Alisha Webel
Flora and Shroom
Alisha is the face and hands behind ‘Flora and Shroom’. She is a self-taught botanical artist predominantly working with paper. Surrounded by a very creative family, Alisha’s artistic journey started from a young age, spending all her spare time creating art. Alisha found the art of paper flowers through creating her friend’s wedding flowers back in 2018. She then started ‘Forever in Flower’, selling her handmade paper flowers at farmers markets, creating custom bouquets and later, creating paper terrariums. After years of not finding much success selling at these markets Alisha decided to re-brand and pivot her business, focusing on the paper terrariums and botanicals. After an extended break from selling at markets Alisha jumped back in at the end of 2024 unveiling the magical ‘Flora and Shroom’ at her first artist market. Flora and Shroom has given Alisha a new joy attending artist markets around Brisbane, allowing her to further explore her love of nature and botanical art and to continue to share her whimsical creations with other passionate nature and art lovers.
What makes my products special
Flora and Shroom’s paper terrariums and botanicals are all handmade by Alisha in her home studio in Petrie, North Brisbane. All her creations are made from hand-painted paper alongside an array of other materials. These include florist wire, glue, crepe paper, pebbles, charcoal, logs, bark, preserved moss and mostly up-cycled or sometimes store bought glass jars. Alisha’s creations are either hand cut or machine cut, then shaped, embossed and assembled by hand. Extra details are added using watercolour or acrylic paint, coloured pencils, pens and pan pastels. Alisha also designs all her templates from scratch, using real botanicals (if she can get her hands on them), botanical illustrations and photos of real botanicals as a reference.
The one thing Alisha would love most for people to know about her products is the time involved. Creating handmade paper botanicals is a very time consuming art form. The time dedicated to the design process is often immeasurable. Each mushroom, flower or plant takes hours or often days of experimenting back and forth with shaping paper, tweaking templates and testing colours, just to name a few. Alisha also takes the time to add extra details to really capture the essence of each botanical. So, as found in nature, each paper creations is completely unique and you won’t find creations quite like Alisha’s anywhere else.