WALK WITH ME - Helen Kirkum at BIRKENSTOCK STUDIO

FIRST EPISODE OF WALK WITH ME SERIES - OUR FIRST WORKSHOP WITH HELEN KIRKUM London-based Artist and shoe designer Helen Kirkum has been the first artist-in residence at BIRKENSTOCK STUDIO, a first of its kind community space in Truman Brewery: the heart of East London’s dynamic creative community. “London is such an inspiring place, and especially around here in East London,“ she says. “Walking is such a key part of my creative process… it helps me to stay inspired by the world around me.” Walk With Me is a the first initiative to be launched at BIRKENSTOCK STUDIO - and as part of this, Helen invited members of East London’s creative community to create a beautiful piece of furniture - from leather, metal fixings and other elements harvested from the BIRKENSTOCK factories in Germany. Helen was born in Hampshire in the south of England, and was raised there in a crafty, creative family. “My mum made clothes for me and my sister growing up and had a craft fair stall,” she says, “... my dad was a design engineer, so he was much more factual and about measuring and statistics and things like angles. That real sense of craft and community and a sense of design created for purpose it all merged together for me…” It was natural then, that this child of craft, creativity and community would go on to forge a movement that brings these things together… “I remember when I was studying for my M.A. at the Royal College of Art, and I went on a trip to this recycling center, and I really thought they would be a pile of old shoes and like an IKEA bag that they couldn’t use. But when I got there they literally had tons of single shoes that they couldn’t use. That was the realization that there is just such a resource of waste material that people don’t understand what to do with. So I think I saw this as a challenge!” On graduating from RCA Helen worked extensively as a designer for leading footwear brands, before taking the leap and beginning to build her own brand - one that utilizes end of life materials and creates something new, beautiful and long lasting. “There’s so many objects, clothes, things in this world that already exist,” she says “…utilizing these things can be so inspiring and can be such a source of creativity….” There’s obvious crossover between Helen’s craft and the BIRKENSTOCK brand - a German-based craft-centered operation that has taken quality, heritage and craftsmanship to a global scale. “For me, Birkenstock is really about feeling the human connection to products and showcasing how the beauty and longevity and materials can speak for themselves…” Helen’s workshops were a great success. New friends were made. A new community arose. And most importantly, people felt empowered by engaging with this kind of sustainable creativity. “I wanted people to leave the workshops feeling accomplished, feeling like they made a friend or felt part of a community and feel inspired by the things that they created. I hope that they went away from these workshops feeling inspired and hopefully that they want to create something with their hands…” #CreatorWorkshop #BIRKENSTOCK #BIRKENSTOCKStudio