Most people don’t give fallen leaves a second thought, but Susanna Bauer managed to see a whole new world inside them. This brilliant artist is breathing new life into leaves by repairing them with needle and thread and transforming them into works of art.
Bauer was born and raised in the German countryside, and she spent her life surrounded by woods and rivers. She fell in love with nature in her youth and learned a lot about plants in her grandmother’s garden. She also developed an interest in knitting and crocheting during this time and later came up with a way to mix these two passions into one.
Natural elements became the beating heart of her artworks, including twigs, stones, and especially leaves.
“Found leaves are repaired, embellished, and combined using handmade lace crochet… The resulting forms are a meditation on the beauty and intricacy found in the natural world and a reflection of complex and tender relationships both within ourselves and our environment,” she explains on her official website.
She decided to put leaves front and center in her art to remind us that there’s great beauty in things that seem small and insignificant. Her embroidered leaves are also a great symbol of nature’s fragility, while also reminding us of its power to constantly transform and become something we’ve never anticipated.
