‘The idea was to show how utilitarian objects
can become highly decorative,’ adds Weisz.
Zerunian and Weisz kicked off their design
partnership in 2014 with a collaboration with
Roma craftspeople in Romania. Initially,
Zerunian was taken on as a pro bono advisor
by the Austria-based Erste Foundation to
help marginalised Roma craft communities
reinterpret their products for a global, design-
savvy audience. She soon asked Weisz, a
friend of a friend, to come on board to help
create a fashion collection with Roma
seamstresses. Their collaborators in Romania
were the dynamic Bucharest-based social
enterprise Meşteshukar ButiQ (MBQ).
MBQ runs a boutique in Bucharest (and is
due to open another in Vienna late this year)
that sells pieces made by 18 Roma artisans,
whose skills range from basket weaving to
woodturning. The artisans make traditional
objects with a design edge, as well as more
complicated items in collaboration with the
likes of Zerunianandweisz and up-and-
coming Romanian designer Radu Abraham,
with whom they have worked on a collectionof vases and trays, due to be launched during
Romanian Design Week in late May.
Thanks to the support of the foundation
and the team at MBQ, Zerunian and Weisz
have been able to offer the artisans a level of
commitment that many others haven’t. ‘The
Roma are wary of people arriving with a great
idea and then never coming back again,’ says
Zerunian. So the fact that the pair did come
back, almost every month, for close to four
years, meant they were able to build up trust.
They made minor but key suggestions,
such as making the legs of traditional stools
less chunky, and exploring new basket shapes.
The fact that MBQ paid the craftspeople
better than other wholesalers had positive
effects too – the artisans had more time to
interact with the pieces and were slowly able
to invest in new workshops and tools. ‘More
respect towards them led to more respect
towards the product,’ says Zerunian.
The artisan who has had the most impact
on Zerunian and Weisz is Victor Clopotar,
a talented coppersmith from the Caldarari
community in Brateiu, Transylvania. It wastheir admiration for his abilities with copper,
silver and brass that led to their first range
as a duo, a series of sculptural tabletop items
called ‘7,000 blows’ in reference to the
amount of times a sheet of metal has to be
hammered to achieve the shapes they were
after. ‘To do something elliptical or
asymmetrical is a real craft challenge,’ says
Zerunian. ‘Victor is one of the few people
in the world able to do this.’
For the designers, working with the Roma
or other marginalised communities in Algeria
and Lebanon is not about a worthier-than-
thou mission (they are ‘accidental activists’,
says Zerunian). The pair, above all, want to
shed new light on fast disappearing traditional
crafts. These objects, and the vintage pieces
they find, can be functional, frivolous or
purely symbolic, but they all share something
in common. ‘They invite you to take your
time with them, and not only use them but
also view them in a different way,’ says Weisz.
The pieces might not be large in size but they
are, nevertheless, unexpectedly powerful. ∂
zerunianandweisz.com Portrait: Mark Glassner‘We take the sentimentality out of
craft, making it relevant for today’
LEFT, ROMANIAN COPPERSMITH
VICTOR CLOPOTAR AT WORK
ABOVE, HANDMADE BOWLS FROM
THE PERFECT STILLS COLLECTION.
CLOPOTAR MADE THOSE IN
COPPER (TOP AND BOTTOM)
AND BRASS (TOP RIGHT), AS WELL
AS THE BRASS SPOON. CENTRE
IS A BOWL MADE OF WOOD
WITH BLACK FRENCH POLISH086 ∑
Design