finding ingenuity

One of my favorite past times is hunting for inspiration. It is necessary as an artist, craftsperson, creative, what have you. I find that historical sources make up a lot of the inspiration I use in the pieces that I create. And one historical source that I come back to time and time again, is the work from the Bauhaus school. 



At the school, there was a weaving studio. From that weaving studio, came the first female master craftswoman the school had ever seen: the lovely and perplexing Gunta Stölzl. She was a forward-thinker, wearing trousers and puffing on cigarettes, unapologetic and confident. She celebrated color and understood the beauty in subtleties. She revolutionized the design world for women and for that I owe her eternal gratitude. 

These portraits of her, done by a fellow Bauhaus master, show her in a light that not many might see when viewing her craft. Her work is clean and geometric, following the values set forth by the founder of the Bauhaus school, Mr. Walter Gropius. She pioneered the modern age of weaving, although not entirely separating it from the centuries old tradition it grew from. 

Tapestry by Gunta Stölzl, 1923

African Chair by Gunta Stolzl and Marcel Breuer

Office of Gertrude Stein with works by Gunta Stölzl

Other amazing female craftswomen from the Bauhaus include Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt and Otti Berger. Do some research and feel inspired! :)

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