Am embroidered sculpture of lichen on wood.

All images © Amanda Cobbett, shared with permission

With a keen eye for detail and a passion for nature, Amanda Cobbett embroiders hyperrealistic fungi, mosses, and lichen with painstaking precision (previously). Taking between one to two weeks to complete, each piece is inspired by flora found around the U.K., which she collects, studies, and recreates with fiber in her Surrey Hills studio. Most recently, the artist has focused on samples found in the Scottish Borders for an upcoming exhibition, which she says is “the result of a year’s worth of work, and includes even more intricacy than previously made embroideries…It is a snapshot in time but includes a huge amount of variety in colour, texture, and new forms.”

Cobbett complements an array of mushrooms with soil-coated roots and carpets lifelike pieces of bark and twigs in diverse lichens. Over time, she has developed techniques that allow her to work on a minuscule scale, often putting specimens under magnification to detect the tiniest characteristics. “I mix the weights of the sewing threads from the bobbin and the spool, often using a 75 to 100-weight thread to enable me to get the finest detail,” she says.

You can see more of Cobbett’s work on her website, or follow updates on Instagram, where she often shares images of her process.

 

Tiny embroidered mushrooms.

A lifelike embroidery of lichen on wood.

A lifelike embroidery of lichen on a piece of wood.   An array of embroidered sculptures of lichen on pieces of wood.

An array of realistic embroideries of lichen on twigs.

A realistic embroidery of maidenhair spleenwort

A realistic embroidery of lichen on a twig.

An embroidery of lichen in progess.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Amanda Cobbett Embroiders Realistic Likenesses of Fungi and Flora in Stunning Detail appeared first on Colossal.

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