Traditional handwork sometimes looks old-fashioned and boring, but with Tanja Blašković it all changes. During the two-day workshop we created tapestries with a special punch needle technique and learned to create our own tapestry design.
Tapestry can be a painting technique or applied art, depending on the purpose of the object we are making. Tapestry making can be followed thought history, even from the 3rd Century BC to this day. Tapestriers are people who make tapestries, and as we have seen at the workshop, they are skilled in many areas – design, architecture, sculpture, stage design, illustration, drawing and excellent connoisseur of technology.
Participants at the workshop had the opportunity to be apprentices – tapestriers. Using the punch needle technique, the participants created a tapestry using an existing design or, with the help of the workshop leader, making their own design and transferring it to this technique. We must point out that this technique requires a lot of patience and concentration and that this is important for everyone who decides to try it out!
The results of the workshop were multicolored tapestry with beautiful shapes. Along with the tapestry itself, this technique served as a tool to the participants to get to know yourself better – to find out if you are patient, meticulous, orderly or abuzz, sometimes hasty, spontaneous. Anyway, this is the technique where you can find zen!
Tanja Blašković has a Master of Art Pedagogy and is a versatile artist, illustrator and designer, one of Superkul’s fanzine editors and the first museum fanzine Beni. She has participated in several group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad, has been part of several projects in the last few years, from which one was to design a walking path on Risnjak, painting a bench on the Rijeka Campus and painting the Kružna street in Rijeka. Her art work is specific by using plastic bags as a “painting” material and uses the same material for her brand Imagine Plastic, transforming it into fashion accessories. In addition, she runs and organizes various workshops for children and adults and is the artist behind the Cutie Pie brand where traditional techniques such as tapestry and tapestry are used to create contemporary artwork.