Wendy Andreu

For the past 10 years, Wendy Andreu has been working on a textile that is neither knitted nor woven, but glued together. It requires no pattern-making or sewing, lends itself to both 2D and 3D, and can be molded to avoid any loss of material. An innovation that illustrates the approach of this 33-year-old designer, who graduated from the École Boulle in metal and from the Design Academy Eindhoven, where she received more conceptual training.

" I never learned to work with fabric, so I
had to get around my lack of know-how by using, in particular, unexpected tools often imported from other trades: gardening knives, dog combs... My two courses of study have enabled me to move towards the new, beyond the existing, by understanding craft gestures through research, rethinking these unchanging techniques through the prism of innovation ." - Wendy Andreu

Her approach has already attracted the attention of Cirva (Centre international de recherche sur le verre et les arts plastiques), where she is in residence for two years. She spends five weeks a year in Marseille, working on another project similar to the textile one: how to produce glass objects from industrial waste, and how to avoid waste in the manufacturing process. The mold is at the heart of her progress: " it's an instrument I learned about during my studies: its design, its variable geometry in order to demold a variety of pieces " . Having just been approached by the École Boulle to teach and pass on her experience - " it's the first time I've been interviewed for a job " - she is delighted with this prize, which will support her development and give her peace of mind.