When I graduated at the Eindhoven Design Academy, one of my projects was called connecting chairs. Three different combinations of two chairs attached to one another as a visualization of connecting people together. During the design process I was searching for the right material to connect these chairs. I tried ribbon: I had two wooden frames (the ‘seats’) which I wanted to connect with ribbon. I had different colours, materials and sizes and put them all together. It looked nice but I couldn’t use it. It was too weak for a seat and it looked so nice it grabbed all the attention and the concept of the chairs got lost. I ended up with plain felted wool.

The ‘failed seats’ were too interesting to throw away or end up in a dusty basement, so I hung them on my wall as a piece of art for a couple of years. Then I decided to continue with this material and investigate the possibilities.

First I made the ‘Connecting Collection’: two frames attached to eachother like the ‘failed seats’, symbolizing the connection between people. Then I made the first piece that become part of the ‘Drop Collection’, one frame with one longer ribbon so it ‘dropped’. This piece is filled with pieces of ribbon, using the moulage technique. Later, the ‘Nature Collection’ was born, inspired by colours and lines of nature, like the sky. I used four colours, two horizontal and two vertical. Then I found out that you can get a 3D effect when you work with ribbons in varying widths, even when you work with only one colour, because of the light. The ‘Illusion Collection’ became the fourth collection. Light is an important part of these artworks. Each piece changes throughout the day, because of the outside light; and when you walk past it, the light falling on it also makes it change.