Elsa Dray-Farges

Paper artist

©Jullette Valtiendas

©Barbara Pais

Embracing imperfections

Elsa likes to show her personality through her creations
She loves getting up every morning and following her passion
She made a window display for Hermès

Elsa graduated from the ENSAAMA (Paris) and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam) in Textile Design. For her final examination Elsa made her entire project from papier mâché masks and miniature sculptures of birds. She created a whole story about characters that meet each other, fall in love, or miss each other. Papier mâché was cheap, so as a student it enabled her to make a large body of work without a big financial cost. Elsa immediately fell in love with the material and its imperfections. For her, it felt alive and natural and meant that she could make sculptures from start to finish. For many years she learned from Frank Visser from IJM studio in Amsterdam who was the first person to hire her after her graduation until she formed her own practice and was successfully selected to create a window display for Hermès.

Interview

©Barbara Pais

©Paula Dray-Farge

What does “well made” mean to you?: Made in complete sincerity with how you feel inside. I love imperfect works, especially when you completely feel the depth of the person who made it.
Why did you choose this craft?: I always knew I wanted to do something artistic as a job. My first idea was to make stop motion animation movies, make the miniature sets and characters. Papier mâché was the most affordable and accessible material. I love the feeling of it and the infinite possibilities to sculpt anything I want.
How would you define what you do?: It’s very free and detached from any specific knowledge. It’s a lot of work, but very spontaneous and I learn while doing it. I hope that what I do is also touching and that it has its own humour.
What do you love most about your profession?: Getting up every morning and being able to live out of my passion. Giving shape to an idea and expressing myself as much as I want or need. It’s a luxury and a great privilege!

Elsa Dray-Farges is a master artisan: she began her career in 2009 and she started teaching in 2014