elisa strozyk’s wooden textiles

Hand-cut and laser-cut geometric wood shapes are bonded to fabric backing in this collection of hand-crafted wooden textiles from Elisa Strozyk.

The German-based textile designer experimented with a variety of techniques as she searched for a way to make wood flexible.

She deconstructs reclaimed wood veneer leftover from workshops, shaping the veneers into small pieces and attaching the shapes to the fabric backing by hand.

Different textile backings (silk, Lycra) interact in unique ways with the wood, some allowing more flexibility than others.

“Wooden Textiles” is a material that is half wood-half textile, between hard and soft, challenging what can be expected from a material or category. It looks and smells familiar but feels strange, as it is able to move and form in unexpected ways.”

Strozyk also discovered that the shape of the pieces plays an important part in the flexibility of the final product, the triangle giving the most opportunity for flexibility.

“We are used to experience wood as a hard material; we know the feeling of walking across wooden floors, to touch a wooden tabletop or to feel the bark of a tree. But we usually don’t experience a wooden surface which can be manipulated by touch.”