One Year Later

“ ames sala by sebastian herkner“ – One Year Later

For his ames sala collection, Sebastian Herkner ventured into two new territories: Colombia was a new destination for him and, for the first time, he developed an entire home collection. Together with Colombian-born CEO and creative director of ames, Ana María Calderón Kayser, Sebastian Herkner travelled to Colombia in October 2015 to visit traditional artisans and to find inspiration for his designs. The result is a range of modern home accessories, including throws, rugs, cushions, vases, baskets and bowls whose forms and colours reflect the diversity and characteristics of Colombia. The collection was launched at IMM Cologne 2016.

Last year, Ana María Calderón Kayser went back to Colombia several times. Many production-related issues had to be overcome, but there were also many wonderful experiences, as well as great success stories for the Colombian artis-ans who manufacture the ames sala collection.

At IMM Cologne 2017, ames will be presenting the sala collection featuring new colours, materials and designs. Demanding the very best from the artisans, all products in the collection are finished to the highest standards of craftsman-ship, with some of them now being produced by other small factories than those originally commissioned.

The following pages will illustrate the development processes behind the individual product lines in the ames sala collection and will, among other things, describe the wonderful developments the small factories and family-run businesses have experienced as a result of manufacturing products for the ames sala collection.

And the joint journey of ames and Sebastian Herkner has continued, too: the ames sala collection has been extended with a range of furniture suitable for outdoor use that also captures the spirit of Colombia. Precisely one year after their first trip, in October 2016, Ana María Calderón Kayser and the Sebastian Herkner Studio visited a small factory at Colombia’s Caribbean coast that produced the first prototypes of the new CARIBE furniture line.

CARIBE – A New Furniture Line Featuring Traditional Plastic Weave

In Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast, Rafael and his friends produce chairs from plastic string and tubular steel, which are typical of the region. In this part of Colombia, children are taught the well-known momposino weaving tech-nique in school.

The designer and the artisans spent a whole weekend together, testing how best to implement the round shapes designed by Sebastian Herkner, selecting fresh and cheerful colourways and discussing the details of the planned production.

At IMM Cologne 2017, ames will be introducing the CARIBE range of furni-ture as part of the ames sala collection. The new furniture family is suitable for outdoor use and consists of a chair, a lounge chair, a high and a low side table and a wicker table. Different-coloured plastic strands are combined with atubular steel and steel-wire frame that comes in a galvanised and powder-coated finish.

RUANA and MANTA – Woven Throws Made from Wool

The ames sala throws were initially produced by Alfonso from Tunja, who is famous in Colombia for his beautiful ruanas (traditional clothing). Fascinated by this traditional craft, Sebastian Herkner designed the RUANA plaids featuring a houndstooth pattern (galineto) and fringes, as well as the hand-stitched MANTA throws boasting a checked pattern.

One year on and, from the dyeing of the wool through to the weaving, the production of the throws is still done by hand following Colombian craft traditions. But now the woollen throws are manufactured by Miriam, who works together with her mother and sister in the family-owned business. ames discovered the artisan, who specialises in manufacturing blankets by using special techniques and who loves experimenting, in a suburb of Bogotá, located in the Cundinamarca province in the Cordillera mountains. Meanwhile, a number of single mothers are also involved in the production, weaving the throws for ames on their handlooms at home. The MANTA throws are available in four colourways, while the RUANA blankets are offered in three different colour combinations, all of which are based on the typical colours of Colombia.

At IMM Cologne 2017, ames will be presenting new, particularly fine, woollen blankets bearing the name MULERA. The thin, fringed throws fea-ture a 70cm wide central band in a contrasting colour. They are ideal as a lightweight throw.

FIBRA – Baskets Made from Esparto Grass

During their first trip, Ana María Calderón Kayser and Sebastian Herkner also visited the village of Cerinza in the Boyacá province. The artisans from Cerinza are famous for their baskets made from esparto, a grass that grows high up in the mountains, starting at a height of 2,600 metres. After collection, the grass is dried and dyed before being further processed. Ana María and Sebastian met Carmen and her sister Ligia, who then started to produce the FIBRA baskets for ames. Meanwhile, the two have been joined by other women: Ananda, Garciela, Vilma and Carmen, who also live in Cerinza and in the surrounding Veredas region.

In the beginning, the production of the FIBRA baskets was a big challenge for the artisans. The shape of the baskets is not easy to create, and, particularly for the baskets’ double walls, the women had to draw on all their skills and exper-tise. But, in the mean time, these artisans have developed their own routines, meeting several times a week, mostly at the municipio (city hall) to create the FIBRA baskets for ames. The women’s husbands collect the esparto grass in the Páramo de la Rusia region at a height of about 3,600 metres.

The FIBRA baskets come in different sizes and are available in a natural shade, in dark red and in black.

NOBSA – Hand-Woven Woollen Rugs

Known as the centre for sheep’s wool, Nobsa was another destination on Ana Maria Calderón Kayser’s and Sebastian Herkner’s journey. They were looking for an artisan who would be able to produce woollen rugs. The inhabitants of the small town live from and work with this natural material, so it was the perfect place to find a suitable factory for the production of the rugs designed by Sebastian Herkner. The rugs have an elongated central section, creating the effect of two rugs lying one above the other. Sebastian took inspiration for this design from the plastic bags in which the farmers transport their potatoes and from different impressions gathered at the many local markets.

