susanna bauer crochets leaves into delicate sculptures

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, the artist purposefully cuts out some parts, rearranges them, and crochets them back together creating masterpieces that fit in the palm of your hand. 

bauer’s curriculum perfectly paves the way for such an original art form. as a small child, she was taught how to crochet in germany, and proceeded to study landscape architecture in university. she then built a career in model making for almost 15 years. combining her childhood hobby and the role of nature that she was exposed to in university with the skills she later acquired, it was only natural for her use dry leaves as a canvas for her art. 

the delicate sculptures include a variety of techniques to arrange and alter the leaves with the 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. some even join multiple leaves into single pieces all connected by a thread cylinder cutting through them, and other leaves have perfectly punched out circles that are then filled in with crochet. the artist’s imaginative application of crochet creates mesmerizing objects. 

‘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.