Why did you choose your craft?
My work allows me to bring together dissociated and sometimes dissonant elements (cultures, materials, techniques) to create something new with my hands. It also enables me to gather people around a common project and to welcome something in my life that makes me vibrate: travelling.
Why is the concept of land so important in your work?
Different lands help me work on my openness and my imagination. What is fascinating when I travel, when I am the outsider, is that my 'strangeness' makes me focus on differences, habits, details that are mundane to the locals. This acts as a 'breeding ground for the imagination' and allows ideas to germinate spontaneously.
©Dorian Etienne
What was the first object you made?
Orikawa, a deployable and multifaceted bag inspired by origami and combining the know-how of leather goods with that of cabinetmaking: the oak veneer of the bag made a rigid structure on the leather to enhance the folds.
What is a memorable moment in your working life?
Seeing the emotion in the eyes of the group of local participants that I trained and accompanied throughout the making of our common project, on the night when we revealed the tapestry. It was a mixture of sadness because the workshop was ending, and pride from having been part of this project highlighting their land and its issues.