COLOUR STORIES
In 2019, PYRUS posited the idea of a collaboration with textile designer Lauren Day. Lauren had been creating beautiful colour palettes using embroidery thread wrapped around a small piece of card, as a response to a variety of photographs. At that point we weren’t sure how this collaboration between us would come together, in the end we decided I would photography PYRUS’ beautiful Victorian walled garden to get the ball rolling—Summer was coming to an end and with that, the colours in their garden would soon start to fade too.
Lauren didn't want to have any influence on the photographs until after I had created and curated a selection for her, so to the garden I went with not much preconception of how I would capture it. Having been there several times prior, I knew it would only be a matter of letting myself get lost and found again in that beautiful party of colours and shapes.
After losing myself for a while in the sweet smelling scent of everything and the murmur of the bees, I settled on exploring the relationship of colours on three things: the botanicals itself, botanicals and the manmade structures, and botanicals against other botanicals. A (rather large) selection of these images was sent to Lauren who then picked the ones she was most drawn to.
Below is Lauren’s thoughts and experience on this collaboration -
‘When PYRUS invited me to collaborate with Gabi on this project, I felt intrigued to see the palettes that would emerge from such a classic subject matter. Gabi sent across hundreds of incredible photos to choose from digitally (all exceptionally beautiful). My editing process was quite rapid - I looked through the images focusing solely on the colour information and marked the ones I was most drawn to without overthinking. The final edit was around 24 images. Gabi printed those and the day I received the prints, I felt incredibly inspired by the physical images—the quality of colour more expressive than the onscreen experience and the photographs laid out as a collection of images looked so beautiful.’
‘When creating each colour wrap, I begin by looking very closely at the photograph to get a sense of it. This can take a while to get the colours registered in my head before I begin. I tend to focus on one particular area in detail for a while, then I zoom out and get an overall sense of the mood. Some days the process of wrapping is immediate and I feel as though it wraps itself. Other days, there is a lot of unwrapping and rewinding, searching, debate over thread thickness, tone, and whether the balance is even remotely pleasing. On reflection, I enjoy that backwards and forwards process - but when I’m actually working and it’s not coming together, I just want to take a pair of scissors and cut all the layers off, choose a new image and start again. The wrap often reflects something about how I’m feeling when I’m making it. Afterwards, I can barely look at it without wanting to do just one more version. Of course, the palette is never the same even if I try it again and the light impacts how I see the colour a lot. In winter I like that the natural light is short so I give myself permission to stop early. It creates a forced stop. I can get a bit stuck in the winding and unwinding. I am endlessly fascinated by the nuance and intricacy of the colours that emerge. As a hand embroiderer, the medium of thread feels so familiar and provides a tactile rhythm that keeps me moving forward. This project was a pleasure. I’m so grateful that the combination of Pyrus’ incredible florals and Gabi’s exquisite photography provided such an inspiring starting point to work from.‘