Botane Collection: inspiration and process

Botane collection is inspired by the plant world.

When I start working on something new, I usually follow similar steps. First, I choose a theme that catches my attention and think about what I find most interesting about it, what led me to choose that theme (and not another). Then, I try to seek "new connections", ideas that I feel like diving into. So, by pulling on the thread, I find information and the theme (somehow) guides me along the way!

This time, instead of showing the references or images that have been more significant, or that have "clarified my ideas" when designing, I thought it would be better ;) to show you some collages I made for Botane.

I gathered all the images and references I had collected: ideas, colors, textures, etc. and I started cutting and pasting.

And here you have the result!

Motivated by the book "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon, I decided to put into practice something he suggests: stepping away from the computer screen and "thinking with your hands." Well, actually, thinking with your whole body, because he talks not only about drawing but also about working standing up, cutting, and pasting things on the wall...

It was fun to take up the challenge and try a little different ways to come up with ideas. So in addition to the "classic" drawings and sketches :D I made the collages I showed you, and also cardboard models on a mannequin ( placing pieces with pins and testing, to see what they suggested to me).

Two books have been very important in the process of this collection: Botanicum and the Voynich manuscript.

The first one, illustrated by Katie Scott and written by Kathy J. Willis, has taken me through its beautiful illustrations and explanations, on a guided walk through the vegetation of the planet.

Along the way I have discovered incredible species, of which of course I had no idea: the Victoria amazonica, the largest water lily of all, with enormous leaves capable of holding up to 45kg of weight. A flower called Rafflesia, measuring up to 1m in diameter and weighing 11kg, which emits heat and smells like, rotting flesh, to attract scavenging pollinating insects! Or the flower of Amorphophallus titanium, which can reach a height of over 2.5m. Carnivorous plants with incredible shapes, such as the Drosera, or the Nephentes (shaped like a trap-jar).

Many of them seemed like they were taken from the set of a science fiction movie!

The second one was decisive, not so much for its illustrations (which are also beautiful), but for what I am going to tell you: Although I had wanted to make designs related to plants, flowers or vegetation for a long time, it was when I heard the story of this manuscript that I decided on the theme.

There is very little information about it, for many experts it is the most mysterious book of all times. It is not known where it was written, nor who wrote it. Neither the title: the name comes from its last discoverer, Wilfrid Voynich, an antiquarian bookseller who acquired it in 1912 from the Jesuits of Villa Mondragone, in Rome.

It is known to have been written in the first third of the 15th century, although it could be a copy of an earlier manuscript, as it has no erasures or errors.

It has illustrations that seem to be related to botany, astronomy, cosmology or biology, but the truth is that nobody knows what it is about. It is written in an unknown language, or it could be an encrypted text, so far it has not been deciphered!

There is a very funny concept, related to this manuscript, that caught my attention when I heard it for the first time: the FrankenPlants. They call this way to the illustrations on botany that appear in the manuscript and is that, although the parts separately can be identified with some known species (the leaves, flowers or roots) it is impossible to determine what plants are, or to what climatic zone could belong.

It's a bit like creating a Frankenstein out of plant matter! by joining pieces of different plants!

Maybe the manuscript means nothing, and is a "big joke" of its time, nobody knows for sure! and I guess that's part of its charm ;)

(References for collage images: TEXTURES, EMBROIDERY, AND COLOR. Embroidered illustration: MaricorMaricar Studio | Fashion: Roberta Einer | Fashion: Jasmine Broughton | Fashion: Johanne Dindler | Textile design: Alice Starmore | Knit design: IKIGAI knit studio | Headpieces: Rita Von | Feather art: Nelly Saunier | Embroidery design: Stephanie Cristofaro | Fashion: Miu Miu | Fashion: Delpozo | Fashion: Gucci | FLOWERS AND PLANTS. Herbarium: Emily Dickinson | Paper design: Anaquiños de papel | ILLUSTRATIONS. Engravings: Mariann Johansen-Ellis | Painting: Michelle Morin | Illustration: Ophelia Pang | Illustrated jewelry: Manitas de Plata | Illustration: Ohkii studio )

And other images, whose authorship I couldn't identify, obtained via Pinterest.