Designing with Handcrafters in Chile, a social commitment

Pic: Eggpicnic Design

Camila de Gregorio, Chilean designer from the successful  Eggpicnic Design [firm that sells their creations all around the world] tells us about her social commitment standpoint towards working hand in hand with artisans in the small rural location of Rari, Chile. The post is in English and Spanish.

Ser diseñador conlleva un gran compromiso social. Siendo capaces de integrar a los individuos a la modernidad por medio de su obra, no corrompemos los códigos que les son propios. Trabajamos con Marcela Sepúlveda, una artesana experta en crin y oriunda de Rari, un pueblo ubicado al sur de la capital chilena, al pie de la precordillera. Pic: Eggpicnic Design [Andrew Mercer]
Su trabajo consiste en teñir y tejer con los dedos el pelo de caballo. Logramos acceder a su interioridad y subjetividad por medio de su trabajo y tal como en el Romanticismo, buscamos volver a los orígenes de la producción artística, rescatando las tradiciones propias de nuestra cultura y desligándonos de la racionalización y el cálculo. Generamos así un vínculo que trasciende la propia creación y que nos permite apreciar el trabajo que el hombre es capaz de crear con sus manos. Pic: Eggpicnic Design

Being a designer involves a social commitment. Being able to integrate individuals into modernity through their work, we do not corrupt the codes that are specific to them. We worked with Marcela Sepúlveda, a crin expert artisan and a native of Rari, a town south of the Chilean capital, in the Andean foothills. Her work consists of dyeing and weaving horsehair with her fingers. We were able to gain access to her interiority and subjectivity through her work and just as Romanticism, we return to the origins of artistic production, rescuing the traditions of our culture and detaching ourselves from rationalization and calculation. We generated a bond that transcends the very creation and allows us to appreciate the work that man can create with their hands.