Floral Fiction - a reinvention of the traditional Nordic stucco

Copenhagen, Denmark - It is never simple and easily done when attempting to reinterpret a traditional craft. However, Linda Henriksen Weiman, a graduate from the acclaimed Danish Design School in Copenhagen, took on the challenge and reinvented the traditional Nordic stucco using Roland DG's MDX-540 - a miller that turned out to be an indispensable tool!

Linda's interest in the stucco springs from a family tradition and Linda's desire to modernize the classic ornament. "The stucco has not before been brought up as a contemporary ornament, and has not been developed since the modernism in Nordic architecture," says Linda Henriksen Weiman.

In order to maintain the genuine look of stucco, Linda used traditional plaster materials in combination with new expressions and a new approach within techniques and methods. By using the MDX-540 the designer was able to visualize her creative thoughts and apply new techniques to the traditional craft.

Linda found her inspiration in the floral motive and says: "Floral fiction is the abstraction of a flower using caricature and the play with effects, colors and patterns. The rosette is visibly different depending on which angle you see it from. It is meant to be a visual ornament with bright colors that live up the center of any room."

 

The designer's experience with the MDX-540

Working with Roland DG's MDX-540 enabled Linda to realize her design and creative thoughts. "The MDX-540 has been a key method in the making of the Floral Fiction. To cut directly into the plaster material has given the stucco a whole new dimension in regards to how you can approach and shape in a modern way," says Linda Henriksen Weiman. "Using the MDX-540 made it really easy to transfer a simple vector graphic directly onto the plaster pieces."

Roland DG's MDX-540 gave the designer possibilities and inspiration that she had not expected. "I was quite surprised to see that the miller could actually make very sharp contours and ad shadows in the plaster material," says Linda Henriksen Weiman. "For my project about stucco, the miller was an extra tool that provided me with a professional way of making shapes I could not craft in hand myself. Also, in the process I found that the cutter was very interesting because, not only did it enable me to make quick prototypes, it also revealed small design flaws and mistakes that inspired me to come up with new things and expression. I found it easy and playful to work with the miller because it shows how you can make complex things in a simple way."

In the making of Floral Fiction, the MDX-540 played an important role. The miller was one of Linda's primary tools, enabling her to take the shaping process to a whole new level. "It is a great tool that gave me possibilities I had not even considered. It was actually cheaper to produce the stucco on the MDX-540 than it would have been producing it by hand, and the great thing was that it could mill directly into different materials. The prototypes milled on the MDX-540 have been indispensable tools - just as my pen, and it shows how you can ad an extra level to your design by producing 3D objects directly from 2D sketches," says Linda Henriksen Weiman. Linda concludes by noting that, in the future, the modern technique provided by the MDX-540 could be the tool that enables designers to develop and reinvent traditional crafts.

Info

• Created in 2010 by Linda Henriksen Weiman, Graduate from the Danish Design School
• The prototype is milled on Roland's MDX-540
• Contact the designer at linda@liwei.dk