Last August 29th, Milan became a meeting point between paper, leather, creativity and memory, on the occasion of a Pineider workshop held in collaboration with Dolce Vita Ladies Club. The true protagonists of the experience were these two materials themselves, paper and leather, genuine creative elements capable of transforming, page after page, into personal stories.
Guiding participants through this creative journey was artist Yansu Wang, who has long been part of Pineider’s path through her junk journaling workshops, born as an invitation to pause, observe, collect and choose. To give new meaning to what usually goes unnoticed.
It is from this idea that the workshop was born, organized by Pineider last August 29th in Milan in collaboration with Dolce Vita Ladies Club, an international community bringing together women united by a passion for beauty, culture, personal growth and authentic experiences.
For the occasion, guests were guided by Yansu Wang in creating a picture diary: a personal story built through images, paper and small leather elements, materials chosen as true creative protagonists, capable of holding a memory or telling a moment.
Paper and Leather as a Space for Self-Expression
The workshop led participants to rediscover paper and leather not simply as surfaces to write on, but as creative elements in their own right: living matter, open to memory and personal expression.
Under Yansu Wang’s guidance, images, paper and leather found new connections, transforming page after page into personal compositions. The act of cutting, layering, gluing and composing gave life to diaries that were all different from one another, each an expression of an individual sensibility and story, in which paper and leather become the very language of the narrative.
This is precisely at the heart of Yansu Wang’s research: transforming fragments of everyday life into visual narratives. Her practice, developed through collage, paper, pop-ups and reclaimed materials, explores themes such as memory, identity and intimacy, with paper always at the center as the primary material of expression.
A Language That Unites Pineider and Yansu Wang
The relationship with Yansu Wang is a creative dialogue that Pineider has been cultivating for some time. The collaboration found one of its most meaningful expressions in junk journaling, a practice that starts from seemingly ordinary materials (photographs, tickets, clippings, letters, receipts and other fragments of everyday life) to transform them into something new, with paper and leather as the connecting threads.
The relationship between the artist and Pineider stems precisely from the meeting of two worlds that are only seemingly distant: on one side, the tradition of paper and leather craftsmanship; on the other, a contemporary language that uses these very materials to tell experiences, emotions and memories. This encounter has already been explored through the project It’s All Paperwork, which saw Yansu Wang working with Pineider on the relationship between collage, pop-up and paper.
A Moment of Creativity and Connection
In Milan, the workshop became something more than a creative workshop: the time devoted to journaling, between paper and leather, created a space for sharing and connection, in keeping with the philosophy of Dolce Vita Ladies Club: creating occasions where beauty, relationships and personal growth can come together.
Each page became a small exercise in attention: choosing an image, pairing two papers, working a fragment of leather, leaving room for a memory. Simple gestures that, once brought together, can transform into a surprisingly personal narrative, with paper and leather as the true protagonists of the entire creative experience.