German designer and wood wizard, Elisa Strozyk, weaves magic with her ability to see an endless array of possibilities in a piece of wood. Strozyk finds inspirations for her designs in seemingly non-descript and ho-hum daily objects. Then she takes up a wedge and lovingly sculpts it to give shape to her visions. For instance, she has created “wooden textiles” inspired by the swirling and twirling patterns made by water on parquet flooring. She now has a range of such textiles with a myriad of designs.
Elisa has crafted pendants, clothes, and accordion furniture from wood. Her Colored Wooden Rugs collection is a reflection of the delicate and ingenious balance of form and functionality. Elisa first dyes triangular pieces of wood to create various geometric patterns. She then strings together these wooden pieces along rows to “weave” the rug. And it is a flexible rug! Each wooden piece can be moved on all its three sides. So you can shift the pieces around to create a new three-dimensional work of art and display it on the mantelpiece instead of laying it on the floor.
Miss Maple is another delicate wooden creation by Elisa. It is a lamp made from hundreds of dyed wooden triangles strung together to create a shape. The light filters through the spaces between the wooden pieces to cast a warm ambient glow. Like her wooden rugs, Miss Maple too can be transformed into other shapes and forms by shifting the wooden pieces along their sides.
Elisa’s creations prove that human imagination has no boundaries. She has not only created unique shapes and patterns with wood but has also compelled us to “notice” a block of wood and discover beautiful possibilities in it. Thanks to her, we will probably learn to see beauty even in the mundane.
Like Elisa, other artists too are experimenting with wood to create unique pieces. Tesler + Mendelovitch has created a wooden clutch from blocks of wood. Their quirky piece is a visual stunner and also fully functional.
Wood has also found its way into the world of jewelry design. SudioAMF creates beautiful earrings, necklaces, and bracelets from walnut wood. She treats the wood with sandpaper to make it soft and then creates patterns on the wood with oils before fashioning them into pieces of jewelry.
An installation made from 35,000 blocks of reclaimed wood from 20 different species graces the Lululemon storefront in Toronto. It has the fragmented look of a pixelated image and attracts curious onlookers to the store.
From the floor to the nape of the neck and from the folds of the finger to the corner of the room, wood now finds expression in many different areas of our lives. You might want to think twice before you throw away the wood chips or the shavings after a household DIY project!
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