The contemporary works to be seen at Tendence from 27 to 30 August were made stitch for stich, page for page, breath for breath by the 34 craftspeople and jewellery designers from 12 countries selected for the 2016 edition of Messe Frankfurt’s ‘Talents’ promotional programme. The participants are presenting their unique hand-crafted pieces and small product series in two different sections of the international consumer goods fair: The Modern Crafts Talents are located in the ‘Pure & Elegant’ segment in Hall 9.0 while the jewellery designers are to be found at the ‘Accessories & Jewellery’ segment in Hall 9.2.

“At this year’s Tendence, we are showing outstanding, aesthetically ambitious works beyond the mainstream within the framework of our ‘Talents’ promotional programme. The benefits of this are twofold: for

buyers and manufacturers, the ‘Talents’ areas are an important source of new impulses while the participants have the chance to reach an international audience of trade visitors and make contacts to potential

business partners from all over the world”, says Tendence Group Show Director Philipp Ferger.

Arts & crafts have always played an important role at Tendence. The participants of this ‘Talents’ area have been selected by the Museum for Applied Art in Frankfurt, the German Arts & Crafts Association

(Bundesverband Kunsthandwerk) and Messe Frankfurt. At the fair, they present their works in the immediate vicinity of the ‘Form – Design from Crafts and Industry’ exhibition in Hall 9.0. Together with the adjoining ‘Next’ area and the presentation of the Hessian State Award for German Arts & Crafts on the Monday of the fair, the participants underscore the importance of arts & crafts at Tendence.

This year, 18 creative personalities have been chosen for the ‘Modern Crafts Talents’ area. Their works are made of a variety of materials including wood, glass, paper, fabric, porcelain, ceramic, bronze and silver. One of the participants is Amnon Lipkin from Tel Aviv, Israel, who will present his extraordinary pictures at Tendence. Instead of paper, Lipkin uses heavy linen; instead of a brush, he uses a sewing machine to ‘draw’ fine lines, generally with black thread, on the linen. The results, stitch for stitch and from a single thread, are pictures of houses, groups of people, electricity pylons, etc., which resemble charcoal drawings at first glance. “My works make use of the contrast between the fine thread and the ‘rough’ themes of the drawings”, says Amnon Lipkin.

An almost diametrically opposed approach is taken by Nadja Recknagel from Bad Homburg, Germany, with her glass sculptures. “I use the hard material to create soft, organic, flowing shapes that combine fragility and firmness, plasticity and solidity, lightness and strength”, says the artist. Her sculptures are made of thin borosilicate glass and she shapes them with a glass-blower’s lamp – breath for breath. With the threads, she

‘knits’ three-dimensional meshwork.

Needles and threads are also used to make modern jewellery. Embroidered, sewn and crocheted articles are no longer rarities in this field. Good examples of this are the hand-made pieces of jewellery by Stefania Bandinu from Bologna. The Italian artist draws inspiration from natural illustrations, maps and old alphabetic characters and creates works distinguished by unique designs. For her latest collection, she has

amassed a variety of fabrics from small Sardinian weavers. Each fragment of a new piece of jewellery stands for the story of the life of one of these weavers.

Copper, silver and enamel are the ingredients for the creations of Steffi Götze, Berlin, who works primarily with white and pastel shades and demonstrates a feeling for extraordinary shapes. In her works, abstract

geometrical forms encounter floral-like ornaments. “My work is an experimental and personal dialogue of the contrasts between concepts and their relationship to each other, for example, consciousness and

unconsciousness, past and future, truth and lies, moving and not moving, recalling and forgetting, inside and outside, the doer and the watcher, you and me”, says Steffi Götze.

New and old manufacturing techniques are brought together under Katja Keržan’ ‘Trash Design’ label. The name says it all with new recycling technology being used to make very hard-wearing felt out of old plastic

bottles. Combined with high-grade leather, the result is bags, the elegance and workmanship of which exude a large portion of vintage charm. “The bags are handmade and produced with the knowledge handed down to us by our grandparents, shoemakers and metalworkers”, says Katja Keržan.

Also well worth a visit is the presentation by Danish designers and craftspeople who will be showing their works in the immediate vicinity of the two ‘Talents’ areas. Other interesting products with original, creative

products by small labels that have only been on the market for a few years can be seen at the ‘Next’ areas at the Accessories & Jewellery segment in Hall 9.2, at Young Gifts and Culinary Gifts in Hall 11.1 and at

the Modern Crafts area in Hall 9.0 mentioned above.

Tendence (27 to 30 August 2016) is Germany’s most international and biggest order fair for consumer goods in the second half of the year with an extensive range of products from the home, furnishing, decorating,

gifts, jewellery and fashion accessory segments. At this new-products platform, top brands and key players present their Christmas trends thus giving the national and European retail trade the opportunity to place

follow-up orders for the Christmas season. At the same time, they show their collections for the coming spring and summer.