TEA AND A CHAT “I have lots more ideas for playing with this aesthetic!”
BOTANICAL ARTIST OLGA PRINKU ON THE VALUE OF EXPERIMENTING
T
THIS MONTH I’M LOVING... Listening to: Danielle Krysa’s Art for Your Ear podcast, interviewing artists from various different creative fields. Spending time: In the garden, planting my next crop of poppies. Reading: A biography of Josiah Wedgwood. I’m inspired by how he constantly came up with new ideas in design and technique.
98 MOLLIEMAKES.COM
he idea of flowers on tulle embroidery came to me unexpectedly from a lot of messing around and maybe a bit of divine inspiration! It started not with embroidery at all but with my hobby of making wreaths. I got in the habit of posting them regularly on Instagram, and that spurred me into thinking up new approaches. One day I tried using a garden sieve as a frame for a wreath. As part of that I arranged some flowers in the metal mesh. It must have been on my mind that night as I dreamed about real flowers on fabric. I woke up thinking “how interesting, I wonder if it’s actually possible?” I realised that tulle on an embroidery hoop is structurally similar to a sieve. First I tried it with fresh flowers, but you can’t predict the outcome as the flowers shrink when they dry. Then I tried drying the flowers out first, and I found some are easier to work with than others. The only way to find out is through trial and error. I have lots more ideas for playing around with this aesthetic! If you’re keen to experiment, I find a good place to start is taking two things that aren’t usually associated with each other and seeing if you can figure out a way to combine them. You just have to be prepared for most of your ideas not working out in the beginning! Visit www.prinku.com to find tutorials and more of Olga’s delicate flowers on tulle embroidery. She’s also on Instagram as @olgaprinku where she shares her works in progress and lots of beautiful botanical inspiration.
