Muslim Women’s Group gets creative at Houseplant Takeover

A spark of creativity

The Houseplant Takeover – Deep Sea Dive at RHS Garden Wisley sparked the creativity of the Wisley Glasshouse team as well as the local community. The fabric wall hangings on display in the Glasshouse, as part of the showcase, are made by the ‘Eco-Warriors’ Muslim Women’s Group – part of Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum.

Using inspiration from the RHS Library collections, the RHS Communities team met regularly with the group to share horticultural expertise and help create two colourful masterpieces using traditional embroidery and craft skills from their cultures.

“Teamwork is fun – we love working together.” – Shapne, ‘Eco-Warriors’ Muslim Women’s Group

Combining cultural techniques

In early January 2023, the ‘Eco-Warriors’ worked together to block out the navy panels with sections of blue and green fabric and used cardboard templates to create water reflections, seaweed and coral outlines. The RHS Communities team encouraged the women to share sewing and embroidery techniques used in their different cultures – one used wire ribbons to create seaweed structures.

They also brought in items from home to be reused on the wall hangings, including a headscarf, which, when fanned out and fitted into place with hijab pins, resembled a piece of coral. Two ladies also worked on gathering and bunching together sections of netting and fabric to look like sea urchins and coral, adding a 3D element to the masterpiece. With the pom-poms and the crocheted urchins the women had made, the seabed became a rich colourful seabed, full of texture.

Final creations on display

In early February 2023, the RHS Communities team met up with the Wisley Glasshouse team to install the fabric panels among the plants on the green wall. The Deep Sea Dive display includes a shipwreck, which helped bring the fabric creations to life. The women came to see their work on display, and were impressed by how it looked surrounded by plants.

During their visit, they saw an array of new plants and explored the rock formations, where they found a manta ray, a seahorse and jellyfish made from plants. They talked about how they had found new energy and motivation, some of them overcoming a range of health ailments to attend the sessions, and how they would like to do crafts and sewing regularly.