Amanda Cobbett: Stitching the Forest Floor

At first glance one might not notice the difference between Amanda Cobbett’s carefully constructed, hyper-realistic nature sculptures and the fungi, moss and forest floor findings that she draws inspiration from. Cobbett’s daily walks in the hills of Surrey, inform her practice, after which she returns to her studio and immediately gets to work, ‘sketching’ with her sewing machine. Cobbett is passionate about transforming the 2D into the 3D and creates the ‘fabric’ she sculpts with by stitching on dissolvable backing.

Trained as a printed textile designer, it was not until many happy years of working in the industry that Cobbett took up embroidery, but now she enjoys replicating the beauty of decaying plants and fungi without causing harm or disruption to the environment from which they originated.

This interview also features a beautiful video on Corbett’s process, from woodland foraging to her return to the studio to piece together her recreations.