Seetal Solanki Q&A: Ma-tt-er x Blackhorse Workshop at LDF

Whenever we hear from materials maestro Seetal Solanki she’s working on something epic that makes us question the way we perceive our environments. Injecting an extra hit of pre-London Design Festival joy into the Zetteler studio, Seetal just dropped the awesome news that Ma-tt-er is hooking up with Blackhorse Workshop for a series of eye-opening talks during this year’s London Design Festival.

Much to our delight, material innovator Seetal, who held a series of talks as part of Design Undefined during Clerkenwell Design Week, has curated Wooden Matters for Blackhorse Workshop. A series of talks focused on alternative material exploration, Ma-tt-er and Blackhorse Workshop’s collaboration will see the likes of Hazel Stark, Micaella Pedros, Robert Penn and ALP Technologies challenge our misconceptions of wood and its role in sustainability. 

We asked Seetal to tell us more about Wooden Matters in her own words. 

What should we expect from Wooden Matters?
A series of talks, workshops and demonstrations exploring wood past it’s traditional uses and understanding what this basic material can produce in the present moment and how it can speak to the future. 

You’ve described it as an ‘alternative’ material exploration – what makes it alternative? 
I guess it comes from the way in which we approach the material into its many attributes. We are so used to seeing wood within furniture, which is one of my favourite types of materials to have as a piece of furniture, but what else is possible and how can this be conceived? 

How did you go about selecting the speakers?
It all stemmed from what Blackhorse Workshop offers and the materials they work with. Wood is such a prevalent material in the workshop. It seemed like a good place to start. 

It made sense to approach designers and makers from different angles. Having visited the recent RCA graduate show I saw Micaella’s Joining Bottles project, which was just the perfect fit as it seems like such a simple and obvious idea when you see the final outcome and it’s those projects which can have a big impact in socially deprived areas. Thinking about the socio-economic impacts within design and materials is something that is really important when we begin a project.

What do you hope people get from the talks?
An insight into how one material can be pushed into a multitude of potential objects depending on the process it takes. There will be skills such as natural indigo dyeing, which is a difficult process to achieve without being taught by an expert such as Hazel Stark. 

How did you get involved with Blackhorse Workshop?
We are local to the area and have a huge appreciation for what they have setup to contribute within the local community. Blackhorse Workshop and Ma-tt-er are in the process of setting up the Maker Library Network which is one the many brilliant programs that the Daniel Charny has created with the British Council.

What interests you about wood as a material?
The fact that it’s a natural material that comes from our environment and provides us with oxygen to fill our lungs, it can also be processed into thin sheets of paper and then the most solid of objects too. It’s endless what this one material can achieve. 

What other projects is Matter working on at the moment? And what’s in the pipeline?
There is a lot more emphasis on what we do with wood waste, creating by-products from the waste and see it as an opportunity as it can be seen as a very lucrative business model. We are actually working with a few brands and providing opportunities to their waste streams. These brands include Open Desk and Ally Capellino. These projects are at experimental stages at the moment. 

We are also providing strategies to companies that want to offer a more conscious approach to design. So really thinking about what matters to them as a business and seeking that through materials and processes. The companies include Crafting Plastics and Open As Usual. 

We write a fortnightly column for Nirvana CPH called Material Mondays which explores a material every week whether it be a future, industrial, sustainable material; they all matter. 

There are so many exciting things happening in the pipeline and all will be revealed very soon…

What else are you looking forward to seeing at LDF this year?
So many things! Ecotopia sounds so intriguing as I’m always keen to learn about ways to live sustainably and thinking about the bigger picture. 

The V&A is a must and it never disappoints. Caventou will be on display there and I can’t wait to see that in the flesh. 

There is also a Super Talk happening at the Truman Brewery about Danish Design: Contexts, Materiality, Culture and Society – basically everything I love. 

Also Zuza Mengham's Sculpting Scent with Laboratory Perfumes and the brilliant Granby Workshops at Clerkenwell London.  Well anything that team Zetteler have got going on as it's so relevant. 

Find Wooden Matters at Blackhorse Workshop 21 - 24 September.  Follower Ma-tt-er on Twitter for more updates.

Above 1: 'The Future Craftsmen' Rob Penn, Below 2: 'Wood as Energy' ALP Technologies. 3: Hazel Stark 'Indigo Stain', 4: 'Alternative Joinery' Micaella Pedros.