IN THE STUDIO WITH A SAN FRANCISCO-BASED ARTIST TRANSFORMING CREPE PAPER INTO ONE-OF-A-KIND FLORAL MASTERPIECES
To create a piece, she begins with a concept plus a specimen of the flower itself. “I most often start from the center of the piece and build outward, cutting and shaping each petal by hand,” she says. While the end result is painterly, she uses paper that has an integral color. Sometimes she stains the paper with tea or watercolor prior to cutting the petals, before using hot glue to hold everything together. The end results come in one of two sizes: life-size or what Turner calls “giant”—between 26 and 66 inches in diameter. “A mid-size flower just doesn’t translate or have the same effect as something that can hold thousands of petals,” she says. “My background as an architect has helped me engineer myself out of some very confusing configurations, and luckily my gallery provides me with wonderful art handlers who know exactly how to move my work.”
