Makers on Materials
Seeds and bilberries
The wild bilberries gunya was made by Marjo van Schaik and Dasha Tsapenko. In January 2023 they went to the Carpathian mountains to make this traditional weaved gunya with Dutch discarded wool. After the process of weaving and felting in the cold watermill, they dyed it with local wild bilberries. The traditional weavers were inspired and are now re-using this technique.
Three gunya’s are shown at this exposition. The seed bank gunya was made and designed by Marjo van Schaik. After the bombing of the Ukrainian seed bank in Kharkiv Marjo van Schaik designed this gunya. This seed bank held many different seeds from all over Ukraine. It kept many types of onions, grains, as well as sunflowers, marigolds and many more. Seed banks tell the history ánd the future of a country. No seeds, no harvest, no food. This seed bank gunya symbolises shelter to humans and it gives shelter to seeds. Seeds from the designer’s garden, from different types of onions, sunflowers and marigold. It is bought by Textiel Museum Tilburg in 2023.