the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme...
The 5 month exchange between Marta Pokojowczyk (YE) and Helena Loermans (HE) in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme is coming to an end. Here is what I wrote about my experience….
' keeping a company is a creative endeavour that can nourish the soul; it is the best way of controlling your own destiny and changing the world of creating jobs and upsetting the status quo...' ( Richard Reed, Financial Times) 2012
This quote in my favourite newspaper has accompanied me in the last years and has been one of the reasons to participate in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme.
Sharing both my knowledge as well as the equipment in my workshop with enthusiastic young people has given a very positive boost to the place.
The fact that we as host entrepreneur are not obliged to spend a lot of time to enter the programme and to write big reports about whats happening helps a lot to keep us focussed to the main point in the exchange.
When I received the request from Marta Pokojowczyk and looked at her website I immediately got impressed and felt that there was a good chance that we could have a successful exchange. The artistically view in her pictures, the impressive paintings and the experience with rough textile and stitching together with her experience of working abroad her home country made me decide to start to work together.
We have been focussed on hand weaving , from the theoretic and practical part of the basics to explore the knowledge by finally creating new complex textures to weave hemp and linen canvas.
The first thing I ask a young entrepreneur to do is to make a blog and Facebook, or other social media, business page about the exchange from the first moment onwards.
' keeping a company is a creative endeavour that can nourish the soul; it is the best way of controlling your own destiny and changing the world of creating jobs and upsetting the status quo...' ( Richard Reed, Financial Times) 2012
This quote in my favourite newspaper has accompanied me in the last years and has been one of the reasons to participate in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme.
Sharing both my knowledge as well as the equipment in my workshop with enthusiastic young people has given a very positive boost to the place.
The fact that we as host entrepreneur are not obliged to spend a lot of time to enter the programme and to write big reports about whats happening helps a lot to keep us focussed to the main point in the exchange.
When I received the request from Marta Pokojowczyk and looked at her website I immediately got impressed and felt that there was a good chance that we could have a successful exchange. The artistically view in her pictures, the impressive paintings and the experience with rough textile and stitching together with her experience of working abroad her home country made me decide to start to work together.
We have been focussed on hand weaving , from the theoretic and practical part of the basics to explore the knowledge by finally creating new complex textures to weave hemp and linen canvas.
The first thing I ask a young entrepreneur to do is to make a blog and Facebook, or other social media, business page about the exchange from the first moment onwards.
It not only obliges us to register visually the process, it also can be the start of showing your ideas/business to the world. We are on the 4th album ! (here a link from when we started https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a. 10203519971858168.1073741930.1180376163&type=1&l =28b880a3a5 album 1)
In the exchange between Marta Pokojowczyk and myself there has been a very strong thread to connect craft and art, I say connect because I truly believe that by distinguishing art and craft one creates borders that stop the flow of creativity.
Working with a young entrepreneur being an Art Historian and Painter (University of Wroclaw, Academy of Art and Design) has given me not only a deeper knowledge of art and looking at art but has also stimulated me to have a new look at light.
Marta’s pictures are beautiful which also enriches strongly my own web and Facebook page. Beside that there has been a substantial participation in the atelier’s production.
In the exchange we started to work out the idea of connecting weaving and painting by weaving ones own canvas.
Hemp weavers has started and we count on the first exhibition by Marta Pokojowczyk in Wroclaw in March where the first results will be shown.
Hemp weavers is ment to continue to exist, the format we think of now is Hempweaver Marta Pokojowczyk in Wroclaw and Hempwever Helena Loermans in Odemira, both our own business but connected by the theme and name.
A lesson I have learned in the exchanges is a new way of mathematical counting: 1+1=3 ;)
Helena Loermans