Craft Portrait Dorozome – Satomi Minoshima & Pauline Agustoni

How can we preserve traditional crafts for future produce? The route to a more sustainable future can be found in traditional crafts. On the Japanese island Amami Oshina craftsmen use mud as a natural dye for textiles.

In the tradition of Dorozome – a Japanese mud-dyeing technique – only the final black color is given a name. The process of getting to the typical deep black color holds a rich background: each step in the process has been developed over the course of many generations. However, the process colors remain anonymous, as invisible as the complexity of this fascinating contemporary craft. Designers Satomi Minoshma and Pauline Agustoni interviewed Dorozome artisans to better understand its rich history, and they carefully registered the many repetitive needed to arrive to the typical Dorozome color. The installation Craft Portrait Dorozome portrays the technique and tradition.

Satomi Minoshima (JP) and Pauline Agustoni (CH) have joined forces since their studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven. They both are passionate about the social, historical and cultural use of materials, techniques and crafts. Minoshima and Agustoni use design to share their appreciation of these techniques to the public.