Michelangelo Foundation - Newsletter, April 2019 - View online

Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen © Tina Agnew

Spring is finally here! The weather is getting warmer, the days are getting longer and flowers are budding in gardens and fields all around us. To celebrate this season of new life and new ideas, here we take a look at some of the talented craftsmen and women inspired by flowers to create works of delicate beauty and meticulous craftsmanship. Whether using silk or porcelain, glass or resin, these artisans show that creativity can blossom as beautifully as the flora that inspires them.

© Margot Raymond

DID YOU KNOW?

Passionate about flowers since she was a young girl, Severina Lartigue now makes silk flowers entirely by hand in her workshop in Normandy, France. Each petal is cut out using special tools and painted in the required shade, while the veins of each leaf are embossed on to the fabric using a crimper. It might take a hundred petals to create a single rose and each may be a different size, shade and shape.

© Margot Raymond

© Sarah Weal

FROM THE ARTISAN’S HANDBOOK

Based in Dublin, Ireland, Sasha Sykes describes herself as “a country girl at heart”, so it’s no wonder her work is all about preserving nature and transforming it into artistic objects. Every week she goes foraging for wild flowers and plants and then captures them in resins, creating unique pieces of sculptural furniture. You might say her process is a very modern version of a Victorian flower press!

© Sarah Weal

© Polly Rusyn

FLORAL
CRAFTSMANSHIP
IN ACTION

British ceramicist Vanessa Hogge loves the contrast between porcelain’s malleability in its raw state, and its solidity when fired. She makes floral sculptures made up of hundreds of individually hand-modelled petals, but even after such time-consuming work she thinks carefully about whether to fire her sculpture or reuse the clay in its malleable form, because “once it’s fired that’s it, it’s going to be there forever”.

© Polly Rusyn / © Yeshen Venema

SPRING TALENTS
IN PROFILE

© Alberto Parise

SIMONE CRESTANI
Italy

This Italian master glassworker creates large-scale but highly detailed sculptures inspired by the natural world, including bonsai trees in bloom.

Read more

© Ilco Kenmere

LINDA NIEUWSTAD
Netherlands

Inspired by 17th century floral paintings, this Dutch sculptor makes gloriously colourful, larger-than-life flowers from eclectic materials including plastics, foam, rubber and steel.

Read more

© Alice Riehl

ALICE RIEHL
France

Delicate flowers and leaves are captured in the intricate porcelain sculptures created by this Paris-based ceramicist, who trained in the famous ceramics centre of Sèvres, France.

Read more

© Photo by Mazhar Uzun
© Studio Wandschappen

WANDSCHAPPEN
Netherlands

Passionate about creating artistic objects inspired by their immediate environment, Nicole Driessens and Ivo van den Baar use materials such as pure wool felt to create colourful plants and flowers.

Read more

WHAT'S ON?

Get up close to craftsmanship this spring
with these forthcoming events

24 Apr-1 May

Florence, Italy

MIDA 83rd International Handicrafts Trade Fair

Discover fine Italian craftsmanship at this long-standing fair showcasing professional artisans across Italy and beyond, this year with a special focus on Florence and Tuscany.

Read more

8-12 May

London, UK

London Craft Week

Discover more than 240 makers, designers, brands and galleries from all over the world in this celebration of British and international creativity, now in its fourth edition.

Read more

This email was sent to , Click here to unsubscribe.