Our patterns are printed by hand in our workshop of Brussels on wallpaper but also on our collections of fabrics
in velvet, linen, organdie or cotton veil :
“SCREEN”:
The pieces of cloth that we frame print are familiarly known as screens.
The word refers to the very fine cloth used to distribute the colour of the pattern on the fabric. “Screen” also means a kind of partition or curtain that, according to the dictionary, shelters, protects and filters.All these parallel meanings reassure me in this spontaneous naming as they are all present in the use we chose to develop.
This process is so artisanal compared to the present practice of printing on fabrics that I experience exactly the same relief as at the revelation of the infinite possibilities suddenly offered by the rather archaic production of cement tiles. No more need to count in thousands of meters any production of a pattern or colour. We, who have everything, are sensitive to the wear and tear of these objects reproduced on a scale that denies our individuality. But that is the world we live in. Also, we sometimes confusedly want fewer “things” as we are suffocated by the invasion of products. But we also want “things” that age better and that we tire of less quickly. We are well aware that what is not too overused becomes precious and the choice of means of production that may seem obsolete according to the logic of Western economics is by no means an innocent choice.
March 2001
Excerpt from “About fabrics” booklet 5 of the book
“By Agnès Emery Par Agnès Emery”