I’m Natalie, the founder and artist behind SISHICRAFT Studio, based in Taiwan. I work primarily with vegetable-tanned leather, using techniques such as cutting, drawing, dyeing, wrapping and repeated hand-shaping to create botanical sculptures entirely by hand.

SISHICRAFT Studio grew from my long-standing fascination with both natural forms and the character of leather. Plants may appear quiet, yet they carry a powerful will to live, constantly responding to sunlight, wind and their surroundings. Leather is similarly sensitive to time, moisture and the movement of the hands. By bringing these two worlds together, I hope to create pieces that do more than reproduce the appearance of plants—they also express their vitality and emotional presence.

Nature has always been in my most important source of inspiration. I often observe the direction in which petals unfold, the curves of leaves, the way roots intertwine and the gestures plants create as they respond to the wind. To me, these details are more than visual forms; they are a language shaped by time, environment and the experience of being alive.

When I began working with vegetable-tanned leather, I discovered that it has qualities that feel remarkably close to life. It absorbs water and softens, then retains the gestures created by the hands as it dries. Its colour and texture also continue to evolve over time. This led me to explore how a material with its own memory could be used to reinterpret the vitality of plants, giving leather a new organic and emotional presence beyond its traditional applications.

Perhaps it comes from the environment I grew up in. Our garden was always filled with many different kinds of flowers and plants, which naturally led me to observe how plants grow and live, and often made me reflect on the nature of life itself.

Leather, however, is most commonly associated with bags, shoes, and other functional objects. This made me curious about what leather could express once it was no longer required to serve a practical purpose.

Leather has thickness, fibre, texture, and warmth, and it retains the traces of pulling, folding, and touch. To me, these qualities make it more than simply a material; it becomes a medium capable of carrying time and emotion.

I want to reveal a less familiar side of leather. It can be resilient yet soft, capable of holding strength while expressing something as delicate and fragile as a flower petal—much like life itself.

I begin by observing a plant for a long time, studying its direction of growth, structure and balance rather than simply tracing its outline. I then use the natural ability of vegetable-tanned leather to soften when wet. Through cutting, thinning, bending, wrapping and repeated twisting, I gradually build the curves of each petal and leaf. As the leather dries, it retains the gesture created during this process.

The sense of lightness does not come only from making the material thinner; it comes from controlling force. I need to understand where a form requires support, where it should remain relaxed and how each petal or leaf relates to the space around it. Subtle asymmetry and the traces of handwork prevent the pieces from feeling rigid, allowing them to retain a rhythm that feels almost like breathing.

Every stage influences the final piece, but hand-shaping is both the most important and my favourite part of the process. Cutting establishes the structure, while dyeing introduces depth and emotional tone. Shaping is the stage that truly gives the work its gesture and individuality. Even when two pieces begin with the same pattern, a slight change in angle, pressure or direction can create an entirely different sense of life.

It is also the moment when my dialogue with the material becomes most direct. I cannot force the leather to behave entirely according to a predetermined plan; I have to respond to its moisture, resistance and natural movement. Sometimes a small variation in the material creates an expression I had not anticipated. These unrepeatable moments allow every work to develop a character of its own.

Yes. From the beginning, I consider time to be part of the work. Vegetable-tanned leather is not a completely static material. Its colour and texture gradually deepen in response to light, air and its surroundings. I do not see this evolution as an imperfection, but as a record of the material’s continuing interaction with the world.

Plants also move through cycles of growth, flowering, fading and transformation. In this sense, the way leather changes over time reflects the cycles of life found in nature. I hope each piece will not exist only in the moment it is completed, but will continue to live alongside its owner, gradually carrying a memory that belongs uniquely to both of them.

My process usually begins with careful observation of the real plant. I study its structure, its way of growing and the distinctive characteristics that make it immediately recognisable. However, I am not trying to produce an exact botanical specimen. What interests me most is the emotion a plant evokes and the particular state of life expressed in a fleeting moment.

Once I understand the plant’s essential character, I allow myself to reinterpret its proportions, gestures and lines. A petal may remind me of a dancer poised on the tips of her toes, while a branch may appear to resist the wind or reach forward through adversity. I preserve the spirit of nature without being completely restricted by its appearance. The work therefore exists between observation and imagination: it remains recognisable, but also carries my personal understanding of that life.

Plants will remain an important part of my practice because nature contains an endless range of forms and emotions. I am interested not only in flowers at the height of their bloom, but also in roots, seeds, bark, fading leaves and the marks left by plants as they survive difficult environments. Each of these stages tells a different story about life.

In the future, I would also like to move gradually from individual botanical forms towards more abstract sensations found in nature—the direction of wind, the accumulation of time and the rhythms of growth, tension and transformation. Even if a work no longer directly represents a flower or a tree, the awareness of life that I find in nature will remain at the centre of my practice.

I would define SISHICRAFT Studio as an artistic practice that uses leather as its primary medium to explore botanical forms and the experience of life. Craftsmanship is the foundation of my work because it allows me to understand and guide the material. However, the essence of each piece lies not only in technique, but in the emotions communicated through its form, gesture and texture.

I do not feel the need to place the work within a single category such as craft, sculpture or object design. Instead, I value the space between these disciplines. A piece can inhabit an interior and form a relationship with everyday life while still retaining an independent emotional and artistic language. SISHICRAFT Studio explores how handcraft can become a way of expressing vitality and feeling.

I remain open to working with other materials, but any new material would need to form a natural relationship with the concept of the work rather than being introduced only for visual effect. Every material carries its own weight, temperature and sense of time. If another medium can deepen the work’s relationship with life, nature or space, I would be interested in exploring it.

Vegetable-tanned leather, however, will remain at the heart of my practice. Its combination of softness and resilience, as well as its ability to retain the pressure of the hands and the passage of time, closely reflects the states of life I want to express. If other materials enter the work in the future, they will be there to create a dialogue with leather rather than replace it.