Laura Tanzer



Laura Tanzer

About The Artist

Laura Tanzer • East Petersburg, PA
Clothing - Accessories • CUSTOM COMMISSIONS

I am a sustainability artisan and educator. I work with textiles and fibers, sculpting wearable art for the body & art objects for the home. I source vintage & dead stock natural fiber materials: cotton, silk, wool, hemp, & linen. I experiment with digital printing my art photographs on textiles, incorporating those prints in my wearables and home-art objects. Everything is used, leaving little waste. Remnants are donated to K-12 schools for students to have a new tactile source to make art.



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Q&A with the Artist

Tell us how your work is made.

Using natural fiber textiles, I sculpt one-of-a-kind wearables from remnants. Each remnant is edge finished prior to sculpting. My mannequin is the form on which the sculpting occurs. I always begin with the 'hanger' - the shoulder line - from which a wearable will hang. Unless making skirt or pant! The remnants fit and flow piece by piece until the form is finished. Often ribbons, buttons, frogs, embroidery, or other embellishments will complete the process.


What makes you passionate about the medium you work with?

As a sustainably oriented individual, I am passionate about mitigating the waste stream of the world. I find & use forgotten materials to create my art. I am passionate about using only natural fibers and materials - if cared for they will last a long time, & will break down gently into the environment. They allow the body to move with ease & grace, & to breathe. Man-made fibers do not gently break down into the environment - they release toxins, microfibers which are harmful to all beings.

What is something unique about you or your practice?

I teach others how to maintain a sustainable practice, as artists and as people. I teach workshops, seminars, and give demos on a variety of skills that intersect with textile and fiber art, wearables. I also teach workshops in my Body Geometry system - how to make, and wear, garments that are suited to one's geometric body type (square, rectangle, circle, triangle, inverted triangle, hourglass (hourglass is technically not a geometric shape, but ...)).