A PETAL UNFOLDS: INTERVIEW WITH PAPER ARTIST SUSAN BEECH

Paper artist Susan Beech creates beautiful florals that look nothing less than real. The extraordinary level of detail in her work is outstanding. You’ll be able to get to know more about her in today’s post. And she has kindly offered a free floral wallpaper as download. Enjoy!

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I’ve been familiar with Susan’s work for a while. You may have seen her beautiful ranunculus tutorial over at Design Sponge. We connected on Instagram sometime back as became friends instantly. She was sweet enough to agree for an interview at Inkstruck Studio and needless to say I was beyond thrilled. She has also very kindly provided with a free desktop wallpaper which is free for your personal use.

Susan lives in Brighton,UK and graduated from the University of Brighton in Fine Art Printmaking. She holds regular workshops at the stationers “Quill London” where she teaches contemporary paper flower and paper landscape making.

You can download the free floral wallpaper Susan has very generously provided at the end of the post. Please use it only for your personal use. All the images provided in this post was provided by Susan herself.

You can find her at these places- WEBSITE | ETSY SHOP | INSTAGRAM

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1.How did you get started as a paper-artist and is this what you’ve always wanted to do?

I’ve always wanted to live a creative life and make a living from my work. If I’m not being artistic then I feel pretty unhappy. I didn’t imagine that I would move to working with paper in three dimensions. I originally studied Printmaking and was focusing on landscape photography after university, but became restless and wanted to start making things with my hands again. I read an article about paper flowers in a crafts magazine and was instantly drawn to how romantic they were. I took a Skillshare class by the blogger House that Lars Built and then bought a vintage book off eBay to learn more about the craft. From there I went on to make my own flowers and designs.

2.What is a typical day in Susan Beech’s life?

I work from home on a desk in my front room so I don’t have far to travel to work! Every day is different really depending on what is happening that week. Today involved making flowers this morning and then taking them to the post office. The flowers might be getting used in a photo shoot for a magazine so that’s exciting. I photographed the flowers for my Etsy shop before I posted them, then edited the photos and uploaded them to Etsy and spent time improving some of the listings on there. In between I answer emails and then now I’m answering these questions! Tonight I might spend some time making some new work or spend some time on my new website– I do tend to work in the evenings if I can as there never seems to be enough hours in the day.

3.Tell us some fun facts about yourself.

I’m pretty obsessed with owning a Dachshund dog, but living in a one bedroom flat it isn’t very practical! Maybe one day soon….

My guilty pleasure whilst I work is watching way too many YouTube beauty videos.

I am the worst driver ever and have had some of my most embarrassing moments behind the wheel of a car!

4.Where do you see “A Petal Unfolds” in the next couple of years?

I would love to work with major brands on projects and commissions. I would also love to publish my own paper flowers book. Hopefully I would like to reach a point where a range of projects gives me enough income to do this full time without a need to worry about whether I can pay the bills. That would be the dream.

5.How long does it take a typical project to complete?

Paper flowers can be quite time consuming to make, but if depends on the complexity of the flower. I hand cut and sculpt each petal so it could take 2 hours or even longer to make a single flower, especially something new or detailed. But once you have made the flower many times you can bring that time right down.

6.Any advice for beginners?

I would definitely recommend trying to get hold of old books about paper flower making to learn basic techniques.

7.Will you be conducting workshops in the coming months?

Yes, I’ve recently started running peony workshops in London with the stationers Quill London. It’s early days and it was nerve- wracking to start with but I am now becoming much more comfortable with it. I’m hoping to bring the workshops to Brighton and I’ve also started running private classes at home. It is so fun to meet people that have an interest in what I do and spend a couple of hours passing on what I know. A real honour.

A big hug and thanks to Susan for agreeing to do the interview.I enjoyed reading through her answers and I hope you did too.Please click the link below to download the free floral wallpaper to make your computers pretty!

DOWNLOAD FREE FLORAL WALLPAPER HERE

About zakkiya @ inkstruck studio

Zakkiya is the creative blogger and founder of Inkstruck Studio. She’s a self taught artist who let go of her architecture profession to pursue her passion in art. Zakkiya likes to write detailed tutorials in watercolor, calligraphy, and hand lettering. She also teaches watercolor workshops occasionally in Doha where she’s based currently. Other passions include traveling, photography, and basketball.When she’s not working, you can find her cuddling and running around with her toddler boy.