About me

    About me - THE FELT SIDE OF LIFE

I am Susanne, living and working since 1998 with my Dutch husband, my multilingual family in Geldern, Germany, a small town in the Lower Rhine area close to the Dutch border, and always striving to look at the felt side of life. What does that entail you might ask yourself? For me, the felt side of life deals about the dichotomy of the harsh world whereas using soft wool materials in felting adds a very valuable dimension to it. Wool is such an old, durable and warming material. At the same time, it also embodies a translucent, healing and grounding fibre for me with a versatile range of possibilities.  


I am a felt artist at heart with an eye for detail, embracing creativity, intertwined with a strong love for nature. I feel connected to nature and sustainability, which I am aspiring to bring across with my felt art. Felting does not only deal with the end product, but also with the connectedness to materials, colours, different textures and structures. Felting enables me to express my inner vulnerability, but also the way I am observing the world around us. A world, in which often everything develops at an accelerated pace. In such an ecosystem, focusing on details and the little things in life, in nature, often helps me to take a breath. 


With the pictures, I would like to visualize my versatility, use of mixed materials, sculpting, folding, cutting and blending skills. While I have acquired extensive felting techniques by myself, I joined various master class felting courses whereby afterwards I constant expand and refine them. The mixture and combination of felting techniques from different master classes in one new felt piece interests me immensely. In the experimental confrontation with different textile materials I have developed sculptural working techniques, which I also pass on in face to face workshops.


My entire life I travelled a lot. I love visiting foreign countries in order to get an insight into traditional food, habits and languages. By visiting all kinds of local markets, I often find the inspiration for my art work. I value economical and zero waste techniques. Upcycling, use of natural fibres and textiles as well as wooden tools and organic wool are key for me. When exploring the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, exchanging in person with friends in Southern France or visiting Gotland, Sweden; bringing then local, organic wool back home and incorporating it in the next art piece adds immense value to it. Also in this regard, bringing home eucalyptus leaves from Mallorca for the next eco printing session also symbolizes the connectedness to other cultures, languages and natural resources for me. Of course, exchanging with other felt artists about their local practices, materials and techniques always works best when accompanied with delicious, local food traditions. 


And this is, where soulfelt meets soulfood comes in. Since I started working as a chef until up to date as felt and textile artist, working with my very own hands has always embodied my main and most valuable tool. My wonderful job as a chef also made me encounter a wide variety of colours and shapes of fruits, vegetables and seeds. Since then I have tried to combine organic materials with textile materials. From working as a chef already in the 80s, later I worked with a lot of passion and engagement in the event management and communication sector organising concerts, cabaret and comedy. Not completely voluntarily I stopped working and shifted my focus towards my own creative side, only to find that I had lost touch with my own creativity. In 2008 I finally started again mainly with felting and since 2014 I have been working as a freelance artist and since then I have dedicated myself intensively to the art of felting - working with textiles - cooking - wood – WORKING with my HANDS.


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