Vesna Pleše
©All rights reserved
Vesna Pleše
©All rights reserved
Vesna Pleše
©All rights reserved
Vesna Pleše
©All rights reserved
Vesna Pleše
©All rights reserved
Vesna Pleše
©All rights reserved

Vesna Pleše

PenelopeNow

Weaver

Jastrebarsko, Croatia

Japanese technique meets Croatian heritage

  • Vesna specialises in the Japanese ondulé technique
  • The colour combinations she uses in her dyes are inspired by nature
  • She is influenced by her painter mother and furniture restorer father

On her hundred-year old loom, Vesna Pleše weaves yarn that she dyes herself. Born into a family immersed in the arts, she studied weaving at the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb, where she has been sharing her expertise as a weaving professor since the early 2000s. Vesna balanced her career as a skilled costume designer with her devotion to weaving for several years. "Hand-weaving requires patience, love and plenty of time," she says. While she embraces a variety of techniques, Vesna holds a special fondness for the Japanese ondulé method. In parallel, she maintains a connection with the incredible heritage of traditional Croatian weaving by making throws and shawls.

Vesna Pleše is a master artisan: she began her career in 1975 and she started teaching in 2000.

INTERVIEW

As a child, I always drew or made something with my hands. I drew a woman at a loom when I had to draw my future profession in elementary school. I grew up among paintings, threads, fabrics and knitting. My mother was a painter, and my father worked as a furniture restorer.

I started by learning to weave at school in 1972. For my 18th birthday, I received my first loom so I could weave at home. One of my proudest achievements was having my work exhibited at the prestigious International Triennial of Tapestry in Łódź in Poland.

I can take a white thread, dye it, weave it and create a unique object. This fills me with happiness and satisfaction. I am proficient in various weaving techniques, but I especially love the ondulé technique, which is rarely woven around the world.

Patience and dedication pay off in the end.

Vesna Pleše

PenelopeNow

Weaver

Jastrebarsko, Croatia

ADDRESS

Address upon request, Jastrebarsko, Croatia

AVAILABILITY

By appointment only

LANGUAGES

Croatian, English, Italian

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