OUR STORY
A world held
within.
Silver gives it a boundary.
Textile gives it a world.
Olsevi begins with a contemplative way of seeing. The cool presence of silver meets the softness of cloth. A quiet contour holds a pattern; a closer look reveals its detail.
What is held and what is revealed belong to the same gesture.
FOUR CRAFTS, ONE DIALOGUE
VEIL · BATIK
What the wax
holds back.
Before the cloth meets the dye, wax marks the places where colour will not enter. Once the wax is removed, the reserved drawing appears.
In some Miao communities in Guizhou, this knowledge has passed from mother to daughter through the making of clothing and everyday cloth. Concealment becomes a way of revealing: a relationship that draws us to batik.
The making of batik
A traditional sequence documented in Danzhai, Guizhou.
Prepare the cloth
Cloth is treated with filtered plant-ash water before the wax is applied.
Draw with wax
Melted wax is used to mark the areas that will resist the dye.
Enter the dye
The waxed cloth is dampened and repeatedly immersed in a prepared indigo vat.
Reveal the drawing
Loose colour is rinsed away. The cloth is boiled to remove wax, then rinsed again.
VERSE · EMBROIDERY
A line becomes
an image.
A needle carries thread through cloth. Direction, density and colour give each stitch its part in the image: a contour, a petal, a passage from light into shade.
Embroidery is a living language. In 2017, Suzhou embroidery artist Yao Huifen brought traditional stitches into contemporary works at the Venice Biennale. Her practice shows how inherited techniques can find new expression.
Inside the stitches
An introduction to the decisions behind hand embroidery; techniques vary between traditions.
Develop the image
Consider its scale, composition and intended use. Sampling helps establish an approach.
Choose the thread
Colour and thickness work together with the cloth and the selected stitches.
Work the surface
In shaded embroidery, the direction and overlap of stitches create transitions between tones.
LUSTRE · SONG BROCADE
A pattern woven
into being.
Thread by thread,
the pattern becomes the cloth.
Closely associated with Suzhou, Song brocade has accompanied clothing, paintings and calligraphy. Some examples survived with the scrolls they framed.
Its design emerges as warp and coloured weft cross. Geometry, colour and repetition become part of the cloth itself. Even a small area carries the rhythm of a larger composition.
From thread to brocade
Key stages within a more extensive weaving tradition. Equipment and practice vary.
Prepare silk and colour
Silk preparation and dyeing provide the threads from which the cloth will be made.
Prepare the pattern
Traditional pattern preparation translates the design into a plan for weaving.
Weave the design
Warp and coloured weft bring structure and pattern into being together, with colour changes made during weaving.
SILVER · FORM & TOUCH
The shape
of holding.
Silver carries its own histories of adornment. In Taijiang, Guizhou, Miao silver ornaments have expressed community identity through distinctive forms and techniques, including wire drawing, coiling, chasing and soldering.
For Olsevi, silver gives cloth a defined edge. Its cool surface and sculpted contour frame the textile, bringing softness and structure into a single form.
How silver takes shape
Two approaches within jewelry making. A piece may combine different techniques.
Working sheet and wire
Cut and file the material, bend or hammer it into shape, join the parts, then refine the surface. Decoration such as chasing is chosen to suit the design.
Lost-wax casting
A wax model is enclosed in a mould, then removed to leave a cavity. The molten casting material fills the space; after cooling, the casting is released and finished.
WITH THE WEARER
A closer part
of everyday life.
A turn reveals the textile. A change of light brings out the silver.
The story continues in the wearing.