Fallen leaves

Artist Susanna Bauer combines natural leaves and crochet to create intricate, beautiful pieces that are an homage to nature

- WORDS ALICE TUFFERY PHOTOGRAPHS LISA LINDER

For many of us, fallen leaves are a regular feature of winter walks and spark no further thought, but artist Susanna Bauer has found a unique way of preserving and celebrating these seemingly ephemeral and overlooked objects.

Using fine needles and thread on carefully dried leaves, she meticulously crafts intricate forms with crochet and lace; often two-dimensional, but occasionally exquisitely constructed cubes, scrolls and other sculptures.

Growing up near Munich, in the then-named West Germany, and studying landscape architecture, Susanna never set out to become an artist, but has always enjoyed “working small”. She trained as a product-design model maker, learning to work with precision “down to a tenth of a millimetre”. Then came 17 years working in film and advertising. Having moved to the UK in her mid-twenties, Susanna created everything from spaceships and robots to giant chocolate bars.

It was later that she enrolled at Camberwell College of Arts in London with ambitions to create her own original work. Her art began to take shape while filling long train journeys from London to visit her partner in Cornwall with knitting and crochet - her mother is a keen knitter and her grandmother a former seamstress. Susanna became inspired by the natural forms around her. “We'd been out collecting some wood for the fire one day and there was a branch in the log basket. I thought, ‘I want to hold this experience. How can I conserve this moment?’” Her answer was to carefully crochet around the log.