#15684 - Distributed Design Platform

Detailed Description

The Quilt of Life is a never-ending story telling textile project celebrating life and individual existence.
Through personal stories I explore big human questions, identity, history, emotions, memories, pain and especially the things that connect us...
In The Quilt of Life project, I design and handcraft quilts that have great symbolic value and are useful in various ways throughout life.

Project Details

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the OPENNESS value of the Distributed Design Platform?: My work is just a continuation of a very old and very beautiful custom, when a woman brought goods for everyday and ceremonial use to the marriage. The various textile pieces were always carefully selected and crafted and represented the beauty, skill and wealth of the woman bringing this gift. The knowledge and skills of sewing and making quilts are passed down from generation to generation. I myself share my knowledge and upgrade and expand it into spiritual and symbolic, personal and universal, everyday and poetic dimensions of life. I will start teaching Storytelling with textiles courses this fall in the biggest creative hub Center Rog in our capital city.

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the COLLABORATIVE value of the Distributed Design Platform?: Telling a personal story with The Quilt of Life gives meaning to an individual's story, placing it in a larger picture and making them feel that they are not alone, that they are part of a larger pattern, that they are unique and unrepeatable. I am also developing the idea that the individual to whom the blanket is intended (may also include several related persons) would practically and actively participate in the making of the blanket. Citizens basically recognize the universal story of the hero's journey that each of us makes, that every family, every community makes, on the example of a personal story...

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the REGENERATIVE value of the Distributed Design Platform?: In my work, I use only natural materials, used textiles and, of course, individual "memorial" textiles. Since The Quilt of Life is designed as a symbolic textile piece, great emphasis is placed on its lasting quality. The Quilt of Life is more than just a textile, it is a timeless piece dedicated to the narrative of life, the personal story of an individual or family. The Quilt of Life is a textile piece for a lifetime: it is made with delicate care and serves as a memory, a reminder or a legacy that can be passed on to the next generation, who will preserve or complete the story...

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the ECOSYSTEMIC value of the Distributed Design Platform?: In today's increasingly digitized world, it is the seemingly simple quilt that is most progressive and direct in improving social and environmental systems because:
we don't need a new blanket every year, we don't need made-up stories or forced wishes, we need a sense of meaning and connection between us and between us and nature, and an awareness of the wider dimensions of life. As Ralph Waldo Emerson already says: "The greatest joy that fields and forests can give us is a hint of the mysterious connection between man and plant. I am not alone and unrecognized. The entanglement of branches in a storm is to me both something new and at the same time something ancient. Surprised me, and yet it is not unknown to me. The feeling is like when a lofty thought or a noble emotion overtakes me, when I judge that I think right or act justly."