After graduating at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, Thijske mainly focused on painting. She got fascinated by rubber after following an additional year at Rietveld Academy and started to explore technics and methods to work and develop the material. In this process she took social and climate values into account. For Thijske working with latex feels like working with a skin that can be adapted to the shape of the body. At the same time it also gives the possibility to play and completely deform the body that carries it.
Thijske uses pigments from food scraps and local plant-based resources in her designs. In her view this gives a whole new esthetic to latex as we know it. The natural quality of the material is her inspiration for a series of garments that soon will be presented under the label DARKLING.skin
