6. Atelier Dembach
“I find it fascinating that you can use “waste” to create extraordinary new things”
Stylist and maker of beautiful things, Miriam Dembach - aka Atelier Dembach - credits her mother with inspiring her creativity: “my mum wanted to be an interior designer or florist, but unfortunately wasn’t able to make those career choices back in the sixties”. Her dad, on the other hand, was an early adopter of sustainable living and had been composting and recycling with passion since the early eighties. The concept of reusing things or giving it a different life seems to have been instilled by him: “I find it fascinating that you can use “waste” to create extraordinary new things” she says.
Miriram studied fashion journalism & media communication and then worked as a fashion stylist for over 15 years. After having her daughter, she quickly realised that travelling as much as she had been for her styling work would no longer be possible, or desirable. As a response to this change in her life, she and friend Lucy Lee decided to launch their sustainable events company Luninosa Events in 2018, in order to continue their respective creative careers but base themselves mainly in London.
As their new venture got under way, Miriam found she had a knack for floristry, so took on all of the flower arrangements which led her to enrol on an evening course. From that point on, she taught herself everything she needed to know. As for the candles and napkins, Miriam says “(they have) been a part of our Luminosa brand identity from the start, but it was amplified during lockdown. To keep myself busy I used some of our leftover fabric napkins to dye with any natural dye I had to hand at home, from kitchen waste to flowers from bouquets past their prime”.
Miriam is driven by curiosity when working with plant dyes, as she can never tell what she will achieve on any given day. She finds living in close proximity to Hackney Marshes to be enormously useful for finding and collecting plant material for. Overall she finds the network of creative people in East London to be invaluable, especially as Miriam receives bags of dead headed dahlias from the London Flower Farmer and has been able to make the most magnificent napkins with them.
I asked Miriam what it means to her when people buy her wares: “I never thought anyone would buy my things when I first started. I am so humbled by the fact that people now have my napkins, dried flower arrangements and beeswax candles in their homes. I just hope they bring as much joy as it brought me making them”.
Miriam’s plant-dyed napkins are the very definition of sustainable – “I have been using calico left over from our events to make the napkins. I want to be sure to have the smallest environmental footprint when making them, so it’s all about reuse-reduce-recycle”.
She begins by cutting the fabric to size, with raw edges, before putting them into a mordant bath (this process ensures colour-fastness later on). After their bath, the fun bit starts. Miriam uses onion skins, vegetable peelings and stones, petals, black beans or leaves and covers the napkins with one or several of these (see images above). Once she is satisfied with the materials and their coverage, she rolls up the fabric very tightly and twists it into a snail-like shape before securing it with rubber bands. Those little parcels will then steam over a pot of hot water for approximately one hour. She leaves them wrapped up overnight so the dyes can properly soak into the fabric. The following day, she then unwraps them and removes the dye materials, putting them in the compost bin. She lets them dry as they are, then fixes the colours by ironing them. Only then will she give them a wash at 30-40 degrees, after which she sees the end result.
We chatted about the many hurdles a self-employed creative faces at the best of times, let alone a year like this one: “as someone who has been self-employed for over ten years, I am very familiar with the struggles we face. Self-promotion is extremely important. But if, like me, you’re not very good at it, it’s helpful to have a support network - something The Worshipful is providing”
Miriam has too many dream projects to list here, but is well on her way to fulfilling her original dream of making things exclusively with flowers. Among her inspirations are Lisa Bergstrand of A New Sweden, who is making Swedish wool sweatshirts, L.A-based Tiana Marie Combes who makes beautiful pieces out of glass and finally, Miriam admires artist/designer Emily Forgot for her impeccable use of colour. Locally, she admires Kate Sheridan.
To admire Miriam’s work for yourself, find her napkins here, her sustainable dried bouquets here and her beautiful hand-rolled beeswax candles here. You can also find her on Instagram.
