Kavala, Greece, has a long tradition of making candles. In the last decades, knowledge of and interest in hand made candles is decreasing. The challenge for the craft ladies involved was how to interest new target groups while preserving the craft knowledge, by using it in a new way, not necessarily in the same form or same function. The KAVALA craft ladies were carefully matched to a designer of textile and ceramics from Latvia via a House of Design’s shaped Craft Design Pressure Cooker. The designer had a valuable know- how of international crafts and the story behind their designs. During the Pressure Cooker workshop, she suggested to be inspired by patterns of old Latvian textiles in different modern design objects. The result from the Pressure Cooker was a wax kit design, inspiring you to ‘play with candles with your fingers’ like most children like to do. The kit includes a canvas, wax, colors to mix and a manual. The users can shape various colors of candle wax and paint it on the canvas by spreading the wax on it with their fingers. As soon as the wax is dry, the canvas can be put on the wall like a painting.
Source: EU REGIO CRAFTS Project
Example of strategy 2D:
Facilitate Pressure Cookers
Pressure Cookers are design- creativity based events in which stakeholders and creatives attempt to find solutions for certain local or regional problems within a short period of time (under pressure, in 1 day for instance). Pressure Cookers have proven to be very effective and efficient means to suggest options and ideas out-of- the-box, particularly for complex and persistent problems (House of Design, 2018; DeLille et al, 2010).
Since the organization and execution of a pressure cooker can be realized in a low-cost way – mainly via the creative brains of the involved participants and their facilitators- it is a highly recommendable tool for innovation in a TIPPING context. Particularly, at the start of an island challenge, local and regional governments are advised to stimulate or take the initiative in the use of this tool.
