Julie Thissen is a product developer turned artist, who designs excentric wall object pieces made out of colourful rope. We spoke to her about finding her rope niche, becoming an artist and making a living from your work.
"My name is Julie Thissen. I'm half French, half Dutch, and I'm a product designer. Here in my studio I work on a whole range of projects, many of them built around color.
Right now I'm making objects out of rope, abstract wall pieces, really, a kind of artwork. I've always been drawn to flexible materials: leather, paper, textile. So at some point, working with rope was simply the next logical step. I've been at it for about three or four years now.
Searching for the right shape
For me, the process is essentially a search, figuring out what works and what doesn't. A finished piece might not take long to make, but there could easily be ten earlier versions that weren't good enough, or just didn't fit what I was going for. It really comes down to a lot of iteration before I land on something and think, yes, this is a beautiful shape.
It's trial and error, through and through. It's a bit like sketching, except instead of paper, I'm usually sketching straight into rope.
Inspiration can come from anywhere. Art, sure, but just as often it's someone on the metro in a striking outfit with a great color combination, or wearing an accessory that catches my eye. There's no single source, sometimes it's just a matter of staying observant and noticing things in places you wouldn't expect to find inspiration.
Design philosophy and becoming an artist
If I had to put my design philosophy into words, it would be this: things shouldn't only be practical. There has to be something for the eye too, something for the soul, something that simply makes you happy. I want to design things that bring people joy, whether they're looking at them or using them. Not just functional, but genuinely nice to have around.
During my studies I spent time at an art academy in Germany, and I think that's where the shift began, realizing you don't need a function to justify making something. Still, it took a long time before I let myself say: maybe I'm not just a product designer, but an artist too.
There's something really freeing about making things without a built-in purpose, and about being able to focus purely on color and material combinations now.
Making a living from the art
Alongside the studio, I have a side job, a deliberate choice. It gives me stability, and it means I can cover my rent every month. It also means that the time I do spend in the studio goes entirely into the projects I genuinely want to do. I split my week evenly: three days on each, so six working days total.
Material costs are actually pretty modest, there's the rope itself, a core running through the inside, nothing particularly expensive. What really drives the price is the time that goes into making each piece, and beyond that, the process behind it: the research that got me to this technique for shaping the rope, and to this design.
Being able to sell these pieces on TAS brings in income, which in turn lets me keep pushing the research forward.
There might come a point where I feel I've explored everything rope has to offer, and I'll move on to something else. But for now, I think there's still plenty left to discover with it."
