Postcard from Marleen Engbersen @ Claudy Jongstra featuring "curtains and rug we just realized for a client's office."

Living and working in rural Friesland, Claudy Jongstra, the Dutch-born fabric designer, is constantly exploring methods of non-invasive farming techniques as well as researching new methods for improving care of her own flock of rare Drenthe Heath sheep, and, hence, the quality of their wool. Creating textiles which straddle high technology and ancient handcraft, industrialized processes and alchemical, labor-intensive techniques, Jongstra designed her own manually-operated felting “machine” which mimics the different hand movements traditionally used to make felt over the past six millennium. The dyes she uses vary from natural vegetable dyes to the most sophisticated French dyes, working from a repertoire of over 500 formulas.

Jongstra has collaborated with many fashion designers, including John Galliano and Christian Lacroix, as well as with noted architects and industrial designers Rem Koolhaas, Jasper Morrison, Hella Jongerius, Ettore Sottsass and Maarten Baas. She has also worked in tandem with architects Steven Holl and Will Bruder to create acoustic-enhancing materials for residential projects. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

- Moss (New York)