Meet the Maker: Edith van Berkel
‘My name is Edith van Berkel and I studied at the Academy for Industrial Design (now the Design Academy) in Eindhoven. From my very first few weeks there I felt attracted to the textile department, especially to the screen printing workshop. It was an amazing time and I made friendships for life. I am from a creative family, my mother was cutter and from early on me and my sister used her sewing machine to make our own clothes. There was always material lying around to use.
Actually, I am a monk. I have a very large workshop, where there is little distraction and I hardly ever hire interns. I work in my own pace and I don’t stop until I feel like I solved a problem or got somewhere, which does not always have to be aesthetically pleasing. I want to approach the material in an honest way, the material tells a story and I have to give it a contemporary spin. I never make things all by myself. There is a company archive I base my work on or I collaborate with people with certain specialties. I love collaborating with people who coincide with ‘their’ machine. For me it is a challenge to find the boundaries and then to cross them. The most special thing is the astonishment we feel when we realize we made something we did not think we could.’
What can Crafts Council do for you?
’Your Craftsmap is amazing, because it shows how many powerful designers and craftsmen there are. Making this visible and shedding a light on the talent there is is very important for the survival of smaller businesses.’
More of this entry is available in Dutch.
