WATCH: Amazing art made from branches and grass

• Fibre artist Annabel Stanley
• Combines florist and horticulture designs
• Has an exhibition at the Kelowna Art Gallery

A florist by design, and a horticulturist by trade is how one local artist describes the skills behind her work.

Annabel Stanley is a fibre artist in the Okanagan who creates unique and intricate baskets, spheres, and more, by weaving grasses and parts of trees together.

“My mother, she trained in horticulture in the 50s, so I grew up in the garden,” Stanley told Kelowna10. “I’ve always been creating things with flowers, with natural products and I just love that.”

She grew up in England where she went to school for horticulture and then trained to be a florist. Afterwards, she moved to New Zealand where she was introduced to wine and opened her own flower shop and began to weave sculptures.

“When I start a piece, quite often I have an idea for what I want to create and then the piece takes over,” Stanley said. “As I create, they sort of create themselves... it’s handmade so therefore, no piece is really identical.”

All her pieces are made from organic materials she either grows at her vineyard or finds during hikes with her dogs. She tends to use Dogwood, Willow, and Alder most frequently in her designs.

“I love to promote to children and students because they don’t have to go to the shopping mall to go and buy stuff, I can take them hiking and we can gather stuff,” Stanley explained. “This is what nature has provided for us and this is what really inspires me.”

One of her exhibitions, The Circle of Life, is currently available to view, and touch, at the Kelowna Art Gallery. It’s located in the Rotary Courtyard and will be there until Sept. 11.

Stanley was one of the featured artists at the Flower Power Garden Tour on the weekend. She was at garden #5 in Crawford Estates, owned by Trudy and Russell McGill, where she was displaying and selling her art.

“Time just goes into nothing when I’m out there in the garden,” she said. “It’s amazing what you plant, as it goes through the seasons, it changes continuously… the garden is nature’s palette.”