What happens when you take a femme fatale with a niche talent for pressing flowers and creating visual poetry? Floral Fatale of course. The artistic genius behind this concept is a multifaceted visionary hailing from Atlantic Canada, transplanted in to muse of a city known as Montreal.
When I think of Chelsea Rae, her craft and aesthetic, I want to describe it like Sailor Mars meets a 70’s gothic flower child.
What started as an intuitive seaside hobby in 2016 later blossomed (ha, get it?) into a craft that Chelsea Rae began to hone as people requested her pieces on an increasingly more frequent basis. This came as a surprise to her but probably nobody else as the affinity for old flora has always been around. With the happiness created by sharing her pieces with others, Chelsea was able to capitalize on a passion she loved. Each piece unique, right down to often thrifting the right frame, there hasn’t been a commission yet that held Chelsea back. Of course within reason, the flowers need to be available or of season. Most of the time she forages from wild for her pieces but during the winter she will branch out to local shops. Speaking of seasonal, you can get any special bouquet of yours pressed & framed by Floral Fatale.
Her favourite materials to work with are ferns and wild flowers. Although a bit of a grassroots project currently, Chelsea is in a prototype phase of casting resin pieces for jewellery. Be sure to follow floral.fatale on Instagram to find out when that becomes available to the public. Ideally she would love to eventually get her work into markets or local shops, but she’s not applying too much pressure to herself. She would prefer it to happen organically.
So save a bit of money from overpriced gin cocktails at the bar and maybe consider some of these breathtaking botanicals instead! Floral Fatale, is also open to collaborations.. If you don’t know, now ya know.
-Nel Sin (Long time friend)
Which ‘hood are you in?
I live in NDG aka The Deeg! It’s a great area to be in when you aren’t fluent in French (yet!).
What do you do?
I work full time in social services (looking to go back to school for something more creative though!) and my side gigs are freelance work as a model & art for Floral Fatale of course!
What are you currently working on?
I am working towards making an abundance of pieces that will be available for sale. People often inquire on posts I’ve made that were already sold or gifted, so I think dropping pre made collections will be more lucrative. As my bio mentioned, I have taken interest in making resin jewelry with florals & botanical to add some flair and variety, so I’d like to launch that within the year too.
Where can we find your work?
My main platform is Instagram – I’ve altered my style of photographing my work so a lot of past pieces have been archived on my page for now. I believe in quality over quantity for showcasing! I will be doing a free giveaway contest for my followers again this winter too, so come check it out. Not on insta? My new Facebook page (Floral Fatale) is up now too!