Ana María and Sebastian met Ramón, who uses large, horizontal looms to crea-te many different products from wool. The collaboration between Ramón and ames began and Ramón, too, initially had to overcome a number of challenges. He had to implement totally new shapes, dimensions and colour combinations, with the different widths used in the rugs proving to be particularly demanding. A year later, Ramón is able to produce a rug in only three days and many things have changed in his little factory: ames invested in two new handlooms and Ramón now employs almost twice as many workers as before. He has trained four young local men in the rather intricate technique of producing the NOBSA rugs. “I feel honoured to work for ames. With every rug that leaves our small factory, a part of me travels around the world”, says Ramón.

The choice of colours and the technique of weaving in different directions give the handcrafted woollen rugs their singular appearance. Here, too, Sebastian Herkner uses the typical colours of Colombia, combining natural shades with red, blue, ochre and brown. The NOBSA rugs are available in three different sizes and in a variety of colourways.

NIDO – Woollen Cushions with Macramé Décor

From Nobsa, the journey continued to the province of Tolima in central Colom-bia, which is known for the cultivation of rice and fruit. Ana Maria Calderón and Sebastian Herkner visited Reserva Entreaguas, a place in the Andes whose jungle-like vegetation makes for an extraordinary experience of nature. The peo-ple living in Reserva Entreaguas specialise in a traditional crocheting technique called macramé, used, among other things, for the decoration of cushions.

Fascinated by the beautiful colours of the local hummingbirds, Sebastian used these colours in his NIDO cushion collection, for which he designed three different ornamental patterns. These are based on motifs he found in jewellery exhibited at Bogotá’s Museo del Oro (Gold Museum).

Initially, a small factory located at Reserva Entreaguas produced all the cushions, each of which is a unique piece, in an elaborate manual process. As the pro-duction process takes a lot of time, another artisan from a small village in the Cundinamarca province has also been commissioned to produce NIDO cushions. Together with three other women, employing a special technique called “Russian stitch”, Luz Lozano uses thin cotton yarn to stitch the ornamental motifs that form 3D surfaces on the cotton covers. A worker needs two days to create a cushion.

At IMM Cologne 2017, ames will be presenting the NIDO cushions in new colours.

BARRO – Ceramic Products Made from Black Terracotta

The Tolima province is also home to the traditional Colombian art of pottery. Storage containers and tableware are created from black terracotta. From dig-ging the holes to retrieve the terracotta through to firing and polishing, the production of ceramics is still done entirely by hand, with each family member having their specific task. The only tools used are hollow corncobs for sha-ping and precious stones for polishing: after a few days of drying, the shaped products are polished with precious stones, and are then put in the kiln for firing. Through the use of cow dung during the firing process, black smoke is genera-ted, which gives the products their particular shade.

The BARRO range of ceramics designed by Sebastian Herkner consists of two different-shaped vases, of trays and of three-legged bowls that can also be used as plant containers. Lucia and her family live in a small village in the Tolima province. They started to produce the ceramics for ames. Meanwhile, a second family is also involved in the production. Lucia’s small kiln is perfect for creating the smaller ceramics in the BARRO range. The large designs, however, are very heavy and many of them tended to break before firing. Additionally, it hardly rains in the region and, last year, the temperature dropped considerably causing the shaped objects to shatter at the end of the day. The other family has a larger kiln than Lucia and is therefore able to produce the larger designs with less breakage.

For 2017, ames will be having a special edition of mini BARRO ceramics pro-duced. The small designs are available in sets of three and will be introduced at IMM Cologne 2017.

NUDO – Hand-Woven Rugs in the Shape of Masks

Featuring deep-pile rugs, colour-blocking designs and taking its forms from Colombian masks, this second range of rugs in the ames sala collection is manufactured by Wilson, an artisan based in Cajicá, about 40 kilometres north of Bogotá. The town, located at a height of almost 2,600 metres, is also known for its traditional wool-processing industry. Finest quality rugs are created on vertical looms using time-consuming hand-weaving processes.

For Wilson, the main challenge in producing the NUDO rugs was finding the best way of combining, in a single rug, an oval shape with different weaving techniques and pile heights, and to execute this to a degree of precision that was new to him. After many trials and tests to optimise the production process, Wilson was able to take his artistic skills to a new level through his collabo-ration with ames. In the last two months, he has built two more vertical looms for the production of the NUDO rugs, and three new workers have joined his business.

The NUDO rugs are available in two sizes and in three different colourways, with each individual colour having a different pile height.

GORRO – Felt Bowls as a Tribute to the Hats Worn by Colombian Potato Farmers

Colombian potato farmers not only wear ruanas, but also felt hats. Based on the shape of these hats, Sebastian Herkner designed simple bowls, made from felt, which are produced in three different sizes and come in sets of three.

Initially, the GORRO felt bowls were manufactured in the Barbisio hat manufac-tory, based in Bogotá and known in Colombia as the oldest and best of its kind. Today, the Sombrería Brando hat manufactory produces the GORRO bowls for ames. An Italian, Pascal Brando, established the factory in the 1940s, selling it to his trusted longterm co-worker Ernesto Ayarza 25 years later.