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Reporting by Temenouzhka Zaharieva. Above Image courtesy of Mariana Sarbova

Fabrica 126 is an old factory near the Central Railway Station in Sofia. Organizers of Sofia Design Week 2012 decided to use Fabrica 126 as a location for hosting some of the exhibitions, workshops and parties during this year's festival.

Photos of Puma Creative Factory Courtesy of Fabrica 126

Puma is back again this year with their Puma Creative Factory, LOVE THY PLANET, where everyone is invited to design their own T-shirts and bags by "printing" an image of their choice using organic paint that reacts to the sun. The organic cotton T-shirts and bags are provided by PUMA. Every evening after 20:00h. the workshop continues with a party.

An exhibition hosted at Fabrica 126 is Оpen Call, created as a result of an open call for participation in Sofia Design Week to everyone interested in design. Over 80 people responded to it and the curators of the festival selected 30 works to showcase. We saw posters, artifacts, jewelry made from paper, textile and paper clamps. We especially liked a basket from hand-moulded felt with leather insets on the side which "is aimed to serve as a carry cot that is both as soft and as cosy as a blanket but as sound and as sturdy as the commonly used reed and plastic ones," the designer Niki Collier explains. Originally from Bulgaria, but living in Ireland, she considers herself a Dubliner in essence. At Sofia Design Week together with the Bulgarian Studio INTERIORO they also presented hand-moulded felt lighting, another smaller and deeper basket and a carpet, again made of felt.

Molded Felt Moses Basket by Niki Collier and INTERIORO. Images courtesy of Interioro

Molded Felt Lotus Stool by INTERIORO

Molded Felt light by INTERIORO

Pret-a-design is an exhibition of partIally manufactured objects that need to be finished—assembled and customised. According to the author of these objects, the designer Mariana Sarbova, "The context can define the final design even when the products are prefabricated. If we see the objects of design as a blackboard on which we could reveal our creative side, momentary mood, our message towards somebody, then these objects become very individual, each one different from the others.The colours, the patterns, the forms are all fragments from the whole concept of the product and we can choose them or create them by ourselves."

Pret-a-design images courtesy of Mariana Sarbova