“My intention was to create something appealing, fun and with an element of surprise

about it. Something familiar yet enigmatic. Sometimes the ideas in my head need to take

physical form. This was one of those times.”

While visiting Leise Dich Abrahamsen’s colourful atelier in Fred-

eriksberg, ferm LIVING’s design team spotted a small papier-mâché

creature on a shelf. With its sinuous form, five stubby legs and fur-

rowed surface, to one onlooker it resembled a crocodile, to another

a horse.

“The beauty of the collection is that each design is open to interpreta-

tion,” says Leise on her latest collaboration with ferm LIVING—four

papier-mâché creatures shaped with recognisable characteristics that

have been combined in unconventional ways.

“My studio is often a test bed for creative play,” she explains. “I had

been working with a fun technique, shaping a series of creatures

from papier-mâché before decorating each with hand-painted dots,

splodges or stripes. It was fast and fun.”

The design team fell in love with Leise’s designs and wanted authenti-

cally to capture on a wider scale the intuitive, uncomplicated way she

works with her hands, using simple materials and techniques to bring

the creatures to life.

The creatures were never designed with a specific purpose or func-

tion – or even a specific animal – in mind. Instead, they were an artis-

tic experiment:

“My intention was to create something appealing, fun and with an

element of surprise about it. Something familiar yet enigmatic. Some-

times the ideas in my head need to take physical form. This was one

of those times,” she adds.

Leise reworked the original proportions to a larger scale and hand-

crafted prototypes for moulds.

“We have worked in close collaboration with our partner in India to

capture Leise’s sensibilities. It was important to us to retain the hand-

made feel of each piece,” explains Emma Cook from the design team.

At the factory in India, the moulds are filled with compressed

papier-mâché pulp and once dry, patterns are painted by hand.

The use of papier-mâché gives the designs a raw, natural surface tex-

ture that draws out the subtle details and unique features of each one,

while hand-painting ensures no two pieces are the same. Each small

addition or omission —an extra leg, an imperfect stripe or absent dot

— adds to the sense of artisanry and the character of each piece.

“I really like imperfections. I’ve always used them in my work. If, say,

I’ve spilled paint on a sheet of paper, I’ll use it to my advantage, incor-

porating it into the design. These creatures are purposefully imper-

fect,” notes Leise.

The decorative objects can stand together or alone in a child’s room,

but can also adorn a shelf in a living room or a desk in an office. Their

ambiguous forms invite conversation and play, activating the imagina-

tion with their whimsical look.

“While I see a series of fun and decorative creatures that remind me

of objects I had as a child, in particular a figure from Japan that was

simply magical, I like the fact that things don’t have to be so obvious.

People can interpret these creatures in their own way, giving them a

meaning and a context that is relevant to them,” Leise says.

Leise Dich Abrahamsen, the Copenhagen-based artist, works primarily in paint-

ing and graphic art. Utilising an alphabet of universal symbols – e.g. a dot or

a line – and recognisable shapes, her works have an air of the familiar and a

sense of presence.

264