Childlike experimentation is hard to come by as an adult. A muscle we must exercise, intuition is frequently at odds with the seemingly unending flow of modern life. Unfussy, organic, and quietly delightful, Emma In Paraty for Treivas Team taps into that world of awe, exploring the nature of embroidery that founder Olga Treivas recalls from her childhood. Constructed from jatobá wood—also known as Brazilian cherry—the cabinet is finished to a lustrous glow, with bright red yarn adding welcome contrast, allowing the grain to shine.
Crafted in São Paulo, each piece is one of a kind. Expertly balanced yet perfectly imperfect, Emma in Paraty hearkens to vintage speaker cabinets, with screens allowing sound to escape in certain sections. Here, that scale is blown up in a satisfying way, the weave playing a large role in the organic nature of the handwork.
The embroidery points are rendered individually, ensuring no two pieces are alike. The joy lies in the exploratory nature of the placement—an organic, deliciously ornamental expression of boundary and subject. Stitches are missed, holes not exactly aligned, and it reminds us of our humanity—not only do we start at the same place, but we end in the same place, too.
Inherently humane and creatively complex, the tactile interaction between borders and wood over time will be a joy to witness. This piece explores details from the designer’s childhood recalling yarn tangled among construction pieces in a cupboard drawer.
She shares, “We have jokingly called these objects ‘sol na peneira.’ The name is a redefinition of a Brazilian saying, ‘tapar o sol com a peneira,’ or ‘to cover the sun with a sieve.’ It is used when a person makes an unsuccessful attempt to hide something they did wrong. Embracing the irregularity of handmade embroidery is a way to admit one’s mistakes and make imperfection the strongest feature. This approach is honest, naive, and profoundly feminine—just like the pieces, eye-catching in their sincerity.”
A shelf nestled in the bottom echoes the cheeky style of the cabinet body, extending the embroidery downwards. A perfect place to display pottery or store items for later, the bright red yarn creates a warm spot to rest objects, a physical hem of space.
To learn more about Emma in Paraty by Olga Treivas, visit treivas.team.
Photography by Ruy Teixeira.
