Strict lines and grids combined with soft materials, in playful, almost meditative rhythms — no one else interprets hand weaving as beautifully and poetically as Studio Jumi. Jumi is Julia Buntzel and Miriam Rose Gronwald – the artist duo joined forces in 2022 to work together at the intersection of art, craft and design, and to campaign for the preservation of traditional hand weaving. But they even go one step further. Breaking away from conventions without breaking sacred traditions, Jumi shows how weaving can be a fine art. Inspired by the Bauhaus and its textile workshops — where artists such as Anni Albers, Gunta Stölzl and Otti Berger combined the craft of hand weaving with the language of modern art — Julia and Miriam draw on their knowledge while simultaneously searching for new possibilities and pushing the boundaries of weaving by dissolving and condensing woven fabric structures. In doing so, they ultimately create unique works of art, fragments, forms and materials. Jumi aims to keep the history of weaving alive with commissioned works, site-specific pieces and small limited editions (here too, each piece remains unique). They also host regular weaving workshops in their studio.
In the “Sketching with Yarn” workshop, you spend an afternoon weaving different materials, textures and colors on a four-shaft loom to create your very own textile. In the “Napkins! The Art of Handcrafted Table Weaves” workshop, you can even make your own set of (up to four) table napkins over a weekend. It feels magical to go home with two of your own textile patterns without having any prior weaving knowledge. In the end, there’s only one thing left to say: thank you. Thank you for making textile art so exciting and accessible, thank you for showing us how things can be reinterpreted without sacrificing tradition, and thank you, Julia and Miriam, for ensuring such a beautiful craft will not be forgotten.
Text: Robyn Steffen / Photos: Chiara Lüghausen, Jean-Paul Pastor Guzmán, Robyn Steffen
Studio Jumi, Seelenbinderstr.141, 12555 Berlin–Köpenick; map
Find out more about the next workshops here.
@studio.jumi
