Meet the Maker: Floralia - In conversation with Emma Rosa

 

Passiflora. Silk, thread, ink, clay. Image © Emma Rosa

Main image © Tessa Bricknell

We're celebrating the arrival of summer with our beautiful new craft and design showcase, Floralia. To mark the occasion, we caught up with some of the talented makers taking part, to find out a little more about their process and what inspires them.

Emma Rosa is an embroidery and mixed media artist based in rural Devon. Inspired by the ever changing landscape around her, she creates intricate floral sculptures by combining machine embroidery with traditional Japanese flower making techniques. Each piece captures the essence of a plant, or a particular stage of growth reminiscent of traditional botanical drawings. By blending traditional practices with contemporary techniques, Emma continues to push the boundaries of fabric and thread.

Emma’s work beautifully captures the theme of Floralia and we're thrilled that she's taking part. For the showcase, she has included a number of sculptural pieces including the stunning Passiflora  a striking, large scale embroidery encased in an antique museum dome and Daisy, a delicate bloom housed within a Victorian pill bottle.

Little Daisy. Silk, thread, ink, set in antique pill bottle. Image © Emma Rosa

What inspires your work?

My inspiration for botanical form and beauty primarily comes from nature itself. I live in rural Devon, with an ever-changing landscape of Flora on my doorstep, and I will often walk the countryside and observe a bough, or flower that I wish to recreate in some way. I am also drawn to antique botanical illustrations. I love their quiet stillness that captures a moment of vivid growth of a plant. And the botanical accuracy is an invaluable source for research.

Tell us a bit more about the inspiration for the pieces you have included in the Floralia showcase.

I have a collection of antique museum domes and Victorian bottles, and they sit on my shelf until I find the right idea for a sculpture to fill them. Both Passiflora and Daisy are such sculptures. For the antique museum display dome, I knew it had to be a piece worthy of it's size, that enhanced the flaws of time that are now permanently etched into it, and the Passionflower is such a grand opulent, ancient plant, it felt like the right setting for a piece like this. I created this Passiflora piece around the dimensions and shape of the glass dome. I wanted to capture the evolution of a growing Passiflora from sprouting fruit through to flower in bloom, and the natural curve of the glass dome seemed perfectly suited to show the organic movement of growth through time. 

Daisy is similar, but in a tiny form! This little Victorian pill bottle inspired me to make a plant that was rooted inside it, part of the sculpture, rather than sitting in a display.

My other pieces for Floralia in particular Arum, Navelwort, Lamb's Tails, and Hogweed are demonstrating my love for the unusual and unsung flowers. They are often overlooked, or not known, but hold their own majestic beauty in my opinion, as much as any rose. 

Rose; Alpha Omega is a study looking at the very efflorescence and dying stages of a rose bloom, rather than the full bloom. 

Tell us a bit more about your practice.

I am multi-disciplinary textile and mixed media artists, pushing the boundaries of fabric and thread. I marry free-motion embroidery with Japanese silk manipulation, to create botanical sculptures from fabric, thread, ink and clay.

Describe your workspace.

I am lucky enough to have a little garden studio that overlooks my lawn and flower beds with hills in the distance. It is part of an old rustic cottage in rural Devon. It leaks a little in heavy rain, but it has so much character.

Who has influenced & inspired you?

My early inspiration for embarking on botanicals was discovering the Glass Flowers by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. I was in awe of the mastery and detail of these flowers, and it inspired me to make my first flower with a medium that I know. I am inspired daily by discovering new contemporary 3D artists.

What is your favourite piece or design you have made?

I think it has to be Passiflora, as it was challenging to make at times, but I enjoyed the process, and the end result was as I had envisaged.