To many, waste is the undesired byproduct of a process.  Elisa Strozyk's Wooden Textiles are a manifestation of how waste can be the source of a new process of creativity and innovation.  While attending the Central Saint Martins London to obtain her MA in Textile Design, German based designer Elisa Strozyk started experimenting with off-cuts of wood veneer from a workshop that was closing.  Most often we use textiles to skin surfaces.  As designers we initially select textiles based on the following:  performance for its foreseen application, aesthetic value to the market it serves and environmental impact to its fabrication and utilization.  Strozyk’s work considers these while adding a new dimension and surprise.

The wooden textile intends to look at the new ways wood can be manipulated from its hard physical property to a fluid form when combined with fabric.  Providing flexibility to wood allows us to connect with it in new ways.  Utilizing wood veneers once considered waste and re-purposing them through hand and laser cut isosceles, she is able to leverage the hard properties of wood and give them a fluid framework to create an innovative textile.  Her process gives the textile strength and flexibility. 

By carefully binding the wood veneers to fabric she is able to create an experience of multiplicity and blur the qualities of how a textile is perceived to behave and function.  Her work brilliantly demonstrates the dimensionality and tactile experience a fabric can have.  As it lays flat within a space or folds with a piece of furniture, the wooden textiles show us a new direction and fresh vision.

The common presumptions we make about materials often prohibit the exploration of their potential.  The wooden textile contains the elements that could drive future innovations in textile design: waste, dimensional, tactile and experiential.  A multi-dimensional play of hard and fluid, waste and new, flat and dimensional, Elisa Strozyk intricately unveils her Wooden Textiles to open the doors to the future of textile design.