THE DAHLIA HEIRLOOM
For five months, I collaborated with the municipality of Valkenswaard, near Eindhoven, to reshape their local "Bloemencorso" dahlia parade. Observing a recent disconnect with the very flower the festival celebrates, I redesigned how residents interact with local nature through interviews and research to learn from their heritage.
I have designed garden shears as a tool for deeper interaction with the dahlia, reshaping the moment of cutting as intimate, celebratory and respectful. Cutting dahlias signifies the beginning of Valkenswaard’s Bloemencorso season, so redesigning this action can bring a newfound understanding of the flower’s value to the community. Shaped to fit the hand, the tool requires care and focus to cut a flower, harking back to a local heritage of picking dahlias using rusting hand-me-down cutting tools. I explored ceramics and metalwork to create a functional tool with an heirloom’s sense of antique preciousness, alongside a tactility suggesting its organic purpose.
Valkenswaard families can commission their own personal dahlia shears, which become a family heirloom to pass this message of reconnection with nature through the generations. Hand crafted using traditional blacksmithing techniques, every tool is unique to allow each family to develop their own meaningful relationship with the dahlia over time. While the ‘Dahlia Heirloom’ begins by changing our understanding of the flower, it also teaches us to rethink how we interact with nature on a broader scale.
I have designed garden shears as a tool for deeper interaction with the dahlia, reshaping the moment of cutting as intimate, celebratory and respectful. Cutting dahlias signifies the beginning of Valkenswaard’s Bloemencorso season, so redesigning this action can bring a newfound understanding of the flower’s value to the community. Shaped to fit the hand, the tool requires care and focus to cut a flower, harking back to a local heritage of picking dahlias using rusting hand-me-down cutting tools. I explored ceramics and metalwork to create a functional tool with an heirloom’s sense of antique preciousness, alongside a tactility suggesting its organic purpose.
Valkenswaard families can commission their own personal dahlia shears, which become a family heirloom to pass this message of reconnection with nature through the generations. Hand crafted using traditional blacksmithing techniques, every tool is unique to allow each family to develop their own meaningful relationship with the dahlia over time. While the ‘Dahlia Heirloom’ begins by changing our understanding of the flower, it also teaches us to rethink how we interact with nature on a broader scale.
The design process, documented in a book shown at my final exhibition alongside the Dahlia Heirloom
Presenting the Dahlia Heirloom to Bloemencorso representatives and the Municipality of Valkenswaard, alongside projects of my colleagues. I co-curated the exhibition, including a map showing models of the projects onsite. I plan to collaborate with a local blacksmith to provide families of the Bloemencorso with their own Dahlia Heirloom.
The Dahlia Heirloom featured in Issue 02 of Edinburgh-based Fizz
Magazine and was exhibited at the Fizz launch party, 2022
Magazine and was exhibited at the Fizz launch party, 2022
Skills & Techniques
Social design
Product design
Metalwork
Styling & photography
Photoshop
InDesign