Alexandra Ferdinande
Contemporary basket weaver
Presentation
I am an artistic basket maker: I weave wicker to give shape to light fixtures with aerial silhouettes, sculptures, artistic installations, designer baskets, decorative weavings.
I created the Tressages Pas Sages workshop in 2013 in the heart of the Pilat Regional Natural Park, in Rhône-Alpes, as part of a professional reconversion.
Since 2019, I have set up my business in Pélussin (42) in a shared workshop.
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Approach
Today, I experiment with contemporary basketry by creating unique pieces. I want to promote wicker as a noble material and assert basketry as an artistic expression in its own right."
I continue to encourage moments of exchange to keep alive the desire to experiment with new creative avenues. Working together is essential for me. This dynamic has allowed me to participate in artistic performances, to exchange techniques with fellow basket makers, to meet craftspeople with whom I have been able to compare my material. These meetings have given rise to duo creations combining our materials (glass, felted wool, metal, etc.)."
Matter
"I am driven by this tenacious need: to braid, intertwine, transform plant matter to sublimate it. I haven't invented anything, everything is there. I pay homage to the plant kingdom by taking my raw material from it, by listening to the vibrations of what is present, living before our eyes but so discreet. I have discovered an inexhaustible source of inspiration by nourishing myself with what surrounds us."
"From branches, stems, fibers, vines, I give birth to volumes. I work on the balance of forms, the purity of lines, the delicacy of graphics, the radiance of transparencies, the fluidity of movements, lightness, weightlessness, the apparent fragility which lets a powerful energy shine through.
By exploring ancestral basketry techniques, I realized that the original gestures of basket makers were still alive today. I am proud to be part of this traditional lineage of the art of weaving. I start from the roots of a thousand-year-old know-how to bring it into today's world and accompany it into tomorrow.
