Discovered at one of the most beloved locations of the London Design Festival; the design shop named “Mint” located in Kensington, a humble and touching project by Studio Gutedort and the woman from Iraq El Amir in Jordan, generates nothing but great empathy.
 
Invited by Lina Kanafani, the mastermind behind Mint, Studio Gutedort travelled to the Middle East to work together with women from a popular historical site named Iraq El Amir. The aim of the project was to invent ways to produce locally crafted products in a sustainable way to generate a solid income for the community.
 
Lina invited the girls of studio Gutedort for their expertise and innovation in natural colors. To continue on their work for “Krautfarben”, where the studio investigates the dying possibilities with red cabbage, they decided to work together with the community in making naturally dyed paper bowls using as little water as possible.

The paper bowls are fully absorbing their local environment, using natural spices and herbs from the local market for dying the paper in different hues. What makes these bowls so charming is the use of curcuma, coffee, paprika powder, sumac, carcade, palm leaf and mansaf green as color pigments, products which are usually used as a spice to change taste and to add flavor. The result of considering spices as color pigments for the process of paper dying is a sensory product that becomes alive. Each individual bowl evokes a different sensation, spreading culinary smells; combined with beautifully dyed papers in resembling colors and touch.

Willem Schenk

www.gutedort.de
 
www.mintshop.co.uk