How Petra Stelzmüller’s design objects are created …
„At first it is always just a thought, just an idea, spontaneously occurring to me, on my bike, in nature, … But in case I hit on it a second time, I know there is something about it. So I take notes, play around with first associations, get inspired … and soon my creative engagement is full scale and exclusive. At this point designing has already begun.“
Designing as a ripening process
From the first idea up to the moment when Petra Stelzmüller is holding the finished design-object in her hands, as many as two years may go by. Artwork, social concerns, quirky stories or moments of leisure in nature – the impulses forging a thought into design are manifold. They develop. It is never just ONE story, that is told by the design-objects. Cunningly various influences melt together and subtly make the objects deliver their message.
On the importance of haptic & material
By choice of material and shape the idea gets more real, by means of sketches the design-object takes shape, form and size. As an architect Petra Stelzmüller knows about the value and the effect of „building materials“. Original premium-quality materials like leather, textiles, plastics or paper from domestic workshops provide the object with its exclusive character, giving it „body“ and profile.
Design + hand + craft = Petra Stelzmüller design-handicraft
For the manufacture of her design-objects Petra Stelzmüller chooses qualified and perceptive craftsmen and -women from Austria. Behind every object there are countless hours of work, three quarters of which usually done by hand: most tenuous seams, exact processing, masterful refinement. In intense interaction with the handicraft businesses step by step a prototype is developed. After last adjustments there follows an extensive phase of testing. A lot of washing, ironing and testing on a daily basis is to be done as all the objects are „designs for an everyday life“ – you could also call it „slow design“. With these intense checks on quality having been finished small-scale production can finally start – with large-scale production on demand.
Everyday design on its way to the people
In a last step the objects will be photographed and packaged fetchingly. They are meant for people who, with inventive design, want to render a special touch to their everyday life. Each design-object has its very own and special character, each design-object tells a story. For people who love discovering something new and letting themselves be inspired by the extraordinary.