From the Archive: A Tulip Workshop for Selfridges, Over Zoom
March 2021, two sessions — the 9th and the 13th. England was still in its third lockdown, and Selfridges wanted a paper flower workshop. The only way to run one was over a screen.
Everyone who signed up received a parcel beforehand: three colours of crepe paper and a set of PanPastels, ready to open at their own kitchen table. I prepped colour the same way, just more of it — pastels and paper laid out and sorted before either call started.
The flower was a tulip, a few days old, slightly open. Petals with give in them rather than a tight, symmetrical bud — harder to teach than it sounds, since you're explaining softness as much as shape. Running it through a laptop camera meant thinking differently about demonstration: overhead shots so people could see hand position, holding finished pieces right up to the lens, saying things out loud I'd normally just show.
Everyone who joined was lovely — genuinely up for it, making the most of an afternoon that could easily have felt flat over a screen instead of in a room.
It's six years now since lockdown, and however hard that time was, it's also when this business properly started. I don't think I'd have made the leap into paper flowers full-time without those months forcing a different kind of focus. Worth remembering that, alongside everything else.
If tulips are calling — I've got a parrot tulip available to buy now in the shop.
Parrot tulips are the most dramatic flower I make. The petals are naturally frilled and twisted — almost feathered at the edges — and getting that right in paper means cutting each one individually and shaping it by hand. No shortcuts.
This one is in flame orange with deep red running through the petals. It moves differently depending on the light — sometimes it looks almost on fire, sometimes more like a coral sunset. Hard to describe, genuinely better in person.
Around 50cm tall, single stem, wired with one large leaf.
Made to order — your tulip will have its own slight variations in petal shape and curl. That's what makes it yours.
Single stem | Height: approx. 50cm
Hand-painted Italian crepe paper, wired stem
Made to order — ready in 1–2 weeks