Plant Explorations: Curiosity
The ‘Plant Explorations’ collection reflects on the craft skills that have been passed from generation to generation, using materials grown in our very surroundings. It celebrates the enormous opportunities in creating using plants and highlights the sustainable and ethical possibilities of slow, considered making. Pip Rice, Maggie Smith, Hilary Burns and Catarina Riccabona have approached the project with an openness and curiosity, highly enriched by their examination of the objects in the Economic Botany Collection at Kew Gardens.
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Within the collection, Maggie Smith found inspiration in the imagery of storage and carrying baskets constructed on wooden stands and holders, from around the world. Based on her findings, Maggie wanted her work to have a layered look and feel. She decided to make works using one material - willow from her own garden - and rather than combining it with other materials, she had a vision to showcase the versatility of the plant by incorporating every part, from the leaves and wood, to the bark and roots.
The final results showcase the mastery of Maggie’s skills, with more than ten different techniques incorporated in each work - and an astounding total of twenty in the Willow Tiffin Carrier. Pushing the boundaries of traditional basket making, Maggie has included a wide variety of unconventional basketry techniques. The techniques used range from ‘green wood techniques’ such as splitting, shaving, carving and bending; ‘basketry techniques’ such as plaiting, twining, looping, stake and stand, cobbling, skeining, covered core coiling, random weave, hexagonal painting, cording and assembly; and ‘craft techniques’ such as bobbin knitting, papermaking and needle felting. Each piece took Maggie several weeks to complete and are incredible examples of the study of a single material.
Meanwhile, Pip Rice found her inspiration in a large palm cone, in the Economic Botany Collection, carefully wrapped and tied in string to preserve it on its journey back from Australia 140 years ago. As a collector of natural treasures, such as conkers and leaves, Pip found this delicate process of preservation very appealing. Pip’s intention was to express this notion of collecting, treasuring and protecting through her basketry. Woven with grasses, roots and leaves, her work evokes a sense of being found in a hedgerow or gathered from the forest floor, before being placed on a mantlepiece to be treasured.
Pip collected her materials from a number of places, including wildflower meadows in Shropshire, willow found on Peckham Rye Common in South London after a storm, and leaves and roots from her own garden. Her works symbolise new growth and renewal, as she gives new life to these foraged materials.
Weaving has been a constant in Hilary Burns’ life; originally training as a fabric weaver before taking up the craft of basketry 30 years ago. Hilary is based in Devon, where she grows, harvests, soaks and bends her own willow to create basketry. For ‘Plant Explorations’ Hilary found inspiration in the fragments of flower garlands and wreaths from Graeco-Roman and Egyptian tombs:
“I am fascinated by how such fragile, seemingly fleeting constructions have been preserved and how they connect us to the original florists. Also, imagining how they must have looked when fresh, and the impetus that leads us to use flowers, leaves and stalks for decoration and ceremony.”
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In the ‘Plant Collars’ that have emerged from Hilary’s imaginings, she celebrates the wealth of plant materials available to us and the vast opportunities they present the maker. The decorative pieces reflect her interest in plants, seasonal processes and basketry.
The Collars have been made using a wide variety of techniques, ranging across basketry and textiles, to form rings of different colours and textures - from cordage and wrapping to ‘sprang’. The making of cordage pre-dates pottery and is an indication of the earliest beginnings of mathematics and science. Sprang is an ancient, slow method of constructing a net-like fabric on a basic frame loom, where the warp threads are manipulated by very specific hand movements. Hilary has drawn upon various methods of making, from a number of places, learnt over many years of basket making and weaving, to create these intricate works as a celebration of the bountiful natural world.
Following the maker’s study of the Economic Botany Collection, Hilary invited a small group of the ‘Plant Explorers’ to her home in Devon to spend a few days together sharing techniques, stories and working collaboratively. During their time together, Hilary and new makers Takahashi McGil, found inspiration in learning about each other’s practice and methods. Together, they created a series of works, including the ‘Yugo’ sculpture. ‘Yugo’ is a Japanese work that means fusion, integration and coalescence, which is represented in the unique joining of turned and carved wood with basketry between these renowned craftspeople.
Hand weaver Catarina Riccabona is known for her work with natural materials such as linen, hemp and alpaca. Her interest in sustainability has heavily influenced her approach and this series of works for ‘Plant Explorations’ shows Catarina at her most experimental and exploratory.
Catarina has combined and contrasted plant materials to create six unique, one-off woven artworks. The works are a celebration of flax and hemp and natural dye in textiles. While visiting Hilary Burns, Catarina learned the techniques of twining, one of the most ancient methods of making, and was instantly drawn to it. Handling the threads in this way gives the maker constant feedback of the quality and possibilities of the material. She also learned to break flax plants using a traditional wooden flax brake that serves to break the outer hard layers of the stem to reveal the softer, almost hair-like fibres in the centre - hard, loud and messy work. Rather than remove the inner fibres, she incorporated these still messy stems into the Flax & Madder pieces. During the making process, Catarina could not help but think about the plant materials that played a major part in developing this technique thousands of years ago.
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The soft pink colour used in her linen pieces was achieved by dyeing the linen with a madder root dye. She also used walnut husks, from a trip to Luxembourg that she’d held on to for over ten years, to dye raffia. Working with materials that gave her a sense of connection to place and time made Catarina think about the makers of the objects in the Economic Botany Collection and how they too must have experienced such a connection that only comes from handling earth, roots, leaves, and plants.
These works by Pip Rice, Maggie Smith, Hilary Burns and Catarina Riccabona showcase the endless opportunities in making with plants and the importance and relevance of continuing ancient craft techniques.
\nVisit our Mayfair showroom to discover our ‘Plant Explorations’ exhibition and email for further information.
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