CAREER SHIFT
Ling Warlow, paper botanist
There’s atouch of Wonderland to Ling Warlow’s studio. Shelves are packed with ribbons and crepe, while ajoyful abundance of paper flowers bursts forth all around. One enormous foxglove spray reaches almost to the ceiling, tiny buds at the top giving way to acascade of trumpets in delicate pink, while blowsy Japanese anemones bob alongside. ‘I love to see the reaction of anyone who comes in here,’ says Ling. ‘They always go quiet for aminute, gathering it all in.’
The studio occupies one ground-floor room of alarge red-brick Victorian terraced house, now divided into seven workspaces for various artists. Ling lives not far away, with both home and studio located in the small seaside town of Hoylake, where the river Dee meets the Irish Sea, on the Wirral, Merseyside. She need only look left out of her front door to see the sea.
Ling was born to aDanish mother and English father, and named for the heather that covers the countryside during August –in Denmark it’s also called ‘lyng’. She grew up in Yorkshire, where her mother was aceramics artist and her father apainter and art teacher. The family had avegetable patch and no TV. ‘I learnt knitting, crocheting, weaving, macrame… all sorts. On walks with my dad, we’d take abox of watercolours along to paint. I spent alot of time looking at wildflowers, learning their names.’
Yet it took many years to find her true path. Ling studied English and philosophy, before working her way up from call centres to management consultancy. She began making hand-finished greetings cards, selling to companies. Later, she plucked up courage to ask afriend if she could produce the invitations for her wedding. Within acouple of years, she was running afull-time wedding stationery business, Dragonfly Couture Stationery.
Not until some years later did Ling chance upon the art of paper botany. ‘A client requested giant flowers for her wedding and looking online Ifound awhole art form Ihad no idea existed. Iwas infatuated!’ Ling’s first creation was a sprig of blossom, in white crepe with tiny beads for pollen. When US artist Tiffanie Turner, who makes botanical sculptures, held aworkshop in Edinburgh, Ling carved out time to attend –just. ‘My head was full of ideas, but wedding deadlines are unforgiving. Iwas abusy mum to twin girls –AKA taxi driver. Ihad found my real passion, but making it happen at this point felt impossible.’
Then 20
