Kyriakoula Begiazi

The project developed during iAtelier: Digital Threads

This is a project inspired by a loom as a creation tool. The knowledge of wood and 3D of the designer Kelly Begiazi has been combined with the textile craft skills of Mariana Piñar to design two beautiful pieces of furniture. They used the CNC router together with the technique of wood bending called kerfing and the weaving of textile fibres. The combination of different techniques has resulted in two design chairs made of birch plywood.

Check the video of iAtelier workshop here!

Meet the maker

I am a furniture designer and maker based in Barcelona, Spain. I have studied Architecture and then specialized in furniture design. Currently I am working on freelance projects of furniture and decorative items. I work mainly with wood for furniture but also ceramics, textile, resin, and metal for other projects but also investigate on new material applications.

What interested you in the iAtelier programme and did it meet with your expectations?

I was really interested in the iAtelier project since I was investigating and begun working implementing digital fabrication practices to my work and I also have a great appreciation and interest for the artisan world. I found the combination really appealing and the opportunity to work with digital fabrication experts and artisans from all over the country interesting. The result was even more enriching than I thought it would be, I met amazing professionals, openminded and passionate about their work, I got to experiment a lot and finished not only with a complete project but also with tons of ideas for more projects.

How will participating in iAtelier influence your future practice?

After the project, first of all, I feel way more confident in implementing digital fabrication in my work. I got to try many different things and processes that gave me a lot of ideas for future applications. I also got to know artisan practices of different fields, from all the projects developed during that time. And last but not least, I had the opportunity of meeting and collaborating with Mariana Piñar and cannot wait to do more projects with her.

My 5 top tips that I have learnt on this journey:

I have learnt a lot of things during this program. Number one would be the importance of exploring, experimenting and just trying things at the first stage of a project because it can open up a whole new world you could not imagine before. Also, I have learnt the importance of collaboration with the right people so that you can create things new to you, that new technologies and artisan practices are not opposite to each other and they can complement each other in many ways and that to really get something to another level you need to understand how thing work. And finally, that digital fabrication can make thing easier in the sense that you can focus on what really matters in a project and do not let technical difficulties limit you, that you can achieve things that would otherwise be very frustrating or even impossible.