One Year On – Catching up with Natasha Hulse – RHS Virtual Chelsea 2020

It’s a year to the day since the Chelsea Artisans took up residence in their retreats in Ranelagh gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

With the greatest flower show in the world going online for the first time in its 107-year history due to the COVID crisis we couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic.

What better way to relive the show’s highlights but through the experiences of some of the artisans from the cohort of 2019? We also couldn’t resist finding out what doors have been opened for them since exhibiting and where they see themselves in the future.

Natasha Hulse

Chelsea Flower Show 2019 was a ‘launching platform’ for Natasha Hulse’s business which is just three years old. “It definitely widened my clientele. In fact, quarantine has meant that I’ve had the time to catch up on projects commissioned on the back of the show.”

Show Highlights

She admits the whole show was a massive high for her. On past visits to the flower show Natasha found herself in the plateau watching the artisans beavering away, wishing she could be one of them one day.

“The artisan studio was the first time I had a whole space to myself at a show. I received such positive feedback on press day and couldn’t believe it when the Duchess of Cambridge stopped by at my studio to look at my work.”

She describes the royal visit as something of an “outer body experience”. She’d heard that the royals very rarely visit the Artisan Area at Chelsea. Natasha was taking a break sitting on the porch of her studio when the Duchess paid her visit – albeit a flying one as she didn’t want to keep the Queen waiting.

Commissions

Since exhibiting at Chelsea, Natasha has featured in a number of glossies, including English Home and Country Homes & Interiors. In the March issue House & Garden named her in their ‘One’s to Watch’ article. She even made her TV debut in Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas filmed in an August heatwave surrounded by baubles and tinsel.

Her commissions read like a who’s who of interior brands – Lucy Eadie, Ken Fulk and Kit Kemp. Her most recent project is a wall display waiting to be installed (when life returns to something like normal) at Bergdorf Goodman – a luxury department store on 5th Avenue, New York. It’s a meadow scene with floating blossoms hanging from the ceiling and florals creeping down the bannister.

Natasha’s order book has also been filled with lots of commissions in private homes. She likes nothing more than visiting an area of London she thought she knew and being invited into amazing properties that fold out and down and end in large gardens that feel like they are in the countryside. “It’s almost like being in Alice in Wonderland disappearing down the rabbit hole”.

Future Plans

In the future Natasha plans to continue with bespoke projects but also start to design ceramics and fabric prints to make her work more accessible. Prompted by lockdown, Natasha’s future plans also include a touring adventure in a camper van in the Scottish Highlands.

To find out more about Natasha, her process and her artwork, check out our interview with her from last year here.