Rosie Butler

Blooming Into Self

Rosie Butler is a final year Textile Design student, whose project symbolises personal growth and strength.

What is your project?

Blooming into Self is a couture textile project that uses the flower’s life cycle as a metaphor for personal growth, healing, and transformation. Rooted in themes of mental health and resilience, it translates lived experiences—such as struggles with confidence and an eating disorder—into richly crafted, tactile expressions. Combining 3D hand embroidery with graphic print, the collection explores layered surfaces, organic forms, and tonal transitions to reflect emotional evolution. 

Why did you choose this concept?

I chose Blooming into Self as a concept because it offered a powerful, poetic framework to explore personal growth through a visual and tactile language. Drawing on my own experiences with self-worth and recovery, I was compelled to translate themes of resilience, fragility, and transformation into stitch. The metaphor of a flower’s life cycle allowed me to reflect emotional evolution in a nuanced and symbolic way, while embroidery—intimate and deliberate—became a means to honour vulnerability and turn it into something quietly powerful and enduring.

What processes have you been using?

Traditional techniques such as raised work and fabric manipulation are used to sculpt three-dimensional floral forms, symbolising emotional emergence and fragility. Goldwork threads delicately catch the light, adding quiet richness and reinforcing the sense of treasured detail. Interwoven digital prints, featuring collaged childhood imagery, act as embedded memory fragments—creating a dialogue between the visible and the concealed. Each method carries emotional weight: raised elements suggest growth and healing, while contrasting textures reflect the tension between inner strength and vulnerability. 

What do you hope to achieve with your project?

With Blooming into Self, I hope to share a part of my own journey in a way that others can relate to or find comfort in. This project is about more than just making something beautiful—it's about expressing emotions I once struggled to put into words. Through stitch, texture, and form, I want to show that growth can come from even the most fragile places, and that there’s strength in being open and honest about your story. 

How has my course helped me to prepare for working on my project?

My course has given me the technical skills, creative freedom, and critical insight needed to bring Blooming into Self to life. Through experimenting with both traditional and contemporary embroidery techniques, I’ve learned how to communicate ideas through material and process. The support and structure of the course have encouraged me to push boundaries, refine my practice, and develop a deeper understanding of how textiles can tell powerful, personal stories.