glimpt nomadic entities project pays homage to romanian craftsmanship

swedish design creatives mattias rask and tor palm of glimpt have worked with romananian roma craftsmen to develop a series of handcrafted copper stools and wicker items. the duo travelled around the country, visiting different locations in order to map traditional crafts created by the ethnic group. the project titled ‘normadic entities’ follows on from their past contributions in vietnam and south africa where they worked with local creatives to combine scandinavian design within a new exiting cultural context.

glimpt were first contacted by the organisation mesteshukar butiq – a network of social economy enterprises and an active supporter of roma traditional crafts – to help contribute to an ongoing research and development project. during 2015 glimpt worked with artisans maria, victor, hazel and zoli to work on utility products such as baskets and other functional pieces. they worked specifically with victor to create an exclusive series of well crafted copper stools and tables which make reference to traditional distillery units.

‘we work in different countries, different cultures. we meet real people who work with real things, who struggle with real life. they work with their hands, passing on their knowledge and experiences through their crafts. we learn from them, they learn from us.’ state glimpt. this project specifically highlights the work of artisans and contributes to the work of mesteshukar butiq who aim to introduce links between industry and local craftsman.‘seeing what different artisans do, how they work and live we get inspired and design objects that we could never have conceived back home.we believe that as a designer you have to take a social responsibility, that it’s everyone’s obligation to take care of our world and one another.’

three generations of copper workers

victor with the copper stool

victor working in his backyard

victor senior working in the backyard 

victor senior with one of their traditional distillery units

a research trip in romania

zoli working with a wicker prototype

maria in her livingroom surrounded by hazel offcuts 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.