TALENT SPOT

Auriculas, anemones, poppies and pansies are just a few of the beautiful flora that botanical textile artist Corinne Young has captured in fabric form. Exquisitely handcrafted in her north Lancashire studio, the one-off pieces, or ‘stitched sculptures’, are a culmination of the many techniques Corinne has developed over the years, from paper-making and machine embroidery to 3D modelling.

Each piece begins life as fine paper that Corinne makes by hand using linen fibres. She then delicately hand-paints each sheet before beginning the time-consuming process of machine embroidering them with coloured threads. ‘It’s like drawing with a needle,’ she says. ‘I use multicoloured green threads for the leaf embroidery, as it makes them look more natural.’ Corinne then cuts out the leaf and petal forms and adds further stitching before assembling the final pieces using hand-stitching and wiring. While labour intensive, she relishes the process.‘i miss it if I have a couple of weeks off, I need to keep on making,’ she admits.

While taught needlework at an early age by her mother, aunt and grandmother, it was later in life during a degree in Textile Design that Corinne’s passion for textiles and plants began to collide. As well as examining the anatomy of plants from life, she would spend hours studying botanical artworks at the RHS Lindley Library and the Economic Botany Collection at Kew Gardens. As a result of these studies, Corinne created a final collection of large embroidered paper panels inspired by seed heads.

Nature is a constant source of inspiration for Corinne, but she also draws from historical references including 17th-century stump work, which has guided her path towards more three-dimensional work in recent years.

Perfect for bringing the beauty of nature into the home whatever the season, Corinne’s plants look beautiful displayed in groups on shelves, as you would a plant theatre, or individually under glass domes. Her pieces can be bought online at corinneyoungtextiles.co.uk from £220.