Ann Wood uses paper and wire to create delicate paper sculptures that take after the natural world. Focusing mainly on plants and insects, she uses sharp embroidery scissors to manipulate the paper and adds realistic details such as butterfly wings, feathers, and flowers. Her finished artworks are then hand sewn on to wool and velvet backgrounds and framed in vintage frame stock, so as to display their full beauty.
Inspired by historical botanical prints, Wood grew up on a farm in Iowa and was surrounded by nature, plants, and gardens. Now she uses her own backyard in Minnesota as a place of exploration, studying closely her plants so as to understand their form better.
“I thought, I’m going to try making plants and I’m going to share them on Instagram and see what happens,” she recalled in an interview with Design Sponge. “With the daily build-up of sharing pictures of my work, it’s spurred me on to keep exploring and refining this desire.”
Her artwork indeed caught on and with more than 120k followers on Instagram alone, there’s no slowing down for Wood. “I wanted something more connective, to connect outward to a wide range of people,” she explained. “Seeing my dad’s response to plants showed me that there is a vehicle that I can really get on and feel that connection to people that might not normally connect to art. But gardening — people love gardening. So that’s where I really started with the whole idea.”
Take a closer look.
