacroix used them in their clothing designs, and the Jedi knights in Star Wars: Episode 1\u2014The Phantom Menace wore coats made of her felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The founder of Studio Claudy Jongstra in front of her monumental sculptural installation Woven Skin, 2017, at the Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, Netherlands. Photography by Monique Shaw. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, wanting to work on large-scale pieces and control all stages of the production process, including growing her own wool, cultivating plants for natural dyes, and following sustainable<\/a> artisanal practices, Jongstra moved her business to rural Friesland in the northern Netherlands. There, she not only set up a design studio and atelier\u2014and began earning public commissions from such heavyweight firms as Deborah Berke Partners<\/a>, Gensler<\/a>, Reddymade, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects\u2014but also established a flock of Drenthe Heath sheep, an ancient breed that lives on heathland, \u201cmaintaining it in a very natural way,\u201d she explains. \u201cTheir quiet life is reflected in the quality of the wool\u2014it\u2019s shiny and has long fibers, you can see it\u2019s healthy and vital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same could be said for the plants Jongstra and her team<\/a> grow for dyeing the wool and other fibers she then felts. Frustrated by the toxic pesticides and chemicals used in commercial vegetable-based pigments, which also cause variations in color quality, she created her own biodynamic botanical garden to propagate heritage plants. Over the years she has recreated ancient recipes for many hues, including centuries-old Burgundian black\u2014a warm, complex shade incorporating walnut, indigo, woad, and madder root dyes\u2014which was showcased in Viktor & Rolf\u2019s 2019 haute-couture felted-wool collection. She has also revived a distinctive red Rembrandt used, which is made from madder root. \u201cIt takes three years to grow and two to dry before it\u2019s ready,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it\u2019s worth the wait because you get a top-quality product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The 39-foot-long Nunc Stans, a 2021 installation at the Gensler-designed Washington law firm Mintz. Photography by Devon Banks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today, Jongstra\u2019s enterprise spreads across two sites, not far from one another. The first centers on agriculture, with a farm, bakery, garden, and greenhouse; it\u2019s here that the dye plants are grown. The other location, where the emphasis is on craftsmaking and research, is a compound of mostly cottagelike buildings housing the atelier, design studio, dye workshop, accommodations for four interns, and Jongstra\u2019s own home. The newest addition is a modern building acquired from the neighboring carpenter. It has been renovated with recycled materials as a place of learning, sharing, and experimentation that Jongstra calls Loads, in the sense of filling up or enriching. While not a school, per se, Loads is dedicated to \u201ctransferring ancient knowledge to the younger generations,\u201d she notes, the art and craft of \u201cweaving, spinning, making, slowness, all related to wool, of course.\u201d It runs a four-day workshop tantalizingly named Farm to Fiber to Fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same knowledge-sharing vein, Jongstra has started to collaborate with farmers in Spain who want to transition to alternative crops such as flax, hemp, and plants for natural dyes. \u201cThe traditional farm is not the farm it was,\u201d she observes. \u201cIt is a place where people can meet\u2014scientists, designers, artists, co-creators\u2014and that the farmer can diversify and have an impact on biodiversity<\/a>.\u201d This is more than savvy agricultural management. \u201cUnderstanding the cycles of nature and developing holistic processes helps you feel less alienated,\u201d Jongstra believes, so this ethos becomes an antidote to a world that she regards as having become too complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does wool still hold surprises for Jongstra? \u201cIt\u2019s a lifelong journey, with lots of side roads,\u201d she says with a smile. One such byway has led her to explore what can be done with all the waste produced by the wool industry. \u201cIn the Netherlands alone some 1.5 million kilos of wool are burned annually because we don\u2019t value it and because shipping to Asia is too expensive,\u201d she says. Over the past three years, she has developed an industrial woven textile made from wool waste\u2014incidentally her first foray into weaving\u2014which is produced in the northern Netherlands from yarns spun in Donegal, Ireland, because there are no Dutch spinning factories anymore. Jongstra and Stefan Koper have established an initiative called Weved, which collaborates with designers on creating products using the textile. It has already partnered with the social design brand Re-gained and Studio Floris Schoonderbeek, both of which launched new pieces of furniture incorporating the fabric at this year\u2019s Salone del Mobile<\/a> in Milan. And to think the journey started with a humble yurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a
In Jongstra\u2019s studio, a palette of carded, naturally dyed fibers, ready for use in an art\u00adwork. Photography courtesy of Studio Claudy Jongstra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Handspun,
Handspun, naturally dyed silk yarns. Photography courtesy of Studio Claudy Jongstra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"a
Drenthe Heath sheep, part of a 250-strong flock Jongstra keeps in the northern Netherlands. Photography by Jeroen Musch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Claudy
Jongstra in her studio in Spannum, Netherlands, composing an artwork with wool from her Drenthe Heath sheep. Photography courtesy of Studio Claudy Jongstra. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Work of Claudy Jongstra Studio On Display Around the World<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"a
A 97-foot-long installation in the David Rubinstein Atrium at New York\u2019s Lincoln Center, a 2010 collaboration with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. Photography by Nic Lehoux.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A detail of the work, which is made of felted wool and silk dyed with colors derived from weld and onion. Photography by Nic Lehoux. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Fields
Fields of Transformation, a 2017 installation in the Moelis Family Grand Reading Room, a Gensler commission for the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Photography by Feinknopf Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"A
A coat from Viktor & Rolf\u2019s 2019 Spiritual Glamour collection, featuring Burgundian black\u2013dyed felted wool by Jongstra. Photography courtesy of Viktor & Rolf.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"A
An un\u00adtitled 2011 work, part of a temporary exhibition at the United Nations in New York. Photo\u00adgraphy by Christian Richter. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Mother
Mother of Pearl, \n15 large-scale wool-and-silk panels at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, a 2012 collaboration with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. Photography by Michael Moran\/Otto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Halve
Halve Maen, 2019, in the lobby of Convene, an events venue in New York. Photography by Frankie Alduino.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Six
Six panels from Diversity of Thought, a seven-piece series of site-specific felted works commissioned in 2021 by Deborah Berke Partners for the Wallace Foundation\u2019s New York offices. Photography by Chris Cooper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Rooted,
Rooted, 2018, in the dining area of a New York residence by 2Michaels. Photography by Jeroen Musch. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a
A 52-foot-long installation in \u201cA Space for Being,\u201d a collaborative exhibition with Google Design Studio, the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University, Muuto, and Reddymade at Milan\u2019s Salone del Mobile, 2019. Photography by Jeroen Musch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pink
A detail of Priona Blossom, 2016, for De Tuinkamer, a restaurant in Schuinesloot, Netherlands. Photography courtesy of Studio Claudy Jongstra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a
Embroidering the wool, silk, and mohair wall hanging for De Tuinkamer. Photography courtesy of Studio Claudy Jongstra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n