Tea and a chat

“I have lots more ideas for playing with this aesthetic!”

THIS MONTH I’M LOVING...

Listening to: Danielle Krysa’s Art for Your Ear podcast, interviewing artists from various different creative field s. 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.

TEA AND A CHAT

BOTANICAL ARTIST OLGA PRINKU ON THE VALUE OF EXPERIMENTING

The 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

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