The Chair that Rocks is an ongoing project by Studio José de la O that aims to link Contemporary Design with the local craftsmen of Tlacotalpan, México.
Designers and Artists are invited to spend some days in Tlacotalpan, where they are encouraged to design and build a product using local resources and traditional crafts from the region.
In 7 days, Designers can come to this community where they can design and create one utilitarian object using two amazing crafts: The first one, traditional pottery techniques, now lost since 15 years, and the second one, a traditional carpentry techniques using red cedar. At the end of the workshop you will receive a certificate of attendance with curricular value.
The workshop is aimed at students and professionals on Industrial Design, Product Design, Architecture or similar backgrounds, with experience in crafts and a basic knowledge of carpentry.
The name of the project comes as an inspiration from the rocking chair culture in Tlacotalpan, where it seems that almost every person living in this town has one. Not surprisingly, local woodworkers had designed and built the "Sillón Tlacotalpeño"—Tlacotalpeño Couch, as this style of rocking chair is known—for generations.
This does not means that building rocking chairs is the only traditional craft to explore in Tlacotalpan. There are also other kinds of crafts to be explored, like traditional luthiers, ceramics, traditional weaving, cabinetmakers and candy makers, all of them waiting to be re-discovered by designers...
The project has 3 main goals:
• To rescue and preserve local crafts and techniques from the region, witch are fastly disappearing.
• To re-activate the local economy by designing new products, produced in the region and commercialized by Studio José de la O.
• To create a "Designer Tourism" in Tlacotalpan, where creative professionals can live new and exiting experiences by learning a new craft, producing new work and exchanging knowledge with local craftsmen.
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