From seaweed to fabric
- Violaine has a special connection to her raw material
- Seaweed allows her to explore many creative avenues
- She wants to innovate creative techniques to strengthen the craft
Violaine weaves the sea and its colours. Living in Bretagne, where tides mark the time, she picks seaweed as soon as the tide goes out, leaving them scattered across the sand and in little rock pools. It is a way the material returns to its origins. It is a living thing, that inspires her to ask herself many questions. It opens her heart. Creating with seaweed allows her to merge the animal and plant kingdoms. Seven years spent in India influenced Violaine's textile techniques. She left with a hunger to use her acquired skills in an imaginative and sustainable way. It took her a long time to understand how. Working with seaweed brings her great joy, she likes to help the material naturally transform into different shapes by using her hands in a harmonious manner.
INTERVIEW
It gives me joy. It makes me happy. Working with a living raw material, trying to make something new and innovative out of it, is special. It inspires me to research other materials and pursue a multidisciplinary approach. I am very curious about my work.
Definitely. Seaweed, sand, rock pools, the sea are all intrinsic elements to the Bretagne landscape. While working seaweed, it floats in your hands. It keeps moving, like me.
I have developed an expertise to enhance algae, using a natural dying process with the help of experts in vegetal coloration. I take algae from its natural state to use it for fine and living arts, haute couture, and scenography.
We are living in a time of transition. It is not that this kind of craft is disappearing but there is a need to innovate in order to strengthen it. Starting from traditional knowledge and developing new creative techniques.
