Dominika Gacka and Julia Piekarska

Rest Studio

Weaver

From fibre waste to fabric

Dominika and Julia love to discover new haptic structures in everyday objects
They combine traditional weaving techniques with modern textile design
Their definition of beauty involves all the senses, not just the eyes

Dominika Gacka and Julia Piekarska are two very young but extremely talented weavers who met at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw during a clothes designing course. Their love for textiles pushed them in a different direction. Under the tuition of great textile artists such as Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska, Aleksandra Gaca, Maja Sobura, and Martyna Golik they learned to operate the Jacquard loom and started experimenting. At first, they created Green Yarns Lab, a research project focused on fabrics that stimulate the sense of touch with the use of 3D structures and the juxtaposition of materials. After that turned out to be a success, they started a collaboration with The Good Living&Co as textile designers and started RESTKI, a project centred around the reworking and hardening of fibre production waste obtained from textile manufacturers in order to create new attractive objects. Since 2020 they are known as REST textile studio and create unique textile objects for interior design.

Interview

What was the first work you made?: Dominika: The first object we made together was the OWCA (SHEEP) chair, which we designed as a conclusion of the Green Yarns Lab project. We wanted the structural element of our textiles to find its place in everyday life, hence the idea to create a prototype of pouffe with a highly expressive fabric.
How do you express tradition and innovation in your work?: Julia: Our designs are based on traditional weaving techniques, which are modified by us. So far we’ve been focused on using multi-harness looms, but now we’re also busy creating new, visually pleasing materials from leftover yarn, completely zero waste and useful for different forms of everyday objects.
How would you define what you do?: Dominika: Our main goal is to create fabrics where visual and tactile aspects are placed on an equal footing. We’re strongly inspired by trying out new colour and weave combinations because that is when the “magic” happens and we achieve some unexpected results.
What is less known about your work?: Julia: Before we start weaving on the loom, we make small paper or plasticine models to check what kind of form and structures we want to achieve. We also sketch a lot and use Photoshop to try out some colour combinations.

Dominika Gacka and Julia Piekarska are rising stars they began their career in 2021