I met Juliane Strittmatter at last year’s Hive conference in Berlin. She wore a lovely dress with a wonderful peter pan collar, blunt bangs, an adorable bob, and red lipstick. She was striking. After chatting with her for some time we realized we had a lot in common and we became fast friends. Juliane is the wonderful dollmaker of Froken Skicklig, where she makes and teaches classes on dollmaking. A German, she currently lives in the fields of Southern Sweden.
Juliane recently created an Instagram account (@frokenskicklig) and at the same time, created a little project. She didn’t want to share many personal photos or doll photos so she started Bouquet a Day #onebouquetperday where she goes out to collect a new bouquet a day from the fields surrounding her home. You can imagine that I nearly died when she started sharing these photos.
AND THEN, she gave us glimpses of her adorable vintage dresses with the bouquets. As if it wasn’t already enough.
She says, “This little project is good in many ways. First of all, it helps me to capture and ‘preserve’ those precious summer days – winter was very long this year, we had snow until April. Secondly, picking flowers as a daily ritual helps me to sort thoughts and ideas. I really have to be present, have to see or find the flowers (or else I can’t pick them) and being distracted would be quite counter-productive. Being on a flower hunt means that your senses have to be open. Thirdly, documenting these daily walks does also mirror my way of working. Nature plays an important role in my work as a doll maker, I would work differently when I am in the city.
I’m absolutely astounded at how she can name off all these flower names so I had to ask. Here’s what she says: “I know quite a lot of flower names. When I was a little girl, I was very much into flowers, had a lot of books on plants, and had a flower press, made herbariums–and by that I learned the German and the Latin names. I have to look up a few English names from time to time, but I know most names even in English and Swedish. My mother is a passionate gardener, so it runs in the family.”
Isn’t she remarkable? I love this project and wish I could join in. Alas, my flower options are a bit more limited than the fields of Sweden, but I now have a goal to go visit her and go flower collecting. Is that alright Juliane?
Please check out her lovely site, Froken Skicklig and follow along on her Instagram @frokenskicklig and #onebouquetperday