The growing awareness that sustainability permeates all areas of daily life has arrived in the national and international DIY community. This is clearly reflected in the Creativeworld Trends 2023, which summarise the variety of the latest creative products, materials and techniques in three themes and provide inspiration and ideas for all areas of the hobby, craft and artists’ supplies sector.
“In times like these, positive energies, ideas and inspiration are needed,” says Claudia Herke from the trend bureau bora.herke.palmisano. “To carry on as before is no longer possible in view of resource scarcity. That’s why the meta-theme of sustainability permeates all areas of daily life and we are increasingly finding it in the creative industry.” Under the motto: Spot on Handicraft, bora.herke.palmisano, commissioned by Messe Frankfurt, will be showing a wide range of sustainable ideas on how to create something new from things that already exist and thus promote sustainable consumption.
During their research, the designers from the trend bureau noticed one thing in particular: “In times of crisis, people rediscover their hobbies, they are reminded of their hands and how they can be creative with them. This results in a great interest in tutorials and an enormous wealth of information on various creative topics. Spot on Handicraft stands for mindful diversity and responsibility. Whether knitting, crocheting, sewing, painting, drawing, illustrating, expressing oneself with colour, leaving everything to chance or drawing inspiration from biophilic design: the variety of techniques, materials and creative ideas seems almost endless. The fun of doing it yourself is paramount in each of these artistic activities.
bora.herke.palmisano has defined three trend themes that summarise all the current hobby and craft themes for the 2023 season:
illustrative power: intense, spontaneous and unmissable
A strong focus on colour runs through the illustrative power theme. Radiant and striking colours, prints and patterns emanate a powerful energy that overlays existing décors and thus reinvents them. Using techniques such as mash up, which are actually known from the music world, pieces are mixed together differently to create new creations. It is a mixture of the real world and fantasy that makes for spontaneous results. The random is wanted and desired. Courage is needed to use techniques that leave the result open. The Japanese Suminagashi technique (Japanese for floating ink) offers a challenge. Here, multi-coloured Japanese inks and ox gall are used to create abstract patterns on a water surface, which are then skimmed onto paper. In addition, the enduring theme of hand-lettering has reached its next stage: typographies become three-dimensional. With coloured cardboard and sophisticated cuts, the design of fonts becomes an art form. Or monograms and initials are incorporated in high-contrast intarsia knitting, offering ideas for individual gifts.
Sensitive biology: delicate, far-sighted and inspired by nature
The wondrous world of insects, as seen under the microscope, is the focus of sensitive biology. Abstract motifs from the winged cosmos are expressed with structures, divisions and facets. Fine veins, cells and fields of an insect wing serve as inspiration for delicate and filigree works of art. Butterflies provide a perfect template for artistic reliefs. With embossing pens and soft papers, high-quality greeting cards are created. Dragonflies, stag beetles, bees and co. can be worked out of exquisite paper in fine cut-work with a lot of perseverance and skill. Materials such as yarns, ribbons, wires and beads, which can be crocheted, knitted or braided to create delicate shapes, go well with the filigree motifs. This is how jewellery, bags, accessories, wall and table decorations are created, for example. Macramé also continues to play a major role here, especially for body jewellery and garments. Using the different properties of various cords, varied and amazing results are created. For appealing decorations, unconventional weaving with rattan material or wicker can be used.
Innocent charm: carefree, blossoming, radiant with happiness
There is something naive and childlike in the motive and colour world of innocent charm. A humorous look at everyday things can be captured with the creative technique “charming paperworks”, where leaves, blossoms, plants or even vegetables are freely and carefree recreated in clay paper. Things get folkloristic with the Pajaki lights, a Polish tradition for Easter, Christmas and birthdays. The colourful chandeliers are said to bring good luck and health and provide hobby artists with a veritable Eldorado of craft techniques and themes. Wire rings, straws, beads, wool for pompons, tassels and many more are used. The re-use idea is particularly effective at innocent charm. Leftover is the motto here: everything that is left over from other projects is used. Multi-coloured patterns are created when leftover beads of all colours and shapes are threaded and then knitted or sewn together. Or wool scraps that are used for knitting and crochet socks. Over all lies the imaginative mix of styles that expresses itself with small figures and patterns.
From February 2023, Creativeworld will be held at the Frankfurt exhibition centre at the same time as the leading international consumer-goods fairs Ambiente and Christmasworld. Creativeworld Trends will be presented in the Trend Area in Hall 1.2 B61, from 4 to 7 February 2023.
