Our Editor recently caught up with Layla Robinson who has carved herself an enviable and well deserved place in UK floral design with her luxurious natural interior decorations. They are all made from everlasting flowers and foliage, and she creates unique sustainable artistic pieces for both private and public clients.
From as far back as she can remember, Layla has had a fascination and passion for flowers. Growing up, her childhood was spent amongst the sun-filled hedgerows and the lush wild meadows of the Welsh Marches near Hay-on-Wye. Here her imagination and creativity were wondrously brought alive, and, according to her mum, fairies were said to live in the hollow under the crab-apple tree in the back garden. And, with a family where nearly every member was also incredibly creative, it is no surprise Layla has been drawn to such an inventive and unique take on working with flowers.
As Layla explains: “As a child, I used to help my dad make things, he taught me basic woodworking and engineering skills, and an appreciation of beautiful tools and materials that has stayed with me ever since. Unsurprisingly, the mechanics and design are one of my favourite aspects of what I do, as is dreaming up fresh new ways to use everlasting flowers in ways you’ve never seen before. I like to make the viewer feel uplifted when they see it. Just like a beautiful painting, it aims to evoke emotion and a feeling of joy and depth with its details, colours and textures. You can really appreciate this with my ‘Flower Portal’ design featured in the Strawberry Hill Flower Festival 2023 where I explored the contrast between what is there, and what is not there, and how the two can enhance each other, setting the imagination alight. By the way, I was so thrilled that you featured this design in your Winter 2023 issue!”
After attending Pershore College of Horticulture in Worcestershire, where she studied Garden and Landscape design, Layla spent several years designing and working in some of Herefordshire’s most beautiful, plant-lovers’ country gardens before she put down her gardening tools to concentrate on having a family.
As a new mother, the focus changed to creating a home-based business that would work around children, and Layla embarked on growing and designing with her own fresh cut flowers. Through this, over the years, she discovered a new and exciting passion for using dried flowers in sculpture, and gradually that became the dominant feature of her work. After the birth of her third daughter, she decided to take the plunge and completely focus on everlasting floral art.
Layla is now a leading floral artist who has spent the last decade creating innovative dried flower installations for clients including the Hay Festival, Taittinger and the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour. She has appeared in numerous TV, books and lifestyle magazine features and exhibited in a host of art galleries and exhibitions, as well as created her own flower sculptures to showcase at the aforementioned Strawberry Hill Flower Festival in London.
She has also produced her own multi-part instructional video course, allowing even total beginners to craft her signature everlasting flower panels, and is in the process of writing a book featuring her designs and methods that will be published by Green Finch (part of the Quercus Group) in the spring of 2025. Her work is also featured in the Michael Angelo Foundation Homo Faber guide for artisans.
Layla’s designs are instantly recognisable and stand out as completely different to what you would expect from dried flowers. As she says: “I like to surprise people with how vibrant, eye-catching and full of life my pieces are.”
Inspired by the wild Black Mountains and lush green valleys of where she lives, Layla’s work often incorporates a combination of twigs and wire to contrast against the softer flowery elements, creating something that is modern, minimal, but playful and luxurious all at the same time.
The flower sculptures can last for years, which makes them very environmentally friendly compared to using fresh flowers. The colours may gradually and gently fade over time but remain beautiful in all their stages. The flowers she uses in her work are nearly all grown, harvested and dried from her organic garden or foraged from the countryside.
Sustainability, environment and ecology are incredibly important to her and so is spreading the message to appreciate the details and abundance that nature has to offer, and that is used in her work.
As she enthuses: “I really want to inspire others to treasure the beauty the planet offers us and hope my flower sculptures will spread this message and make people love nature a little more. I feel very lucky to be able to do something I love so much and feel very excited at what the future will bring. There is a wealth of possibilities that I am going to enjoy tapping into where I will be exploring many new and brilliant avenues of everlasting flower design.”
And we are going to continue to observe and admire Layla on her ongoing floral journey, that’s for sure…
