Drawing With Wool
No Way there is by which to go
Angelus Silesius
Unto the Light wherein God dwells:
Thou must thyself become the Light
Or God is hidden from thee else.
Like most visual artists, I started out by creating two-dimensional works. Since my early childhood I have drawn a lot and with great enthusiasm, and throughout my childhood and youth I practised drawing people and animals in particular, but also architecture and trees.
As a young girl, I immersed myself in the technique of watercolour painting, and during my training as a ceramist in Bayreuth, I enthusiastically attended courses in nude painting at the European Art Academy in Trier and practised painting with acrylic paint, whereby the resulting pictures could hardly be more colourful.
In the meantime, of course, I was already working with clay on a daily basis, and what I love so much about this material is not only that clay is such a sensitive and natural material, but also that working with clay is very direct, because you work with your hands and are therefore in direct contact with the clay and therefore also with Mother Earth.
It’s somewhat similar to felting, because sheep’s wool is also a very sensitive and natural material, and with felting you work with your hands just like with pottery, so you are in direct contact with the beautiful and soft raw material.
Felting is basically drawing with wool – you first lay out the different fibres and colours and then use olive soap and water to join them together into a cohesive fabric by connecting the wool fibres with your hands in circular motions. The working method is very meditative due to the soft material and the uniform movement of the hands – similar to working with clay. Perhaps this is the reason why I like ‘drawing with wool’ so much, and my most beautiful works to date are certainly the large, round, hand-felted rugs, with a bright sun at the centre and the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter spread out in a long, colourful circular dance on the outside of the circle. They show a world that we all dream of and where people, animals, trees and plants live together in peace and love. It is the world that we will realise together here on earth, if only we believe in it and each of us lovingly and joyfully plays their own part.
