Don't Eat the Chocolates!

These chocolates are not real but the amazing creations of textile artist Robyn Rich who uses fabrics and other materials to achieve realistic interpretations of foods. The chocolates are made of satin lining and cotton embroidery thread.

How exquisite are the cabbages? All creations are quite labour intensive. The cabbage for example is made of 100% cotton cheese cloth, cotton wadding, wire, thread and paint. Each cabbage takes about 13 hours of work! Robyn begins with very plain fabrics then stitches and paints them.

Where does the inspiration come for this work? In Robyn's words: "My inspiration initially came from volunteering my time at The Johnston Collection and creating a whole Christmas Dinner with a group of my friends out of fabric. Then after seeing peoples' reactions and how they were fascinated by the food, I decided to continue and see what other foods I could create. I am also constantly fascinated by peoples relationships with food, it gives us life, but it can also rule our lives.

I have never had a good relationship with food as so many foods have made me sick, because I have Fructose Malabsorption. I developed quite a fear of food, so I think this is my way of dealing with it, I have looked at its aesthetics and its beauty and brought that to life. My aim is to make people take notice of foods beauty and hopefully to make them smile. My food won't make anyone sick, it won't leave a bad taste in anyones mouth, it won't put on calories, and it won't go off. It is a lovely alternative to flowers in the middle of the table and a plate of cookies on the sideboard make you look as though you are always baking, I even have a trailing pea vine that winds it's way around a light fitting in my kitchen instead of a ceiling rose."

Lamb Dinner - so realistic, don't you think?

Jam Tarts - notice the lovely beading on top.

Robyn's work is available exclusively from Zeega or you can contact her directly through her website. All photos are courtesy of Rich Creations.