Not everything that my children and I need is for sale. I design what we want but can't buy, with materials that I have at home, that I find on the street, on second-hand marketplaces and by asking around. What we need other people might also need. I create solid, durable and well-designed garments and objects, like leather punching bags and pants for children to live in that will last forever. In this way, I try to translate my necessity to the public.
I have a legal background, but since I was 13 I have been involved in designing interiors, furniture and living items such as sofa covers. For a few years, I worked as a lawyer while continuing to make things in my spare time. I missed crafts at times when I was too preoccupied with my head. That is how I started studying architecture at TU Delft and then moved on to the Rietveld Art Academy Amsterdam.
Now I have my own brand; Snekkerbuks, where I realise my passion for using textile at an architectural scale. I call it "Textile Architecture”; work that translates itself into objects and garments that are durable, robust in use and have an aesthetic value. For each design I make an average of 20 prototypes so that something will be exactly as I think it works best and is visually correct. Any new product is used by me and others for at least six months to confirm this. In this way, such a quality is created that even a circular system has developed.
