Hello. I’m Olga Prinku – artist, maker and originator of the craft of flowers-on-tulle embroidery also known as dried flower embroidery. When I first experimented with poking the stem of a flower (that I picked on my lawn) through net fabric in 2016, I could hardly have imagined the journey it would take me on. I’ve exhibited in galleries, collaborated on designs with fashion and homeware brands, and my first book came out in 2021 – Dried Flower Embroidery: An introduction to the art of flowers on tulle.

Before I began this journey, I was a graphic designer by profession. I’ve always been a keen crafter – flowers-on-tulle embroidery grew out of my love of knitting and wreath-making. My favourite part of it is the scope to be inventive. Drawing inspiration from traditional embroidery I love coming up with new ideas and experiment with the technique further.

I grew up in the Republic of Moldova and now live in North Yorkshire with my husband and son, where I love to both grow and forage for materials for my work and take inspiration from nature on long walks in the beautiful countryside.

The art of flowers-on-tulle embroidery

My focus is material investigation and innovation in the context of embroidery and textiles. My practice explores the boundaries of what can be achieved using real organic material as my metaphorical thread. I’ve worked with and tested over 50 different plant species as a way of redefining what eco embroidery could be. My work combines plants – primarily dried and preserved flowers, foliage, twigs, grasses, seed heads and berries – with tulle fabric to create floral patterns and bio tapestries.

I use a variety of methods to attach the flowers, principally trapping the delicate stems in the fabric’s net structure. Sometimes these stems are as fine as a third of a millimeter wide. It’s an intricate process that demands a high level of dedication and focus, and an intimate feel for the breaking point of the fragile raw materials in my fingertips. I have a sense of being led by the plants themselves as I often freestyle to distribute the design within the space.

In the finished works, the tulle fabric becomes an invisible canvas for organic patterns that seem to float in their frame, creating potential for a play of light and shadows that adds another visual dimension. As all natural materials change with time, each piece will develop a new aesthetic as it matures.

I see my artistic work also paying homage to the beauty and wonder of nature by combining natural elements in new ways – and as a reflection on the fragility yet strength of the natural world around us and our relationship with it.

Media features

My flowers-on-tulle work has been featured in a range of online and print media and TV around the world, including (links where available online):

Michelangelo Foundation: Homo Faber Guide

Australia: IntoCraft (2019), Homespun (2017)
China: Art of Stitches (Sandu Publishing, 2021), European Commercial News “Floral Life” (2019), Aesthetica Botanica (Sandu Publishing 2018)
France: J'ose la gouache: 41 défis pour se lancer (Eyrolles, 2020), Maison Creative (2020), Detente Jardin (2019), Silence, Ca Pousse! Creer Sa Deco Nature (Hachette Livre, 2018), Silence, Ca Pousse! (France 5 TV, 2017) 
Germany:  Let it Bloom(2021), Flow (2019), Das Kaufland Magazine (2019), Flower Ladies (Random House, 2018), Couch (2018), Trend Welten (2018), Ich Selbstaendig (2017)
Italy: Donna Moderna (2021), The Fashion Atlas (2019), Casa Facile (2018), The Italian Reve (2018)
UK: Colour Hive Magazine (2023), School of Stitched Textiles (2023), Country Living (2023), BBC Countryfile Magazine (2022), TextileArtist.org (2022), LandScape (2022), Flora (2022), Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas (Channel 4 TV, 2021), Health & Wellbeing (2021), Gardens Illustrated (2021), Embroidery (2021), Love Embroidery (2021), Embroidery (2020), Living Etc (2020), Mollie Makes (2019), Country Living (2019), Sew (2019), Simply Sewing (2018), Town & Country (2017), 91 Magazine (2017), Kirstie's Handmade Christmas (Channel 4 TV, 2017)
USA: Colossal (2023), My Modern Met (2021),Colossal (2021), Architectural Digest (2019), Our Maker Life – Make Volume 2 (2019), What Women Create (2019), American Craft Council (2018), Colossal (2018), Sarah K Benning (2018), My Modern Met (2018), Martha Stewart (2017), Design Sponge (2017), Ballpit Mag (2017), brwnpaperbag (2017),