Inspired by Emily Dickinson's herbarium
I recently bought a book about old herbaria and came across some of the pages of Emily Dickinson's herbarium. I was fascinated by the way she has collected the flowers on the pages, making it look like fragile paintings. After doing some more research I knew I wanted to do something with it.
In this blogpost you'll discover my porcelain collection in unique floral boxes, inspired by some of the pressed flowers of Emily Dickinson. Every little box comes with a printed label which refers to the original dried flower from her herbarium.
She assembled her dried flowers in a patterned green album bought from the Springfield stationer G. & C. Merriam, the herbarium contains 424 specimens arranged on 66 leaves and delicately attached with small strips of paper. The specimens are either native plants, plants naturalized to Western Massachusetts, where Dickinson lived, or houseplants. Every page is accompanied by a transcription of Dickinson’s neat handwritten labels, which identifies each plant by its scientific name.The book is thought to have been finished by the time she was 14 years old.
One-third of Dickinson’s poems and half of her letters mention flowers. She was a gardener as well as a writer, and refers to plants almost 600 times, including 350 references to flowers. Both her herbarium and her poetry can be situated within the 19th century ‘language of flowers'.
I've made 7 different flowers and every porcelain creation has a soft imprint of fabric on which the flower is hand modelled with the tiniest details. The 'paper strips’ to attach the flower are subtly glazed.
These one-of-a-kind pieces can be treasured in their lovely metal box or used as a paper press on your desk. A reminder that beauty can be found in the smallest details.
“Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower?
But I could never sell.
If you would like to borrow
Until the daffodil
Unties her yellow bonnet
Beneath the village door,
Until the bees, from clover rows
Their hock and sherry draw,
Why, I will lend until just then,
But not an hour more!"
by Emily Dickinson
They will be for sale at the coming ceramic events I will participate in and from autumn on in my Etsy shop.