An ever-blooming tree. Homeware collection made by Armin Sahakyan
Blooming, a feeling, or just a phase?
This year, spring came to our city slowly. Standing on the Studios` balcony, we say goodbye to winter day-by-day, waiting for the soft spring sun and the scent of flowers in the air.
If spring was a feeling, which would it be? Love, craziness, rejuvenation, maybe? What do blossoms symbolize?
To answer these questions we have decided to take a look at various cultures that inspire us through our students.
For the Japanese, a blooming tree (especially the sakura) represents the transience and fragility of life. A person lives their life in the same way a sakura’s petals fall — beautifully and quickly.
In Celtic culture, blooming apple trees represent motherhood and maternal instinct.
In Armenian culture, there are lots of meanings attributed to the blooming of nature, flowers, and trees (especially apricot trees). There are also songs and poems about the tree we call the Armenian symbol — the apricot tree.
Armenian folk sayings describe the phenomenon and attest that “Until the bud goes crazy, it doesn’t bloom”.
Summarizing the unique symbolism in each culture, blossoms do seem to convey feelings of craziness, falling in love, rebirth, renewal, new beginnings, and spring all combined.
The room of ideas
During COVID, TUMO Studios held remote ateliers. One of them was accessory designer, Astrid Sargsyan’s atelier.
“It was the period of Covid when everything seemed to stop. It was at that time, when I had no place to escape from home, that I started paying attention to everything; how they interact with me, how every object becomes an emotion.
The topic of the atelier was quarantine and our interactions with the surrounding world. I was searching for inspiration. I was mostly in my room — I felt comfortable only there. Unconsciously, I watched the tree that was visible from my window: it was flowering like every spring, but I had another look. Everything in our life had stopped, but the tree was blooming, showing us that life continues and everything will still be fine.
For about ten years, I saw that tree blooming every spring. I picked apricots from it, but I never thought about it in a special way. But that year, with Covid around us, that tree seems symbolic.
I was painting it and taking photos of it, trying to visualize the feeling. I was cutting the napkin, trying to get the softness of the flower, depicting it with silhouettes. After a long period of working on the illustration I got what I needed. Then, in 2023 we made this collection at TUMO Studios,” said Armin, remembering the process of creating the collection.
“I was so focused on the tree that even after the flowers fell, I continued to see it blooming. In my head the tree is always blooming,” tells Armin Sahakyan.
“Nothing is outside, nothing is inside, for that which is outside is inside.”
“Within and Without” by Hermann Hesse
This collection of tablecloths will bring love, rebirth, and renewal to your home with its story. In TUMO Studios, each piece created by our students has a story behind it. By purchasing their pieces, you become a part of their story.