Black Waves
wool, silk and plant fibers
Susanne Weber
Everyday life has become so overloaded with serious stuff and awareness-raising, thus people who look at my art are invited to take a little break from all this, let their fantasy flow.
Moonlit
wool, silk and plant fibers
Frozen
wool, silk and plant fibres
Freedom
wool, silk and plant fibers
Austrian textile artist Susanne Weber is based in Vienna. She uses felt to create atmospheric images that touch on fantasy.
What is your background in textiles?
I have a scientific background and do medical translations for a living. Drawing and painting had no importance for a very long time in my life. I always wished I could draw but had been totally discouraged by an art teacher during my school days. A few years ago, felting became my destiny and I was fascinated by the way you can create pictures with fibres – the material seemed to support my attempts much more than pencils ever did. Looking deeper into the matter (because I wanted to improve my skills), I finally discovered that you could master at least the basics of drawing and painting without having to be a genius! Since then, I have been taking live and online classes in both felting and drawing.
How do you describe your art?
My artistic approach is the fusion of Crafts (felting is believed to be the oldest form of textile processing in existence), and Arts. In this context, fibres act as painting medium, complying astonishingly well with the rules of Visual Arts. Based on my admiration for Monet and Turner and their use of light, capturing the light in felt is of paramount importance for me.
Most of my paintings have a little fairy-tale or mystic touch. Everyday life has become so overloaded with serious stuff and awareness-raising, thus people who look at my art are invited to take a little break from all this, let their fantasy flow, and just enjoy, without dealing with everyday dullness, encrypted personal messages or problems and political statements. Creating fills me with utter happiness and I want this to show.
Briefly how do you create a piece?
Firstly, I take a good look at my reference picture and decide which fibres to use. Sometimes I get a definite inspiration from a very special raw fleece that ‘talks’ to me (‘Freedom’ is such an example, made from the fleece of a wild and free Icelandic sheep).
The next step is laying out the woollen base that serves as a canvas for the picture. Sometimes I also do a rough crayon sketch, especially when creating a human face or figure. After this, the picture is laid out with more or less details and wet felted. After it has dried, I add the finishing touches by needle felting.
How long does a piece take to make?
That’s hard to say – the wet felting process itself takes no more than approx. an hour, but from the very start to finish, the picture can take several days, even weeks.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I take an interest where the stuff I work with is coming from, and try to use only violence-free materials like mulesing-free wool. If everything is going to plan, my next exhibition ‘A Dream of Light and Fibres” will be shown in September 2020 at the Textile Art Berlin.