The founders of Twine Studio (繭裹設計) use wool felting, one of the earliest fabric-making techniques, to create contemporary designs.
“We like to use traditional materials and skills, but create new, modern styles,” says Elizabeth Tsai (蔡宜穎), who started Twine Studio with Vinka Yang (楊士翔) while the two were working as architects in Shanghai. The pair moved back to Taiwan last year and opened their Taipei City store in January.
Twine Studio’s store near Zhongshan MRT Station shares a space with Earth Tree (地球樹), which specializes in fair-trade clothing and home accessories. In addition to their own creations, Tsai and Yang also sell fair-trade and eco-friendly products, as well as handmade items by Taiwanese artists.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
Twine Studio’s signature design is a pendant made from dried lotus pods grown in Baihe District (白河區), Greater Tainan. A rainbow of felted wools are stuffed into the round, empty eyes of each pod, which are then strung from necklaces braided from shimmery string spun from fibers leftover from the manufacture of sari fabric in India. Other accessories in the Felt Fruit series feature a forest’s worth of dried plants and natural materials: sweetgum tree pods, chestnuts, lemons rinds, sugar apples, even delicate honeycomb. Another series includes chunky bangles and beads sculpted from different shades of gray felt to look like stone.
Twine’s clothing, most of which is sewn by Tsai, includes appliqued T-shirts made from organic cotton and a “travel blouse,” which can be tucked into an attached pouch that closes with a snap.
Urban Yurt, Tsai and Yang’s first collaboration, won them the silver prize at the 2006 Taiwan International Design Competition (台灣國際創意設計大賽). Inspired by origami, the project was conceived as a “shelter for urban nomads” and consisted of a briefcase-sized fabric envelope that could be unfolded into different articles of clothing or a sleeping bag.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
Two years later, the duo launched Twine Studio, selling their felted jewelry at Cocoon, a small Shanghai store they started with a group of friends. In 2009, Twine Studio participated in that city’s Eco Design Fair (生態環保設計展), which inspired them to begin using environmentally sustainable materials.
After returning to Taiwan, Yang and Tsai opened a tiny store in Greater Taichung, but say they had trouble finding other boutiques to carry their items on consignment and convincing consumers about the value of organic cotton.
“I think a lot of people aren’t sure of the difference between organic cotton and ordinary cotton,” says Tsai. “The texture is a little different, but the most important thing is that ordinary cotton is grown with a lot of pesticide, so organic cotton is not just better for the environment, but for people.”
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
The two found a supporter in Earth Tree owner Lydia Wang (王靖宜), who began carrying their items before offering them a space in her Taipei City store, to which Twine Studio relocated from Taichung.
The brands Twine Studio import are either certified by the World Fair Trade Organization or made from environmentally friendly materials. Taiwanese indie labels represented include printmaker Chiuzen (沾手) and Bag Up, which sews purses and totes from discarded museum exhibition banners.
Twine carries several of UK fair-trade label Nkuku’s kitchenware lines, including stainless steel four-tier tiffin carriers and jugs painted with highly detailed designs in rich colors by artisans in Kashmir, India.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
“We want to focus on handmade things that are eco-friendly, but our goal is also to show that handmade items can be of extremely high quality,” says Yang.
Photos: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and