TINA RATZER
SURRENDERING TO THE REBELLIOUS NATURE OF PLANTS
Knowing nature and the colours secretly embedded in a specific area has become a new challenge for textile designer Tina Ratzer. Her resume spans from building construction over weaving to plant colours and she has found a way to combine it all.
“I learned how to build a house when I was young. I studied construction technology since I thought I was going to become an architect. I learned to wall a house, install a floor, how to lay a roof and its rafters. I liked it a lot. But I was drawn to a more creative universe, and I ended up at the Textile Line at the Design School. It was a leap from hard to soft materials, but still with a lot of similarities. There is a spatiality in my art, it is very architectural.
When you construct a weaving, there is repetition, grid, systems. If you observe a house façade it also contains lots of layers. Much of my weaving is inspired by architecture.
And then, during Covid, I discovered plant dyeing. In the years before the pandemic, I travelled a lot in South Africa. I taught at a tech university.
Here in Denmark, I have collected plants and flowers for years, during my walks, I have always wanted to draw them. But my expression was very graphic, very pixelated, it manifested differently.
I had an urge, a longing within me. I couldn’t quite decipher it.
But in South Africa something emerged, I rediscovered nature. Picking and gathering, noticing colours, shapes, transformations. With Covid came travel bans. Consequently, I decided to nourish myself and find inspiration in the plants growing right here around me. I live in the outskirts of Copenhagen, close to the highway, but I’m only a five-minute bike ride from a large wildlife area.
I decided thus to dive into this area. Bringing home plants and try them out. Understand what story they would tell me. Obtain an imprint of a place.
It was a gift. An explosion, a whole new world emerging. I boiled plants in my kitchen; the scent was stunning. Such a magic it was to put your yarn or your fabric in the pot and see the colour expand.
It was hugely liberating.
I had to surrender to what was happening in the moment. Be present in the event and watch how far I could go.
Plant colours are alive, it is an adventure. There is no index, I have had to create one myself. I walk a new path; I create my own universe. For a moment I worked freely, it was all about pigmentation. Extraction of plants, plant-ink, one boil after the other. I had no idea where I would end up. But I tried to create a colour-scheme.
It all got very brown. But slowly my colour-catalogue grew.
I obtained a very large spectrum of brown tones, which surprised me. It was an unruly process, and the work was slow. Luckily, from my work as a weaver, I have learned a great deal of patience.
I love the long, immersive process. But I also needed to shape the unmanageable.
I moved to the shape of a dreamcatcher, worked with repetition, exposing my work in a specific shape. I created a harmonious adjustment, and an entirely balanced pattern emerged. I had struggled to understand how to use my time in Africa in my work. But it began to grow. The inclusive part, where I use myself in the field.
It is a matter of being in control and letting go of control. Nature’s ferocity, its rebelliousness, all that I cannot grasp.
Now I express it in an orderly manner. In a grid that brings calm and equilibrium to my work. Just like the threads in the loom, going below and above each other. It is a sort of full circle, back to the strictness of architecture. It feels like finding home.
Warp & Weft
The new collection by Tina Ratzer is available in six colour combinations:
Vibrant: Raw White / Lilac
Sprout: Lime / Grass
Love: Coral / Amber
Balance: Chamomile / Mustard
Embrace: Beetroot / Midnight
Stable: Concrete / Midnight
The WARP & WEFT Collection
Tina Ratzer (born 1971)
Tina Ratzer graduated as a textile designer and weaver from Design School Kolding in 1998. She started her own company, Ratzer, in 1999.
Since then she has received several grants from the Danish Arts Foundation and has been behind many exhibitions on plant dyeing, participatory design and design for specific places.
TWIST A TWILL
This design is beautiful and simple. Twist a Twill’s pattern makes peace in our mind, while emphasizing the personality of each home the throw is brought to.
TWIST A TWILL COLLECTION
