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Jeen ku

Jeen Ku is an art/design studio run by Praejeen Kunawong, a visual artist/designer with a background in fashion and textile design. She is originally from Bangkok, Thailand. Thus far, She has spent about 4 years in Helsinki exploring her life path while embracing Finnish culture and nature.

Color is an art/design element that fascinated her a lot. In each work, the combination of colors resonates and complements her identity, especially throughout the illustration. She enjoys combining her fondness for creating illustrations and textiles together.

Currently based in Helsinki,
Finland


︎Textile Design


︎The Dyers
︎Antheia
︎Never-ending Winter
︎PatternLab


︎ Fashion Design


︎Aessen
︎Sirivannavari BKK
︎Eklektikos
︎Another Side
︎Behind the aesthetics


︎ Illustration


︎Jeen Ku x Aessen
︎Personal Illustration Project
︎Fashion Illustration


︎Collaboration


︎Jeen Ku x Culte.today
︎Jeen Ku x Flower Matter


︎Exhibition


︎ Kinship, HKI
︎ Dialogues, NYC


︎Other Projects


︎ Kitsch Kitch
︎ Stick and Poke Tattooing
︎ Street Art
︎ Internship at Latimmier
︎ Moom



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The Dyers

Optimizing the colors of naturally dyed yarns from food by-products by weaving practice
Master’s Thesis at Aalto University - 2022


I explored ways that weaving practices can complement a variety of natural dye colors, aiming to present natural-dyed yarn as a sustainable and aesthetic option for textile creation. Concerned with the vast resource needed for growing industrial-grade raw materials and a large amount of food waste headed toward landfill after consumption, I opted to use food by-products for the yarn-dyeing process. Raw materials—donated by food providers in the Helsinki and Espoo area—included pomegranate rinds, used coffee grounds, avocado pits and peels, and skins of red and yellow onions.


The Dyer 01 & 02


In these wall-hanging textiles, I created with wool yarn, the appreciation of nature and the art of dyeing is expressed. The shapes of the raw materials are distorted into abstract lines, while delicate colors cover the women’s arms and legs in a representation of the stains on dyers’ skins after a hard day’s work.





Color Library 01


This piece is called Color Library 01. Its structures were created to tint the original dyed yarns’ colors with the off-white warp involvement, resulting in different tonal values. During the weaving process, it has been found that off-white warp helps to reduce the unevenness and stripy appearance caused by dyeing. This is because the effect of the optical color hides the imperfection of the dyed weft yarns. When the eyes perceive the mixture of a parent color with the off-white warp on the surface that gradually changes in scale from the 12-end satin to other shaded satin structures, the tonal values of parent colors change smoothly.

Yarn - 100 % wool
Raw materials for dyeing - pomegranate rinds, used coffee grounds, avocado pits and peels, and skins of red and yellow onions




Color library 02


Color Library 02 shows the result of color mixing between two parent colors. In the middle column, the optical color mixing makes the third color from two-parent yarns on the sides become a single color, particularly from the far distance perception.
Yarn - 100 % wool
Raw materials for dyeing - pomegranate rinds, used coffee grounds, avocado pits and peels, and skins of red and yellow onions 

Photos by Praejeen Kunawong