Friday 6 June 2008

Designer interview - Heegeldab Marianne Seiman

Designer interview Marianne Seiman from Heegeldab
Marianne Seiman is the perfect designer interviewee for this week of freeform crochet. The crossover between the discipline (even if it sometimes seems like there's no plan) of freeform crochet and designing products is beautifully illustrated through her work and philosophy. The picture below beautifully segues into hyperbolic crochet. I was so pleased when she agreed to be interviewed as she represents the diversity and commitment that creativity inspires in designers. Thank you again, Marianne!!
Chain Creative Interview
Questions of creativity and inspiration

Your name - Marianne Seiman

Where you’re from - Estonia

Website (if you have one) – does etsy shop count? (Bee says, 'Of course!!') http://byMarianneS.etsy.com

Blog address - http://heegeldab.blogspot.com

Describe your various creative skills. – I can crochet, knit, felt, sew a bit and do some stitching. Have been also playing little with polymer clay and making jewelry.

When did you start to crochet and who taught you? - I was around 5-6 years. Don’t remember whether it was my mom or granny who taught me. But I do remember one of my first designs – a blueish green dress for a doll.

What, in your opinion, is the best thing about crochet? – it’s portability and versatility.

The name of the blog is interesting. What was the inspiration behind it? – hey, this one‘s easy – heegeldab means "crochets" in estonian (like in "she crochets")

What was the motivation to start the blog? – There are a few of them. Like
* to share interesting artworks I found while surfing the web, with my fellow estonians. There were only a few so-called craft blogs in Estonia when I started blogging 3 years back.
* to show my own work and get some feedback for it.

Along the way motivation has changed. Now I look at my blog as a place to record my creative path.


What influences your style and output? What are your inspirations? - I love texture and color. All colors. And that reflects in my work. I’m also rather curious and want to try my hand at different techniques. But I do realize that one cannot be great in too many fields. So I end up mixing my "experiments" all together, marrying thread crochet with polymer etc.
Lots of inspiration comes from other artists‘ work . Not crochet but all sort of different artforms like photography, ceramics, jewelry and textile art, the list goes on and on. When something catches my attention my brain instantly tries to "translate" it into crochet.
After the birth of my third baby 2 years back, I was mostly working on tiny things. Can’t live without creating, but don’t have a time nor patience for bigger things right now. I’m too impatient to work little by little on something big, I need instant gratification, that’s why I’ve been doing a lots of jewelry lately.

What are the most important aspects of your work to you? – The process itself is the greatest. To learn and discover something, all these little joys and "ahaa moments" what happens while creating.

Which project or piece of work are you most proud of? – The real masterpieces are still in my head and I'll have to wait a bit before they materialize!
But I do like this purse: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bymariannes/103178470/in/set-72157604334330191/

And these scarves: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bymariannes/41418760/in/set-72157604334209321/


When are you most happy when you’re working?
– I’m always happy while creating. But the best part is when I can fully dive into creating without having to have to share my attention between crafting and kids-cooking-whatever.
These moments are very rare these days, but children grow, you know, and I’m sure I’ll have a long and creative road ahead!

Thank you for chatting!

Love Bee

2 comments:

X by Leina Neima said...

Lovely interview... I love her creation so much :)

karlita said...

loved to read the interview!! Marianne makes beautiful things :)