Artist Statement:
The rich purple clematis Jackmanii was developed in England in 1862 and was introduced to Ontario sometime after. Phoebe Watson likely had this very popular plant in her garden, which would have been the model for the large expressive flowers on her cylindrical vase.
For the structure of my vase, I chose bearded iris leaves from my garden as iris blooms at the same time as this hybrid clematis. To evoke trends of Phoebe’s time, I created the petals and leaves by embossing silk velvet, a millinery technique popular from the late 19th century to mid 20th century. I have mounted the flowers on native clematis virginiana vine.