Like many freelancers, Sandy Suffield’s work schedule ranges from round-the-clock to nothing doing. During lulls, the London-based art director and set designer is self-occupying in all sorts of astonishing ways. Her biggest project? Purchasing a derelict turn-of-the-20th century electrical building in the Suffolk countryside, two hours northeast of London, and resurrecting it as The Engine House: A Modernist’s Dream Vacation Rental.
New surprises keep popping up at The Engine House: Sandy delights in chasing down vintage things, such as 1970s Danish hanging lights that look like flying saucers: see Remodelista Reconnaissance. “I’m an eBay, charity shop, vintage addict,” says Sandy. “This is both an aesthetic choice and a reluctance to contribute more stuff to landfill.” Sandy also takes a creative reuse approach to her DIY projects, which include turning packing materials into Paper Quilts as Wall Art and using fallen branches and duct sealing tape to make Twinkly Oak Branches, An Inspired Alternative to String Lights.
Currently Sandy has been memorializing the plants growing around The Engine House using thrift shop frames, tissue paper (from her eBay purchases), grocery bags, and her nieces’ used school notebooks. Come see Sandy’s paper flowers in progress and on display for her lucky renters.
Photography courtesy of Sandy Suffield, The Engine House (@TheEngineHouseSuffolk).
Above: Sandy made her first floral collages a few years ago from recycled florist bouquet paper.
“I used to buy flowers from Steve at a tiny market stall in my neighborhood,” says Sandy. “Every week I’d ask him not to wrap my bouquet but to save his paper—I lived just two minutes up the road—but every week he’d insist on wrapping them. It was just part of Steve doing his job well. And so when I got home one day, I started making flowers from the paper he’d used to wrap my flowers. This resulted in a little series called Flower Paper Flowers.”
Above: A friend recently asked Sandy for a paper flower, and while making it, Sandy remembered how much she enjoys the process and a new collection of scrap paper flowers was launched. This is Sandy’s Fritillary in progress— here, she used a paper bag as her canvas.
Above: Ox-eye daisies and other flowers growing around The Engine House serve as Sandy’s models.
Above: Sandy made her Ox-Eye Daisies out of used packaging paper (“from my excessive eBay habit”) that she paints to add color and body. Her mounting boards are typically the flip side of whatever is inside her “found frames,” many of which she finds at Goodwill stores: she likes that they come with unusual colors, creases, and signs of a past life.
Above: Sandy’s paints are leftovers from her father’s studio. For glue she likes Yamato Nori Starch Paste, a Japanese school glue that comes in a tube and is available from art supply stores; it’s $4 from Jackson’s.
Above: Paper Water Lilies in one of The Engine House’s three bedrooms: Sandy furnished the retreat entirely with vintage pieces.
Above: A tissue paper Narcissus in progress. After painting the paper, Sandy simply drapes it over a chair to dry. She uses small scissors to cut out the flower parts and her fingers to apply the glue. How does the material not fall apart? “It’s delicate, so I’m careful,” is all she’ll say. “Making these is fun but it’s pretty fiddly.”
Above: A pot of Tulips made from painted tissue paper.
Above: Sandy’s originals are displayed at The Engine House, and she’s just introduced a series of 20 paper flowers as faithfully reproduced prints in two sizes, 11-by-14 inches and A3 (297-by-420 millimeters). This is her Ric Rac Cactus; £95 each.
Writes Sandy, “These paper flowers were made using found paper with all its creases and marks, and these characteristics are reproduced on the prints.”
Above: A sampling of Sandy’s Paper Flower Prints: each of the two sizes is being offered in limited editions of 100. They’re printed on 100 percent cotton Hahnemuhle matte-textured paper, signed by the artist, and newly available for £95 each. Note that they look great en masse.
Above: Tulip Poplar leaves in the The Engine House entry.
Make these yourself (and with your kids): more art projects from found materials:
