I work with natural leaves and crochet, creating an intimate dialog with nature.
Found leaves are repaired, embellished and combined using handmade lace crochet – a laborious traditional technique relying on tension, set in direct relationship to the fragile natural material. 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.
Working on an unusually detailed scale with very fine hooks, needles and thin cotton threads, I am pushing crochet to its very limits. In some projects I create intricate lace patterns directly onto the edges of single leaves, in others I use crochet sculpturally to reshape, join, mend or extend the leaves to compose pairs, groups and sometimes whole branches.
Looking closely at a leaf, its uniqueness becomes apparent. Varied in tone, size and shape, no two leaves, even coming from the same tree, are ever the same, each carrying its own individual network of veins like a fingerprint.
By combining crochet with such a seemingly fragile material as a leaf, I’m seeking to explore themes including the value of time and preciousness of objects, tenderness and tension in human connections, and vulnerability and resilience, found in nature as a whole as well as in the stories of individual beings.
Working with tension is an integral part of the craft, but it can also be seen metaphorically, as managing tension plays a big part in our lives and surroundings, and so the work becomes also a mirror of ourselves and the world around us, opening eyes to the ephemeral yet enduring beauty of nature.
“Bauer’s focus is intense, particularly when she is working with threads and leaves. Her art is considered and deliberate, suggesting a concentration akin to meditation. Although small in scale, each transformed leaf becomes an engaging miniature sculpture. It is hard to look at these pieces and not be mesmerized. The idea that something so small, fragile and insignificant as a leaf becomes the foundation of a sculpture challenges expectations and holds the viewer’s attention.
The leaf works are powerful examples of the interface between artist and nature. Many artists are inspired by nature and attempt to imitate what they see in the natural world. Bauer, on the other hand, includes natural elements into her work as if she is actually collaborating with nature. In these pieces, the leaf is not simply a surface to work on or a piece of raw material to be used at will. For Bauer, the leaf is an element deserving respect and consideration. What she adds to it, or subtracts from it, is done with a sense of reverence. Her efforts enhance the natural beauty that was her starting point. ”
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