Awateef – handweaved by women from Kfar Manda in Galilee

Awateef is a collaborative project between Knockoutdesign and Palestinian craftswomen of Kfar Manda village in Galilee. The designed series of objects gives a new interpretation of the meeting between the high precision industrial technology and the impeccable beauty and charm of the handicraft.

Kfar Manda is a village with one of the highest percentage of unemployment in Israel, especially among women, thus Sindyanna HaGalil, a Jewish – Arab non-profit organization, led by women striving for social change, opened there a weaving center to revive the traditional craft of rattan weaving and give working opportunities to the local women.

Women at Sindyanna weave traditional objects baskets according to local tradition; it is not simple to market these baskets outside of Israel due to the competition of very inexpensive baskets that are woven in the Far East and Africa.

Having noticed the potential within local craft and will to contribute to the local Palestinian community, the designers of Knockoutdesign offered collaboration to Sindyanna. The response from Sindyanna was very enthusiastic and craftswomen were passionate and committed to the project.

In the development process, Knockoutdesign analyzed the problems within the traditional weaving; weaving of the basket base takes 1/3 of the time need to weave the whole object, meeting point between the object and the ground is not precise, also the function of weaved objects – basket’s cover doesn’t work properly and is not precise.

This analysis enabled creation of rules for the overall design. The main goals of the project were to create a wide range of products that could compete on the international market and that would appeal to wider customer group at the “high end” in the same time giving the employment opportunities to the Palestinian craftswomen community and to expose their craft to the wider public.