When I was graduating at the Design Academy Eindhoven (The Netherlands), 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 really nice but I couldn’t use it. It was too weak for a seat and it was  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 nice to throw away or end up in a dusty basement, so I hung them on my wall as a piece of art. And that’s how the story begins….

First I made the ‘Connecting Collection’, two frames attached to another like the ‘failed seats’. Then I made the first piece that become part of the ‘ Drop Collection’, one frame with one longer ribbon so it ‘dropped’. This is filled with pieces of ribbon. Later one the ‘Nature Collection’ was born, inspired by the colours and lines of nature like the sky. Then I found out that you can get a 3D effect when you work with ribbons in following widths, even when you work with only one colour, because of the light shining on it. The ‘Illusion Collection’ became the fourth collection.

This ‘failure’ turned out pretty good.

For more artwork: www.jessicavandenheuvel.nl