Big Baby

Motivated by a desire to improve the quality of the seating object’s fabric and design, Bergmans worked closely with the TextielLab’s knitting specialist. As the diameter of the circular knitting machine in the lab was too small, the work was produced on the Stoll Knit & Wear flat knitting machine. A disadvantage of this was that the huge length of knitted fabric – which was soon given the name 'Big Mama' – had to be turned into a tube with a stitched seam.

To create a sturdy fabric, Bergmans initially experimented with high-quality wool and elastane. The wool was actually too stiff and was replaced by acrylic. For the design, a few simple stripes seemed to work well. This was followed by numerous tests with the gymnastics balls to identify which size and quantity worked best with the design and stripy pattern. The result was the enormous 'Big Mama', a grey knitted tube with orange, fluorescent yellow and bright blue stripes, filled with balls of different sizes. Bergmans then decided to knit a second, shorter version. This 'Big Sister' has a slightly modified pattern and measures around three metres, roughly the width of a sofa. However, with the arrival of the lab’s large, computer-controlled circular knitting machine, which can knit fine circular fabrics with jacquard patterns, Bergmans was able to go a step further. The result is 'Big Baby', a ready-to-use patterned tube about 180 centimetres long.