The Art of Environmental Textiles by Claudie Jongstra

Dutch artist Claudie Joongstra creates wall coverings from fabric. Her techniques differ somewhat from the rest of the artists. While other artists take their materials from handicraft stores or wholesalers, ecologist Joongstra uses materials from her farm and creates her own. Her work has been featured in many publications. of museums and galleries.

Who is Claudie Jongstra?

Claudie Jongstra was born on February 6, 1963 in the Netherlands, and she attended the Utrecht School of Art for Fashion Design, from which she graduated in 1989. Her fascination with felting wool appeared in 1994, and she mastered it, and from there she created various works of art and installations, and then established her own studio under the name Studio Claudie Jongstra in 1995.

Actress Claudie Jongstra

Source material from Claudie Jongstra Farm

Jungstra is an advocate of the environment, and is keen to provide the materials she uses in environmentally friendly ways. The studio she owns is located on her farm in Friesland, the Netherlands, where she raises and grazes a herd of Drenthe Heath sheep, one of the sheep known in the Netherlands. This rare curly-haired sheep provides valuable, sustainable wool, and Joongstra stresses that "if you're serious about a material, you need to understand its connection to the environment."

Artist Claudie Jongstra works with wool in the studio

Jongstra also grows many different kinds of plants on her farm, and these plants are used to extract organic dyes which she uses to dye wool, and these plants include chamomile, indigo, valley (yellow flower), madder, and many others...

In her garden, Jungstra has set up a laboratory and classroom for students who are eager to learn more about these subjects. Many students from all over the world compete to join the class and learn about the experience that Jongstra offers.

Claudie Jongstra and her helper on her farm

Claudie Jongstra's work around the world

Claudie Jongstra's work is spread all over the world and is in the permanent collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Museum of Design, the Rhode Island Art Museum of Design, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. And other museums... Her works are used in the decorations of many private institutions such as the Amsterdam Public Library, restaurants in Rotterdam and Philadelphia, the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, the Prime Minister's residence in The Hague, the United Nations in New York... and other places.

"Aarde" by Claudie Jongstra, at the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

Transformational Fields by Claudie Jongstra

Working on her farm to this day as a textile artist, Jongstra launched her latest work, Woven Skin, an impressive tradition in New York City, in which a mix of 60 pieces of wool is displayed against the background of a disharmonious soundtrack, and the screen plays a conversation about ways to Sustainable production and supply of textile materials.

"Woven Skin" by Claudie Jongstra

In conclusion, the art of hand weaving, especially textile hangings, plays an important role in the renaissance of textile arts and plastic paintings, which in turn reflect the self-vision of plastic weavers when conveying their feelings and emotions, through the aesthetic and functional values ​​that these works contain that make them an important source of plastic arts. inspiring.