Roland Pieter Smit

CumLaude

Prizes: AlluMonde Ring, Rene Smeets Award Nominee, Keep an Eye Grant Nominee

Department: Man and Leisure
Website: www.rolandpietersmit.com

Wolwaeren

With Wolwaeren, a series of seven blankets made by people with a mental or physical impairment, Roland Pieter Smit designed looms that, among other things, reflect the psychological and physical possibilities of the operators. For example, autistic people can work with very thin yarn, while those with Downs Syndrome prefer to work with thicker yarn. The yarn is made from wool from the island of Texel, once lucrative but now almost worthless. And by offering sheep farmers an honest price, Smit reestablishes some of the value of the wool. Wolwaeren reintroduces the age-old tradition of woollen blankets to the Netherlands and aims to processes the material as close to the source as possible.

Video