Jessica Ennor turns dried flower bouquets into artful keepsakes

Makers

Jul 15

Written By Cassie

There’s something special about using threads of cotton and wool to weave together an artwork. And for Jessica Ennor, it is even more special when she can incorporate sustainable, locally-grown flora into her pieces.

Weaving started as a hobby for Jessica. The spare bedroom in her house that used to be her home office for her admin role is full to the brim with dried flowers.

“Now the walls are storing all my yarn and dried flowers. It’s a tiny space, so it is more like a flower cave, especially when I get creating and pull all the flowers down around me.

“I rarely get to create during the day with the kids, I like weaving in the evening when I can sit down with a cup of tea and get in the zone.

“I started adding botanicals into my art at around the time of New Zealand’s 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. My first piece was made with flowers from my garden and dried flowers I had saved over the years. Using the stems as weft, woven through the warp strings, I started making colourful, fragrant, floral wall hangings.”

Most of the flowers Jessica uses for her woven wall hangings are locally sourced from the Canterbury area in the South Island of New Zealand – such as nearby flower farmers, and growers at the Floral Collective Canterbury.

“Making these types of hangings really excites me.”

“They all grow such beautiful, colourful flowers there is no need to ship cheap flowers in or use sprayed and bleached products when the flowers in their natural state are just stunning.”

Adding dried wedding flowers to her pieces was something Jessica had also been thinking about, when a bride asked her to do exactly that.

“I had given a lot of thought to creating pieces with wedding flowers but hadn’t taken the leap yet when a bride contacted me and asked me to make her a keepsake piece for her home using the flowers from her wedding.

“The piece felt so special when creating it and it really is a special piece that she can now keep for many years to come. With such a special memory attached to the flowers, making these types of hangings really excites me.”

With the waste that is often created in the business of weddings, this offers a creative and sustainable way to give bouquets a second life.

Unsurprisingly, as many others will relate to, weaving “quickly became an addiction” for Jessica.

“The softness, the texture, the colours… I really enjoy the quiet mindless repetition of weaving, it is very therapeutic but also the creativeness and uniqueness of a piece made from a ball of yarn.”