Decomposed

6 min readJul 30, 2020

Something that most people would agree on is that Sustainability is trending, but the reason that it is trending is that it has become necessary in the world we live in. Without sustainability our living on this planet will become extremely difficult. And by sustainability I am not just talking about the environmental aspect of it but also social and economical aspects because without all three we won’t achieve true sustainability.

The Artists

With this thought in mind I have made a range of different products. For these I have taken inspiration from two amazing artist who work with leaves to make their art works. Both of them believe that human beings have a bond with nature but today we have lost this sense of connection and its only if we manage to see ourselves as part of nature that we can learn to respect our environment again. The two artists I am talking about are Susanna Bauer and Lorenzo Manuel Duran.

While some people mindlessly step on fallen leaves on the ground, Susanna Bauer collects them to create intricate crochet sculptures. Careful not to crunch the dry leaves in the process, she purposefully cuts out some parts, rearranges them, and crochets them back together creating masterpieces.

‘There is a fine balance in my work between fragility and strength; literally, when it comes to pulling a fine thread through a brittle leaf or thin dry piece of wood, but also in a wider context — the tenderness and tension in human connections, the transient yet enduring beauty of nature that can be found in the smallest detail, vulnerability and resilience that could be transferred to nature as a whole or the stories of individual beings,’ explains Susanna Bauer about her work.

The delicate sculptures include a variety of techniques to arrange and alter the leaves with a fine thread. Some of her pieces are more geometric such as perfect cubes with crochet seams, while others are more organically rolled leaves that are sewn at the edge. The artist’s imaginative application of crochet creates mesmerizing objects.

Lorenzo Manuel Duran, a Spanish artist who works on the theme: nature and people’s bond with it. He said “The perfect leaf doesn’t exist. Leaves grow in nature and they have undergone a process of evolution. But it’s precisely their imperfection that in my view makes them perfect”. He harvests fresh leaves and dries them for a couple of days before starting to cut. His work is very intricate and has meaning. I love the details and finesse of his work. His work brings the dead leaves back to life.

We live in a world where many things are mass produced. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that. It’s great that some things are manufactured in massive quantities in order to fill a worldwide demand for them.

But it’s also wonderful that more people everywhere are beginning to embrace things that are made by hand in small quantities. In case you hadn’t heard, it has become a “trend”. Buying products that are handmade has a lot of value attached to it.

Handmade products are great for the environment because most of them use degradable raw materials and do not require a factory or large production facility. Also unlike gifts that are mass-produced, you will often find unique differences in each handmade item.

Another thing that is good about handmade products is that each item gives the artist, the maker, the crafts person a confidence in their product, chance to develop their skills further, opportunity to re-invest the money back to their business and carry on producing beautiful works of art. by supporting your local artisan you are also supporting the craft skill they practice. By supporting the traditional crafts, such as traditional embroiderers, clay artist, glass artists, weavers or many others, we are helping them to pass the skills to the next generation and keep the art and craft alive.

Such products using natural raw materials are sustainable because they are good for the environment, society as well as for the economy helping poor, unrecognized artisans to earn a living

So this range of products that I have designed are all handmade. From this range I wanted to send the message that the life of a leaf does not end when it falls. It still has a lot to provide and each of them possesses a very unique and amazing beauty to it. When I started working on this I realised that there is so much that we can do and make with natural raw materials.