Illustrator Ulrike Marais explores grief and memory in her insect-themed cookbook picture book

Completed arsenic portion of her MA successful illustration astatine Falmouth University, Omi's Dinner Party sees a family of ladybirds activity together to make a bid of recipes. There's much to this bunch of cooking critters than meets nan eye, though, arsenic their communicative is cosmopolitan and taps into difficult topics of grief, decease and representation that nevertheless request to beryllium talked about.

Beautifully realised pinch a operation of accepted and integer mediums, Omi's Dinner Party is simply a feast for nan eyes arsenic good arsenic nan soul. While nan operation of insects and recipes mightiness look an overseas measurement to talk specified weighty topics, Ulrike makes clear really different factors of her life person travel together successful this beautiful story.

"Our family life has ever been centred successful our kitchen, successful my puerility home," she tells Creative Boom. "My puerility memories are of days spent cooking jam pinch my mum, baking Christmas biscuits pinch my sister aliases spending clip pinch family astatine nan room table."

After nan nonaccomplishment of her mother, Ulrike started to navigator her recipes arsenic a measurement to bent connected to her memory. The sensation of these meals transported her correct backmost to childhood, truthful she mixed her emotion of these recipes pinch her emotion for ladybugs and her mum to create a heart-warming tribute.

As Ulrike says, nutrient is an incredibly potent awesome successful her life. As good arsenic being location to create happy memories, it is besides intrinsically linked to sad ones. "The time my mother passed away, she had made a sandwich for my father," she reveals. "I callback it truthful well, really he ate it slowly, mourning but savouring nan past repast my mother had prepared for him."

Memories for illustration these are truthful tethered to condolences and imagination that Ulrike thought they fitted perfectly into nan mean of a image book. "Reflecting connected one's representation erstwhile crafting a image book is truthful valuable arsenic it is utterly unsocial to you," she says. "It enables you to travel backmost into nan past, to relive moments and emotions."

Taste tin beryllium a powerful trigger erstwhile it comes to these nostalgic feelings. According to Ulrike, recipes associated pinch typical occasions aliases events tin thief create a amended knowing of "selfhood". They do this by taking you backmost to an idealised past, 1 wherever nan group you prepared meals pinch were still location to bask them pinch you.

This realisation leads to Ulrike leafing done nan look books of her mother and grandmother. After reference done nan pages of these meticulously handwritten books, she decided to recreate their contents to observe her. "It was a measurement to relive a moment, a representation successful nan room pinch my mother."

Every look successful nan book relates to these cookbooks and nan memories of Ulrike's childhood. "Take, for example, nan goulash recipe, traditionally a Hungarian beef stew recipe," says Ulrike. "My mother utilized to navigator it for america arsenic children; it's a very hearty, spicy stew. It was besides nan first look and repast my dada could navigator and hole for himself aft my mother died.

"She was his everything. She cared for him, and I've had to watch him re-learn and study galore caller ways of living, which is why I besides included it successful nan cookbook. A mini triumph for america arsenic a family."

Every communicative needs characters, though, and successful Omi's Dinner Party, they conscionable hap to beryllium ladybugs. Having grown up pinch an Afrikaans begetter and German mother successful South Africa, Ulrike utilized to emotion proceeding German folktales and looking astatine nan illustrations of Fritz Baumgarten. Her emotion of insects and ladybugs emerged from these stories and has stayed ever since.

"Using ladybugs besides helped pinch nan taxable matter," she adds. "It was rewarding but incredibly difficult to perpetually look your grief, truthful I created this imaginative world and characters. While they mightiness look a spot fantastical, they provided a comfortable obstruction which I needed to decorativeness nan book."

The inclusion of ladybugs surely helps to make nan themes and communicative much accessible. Ulrike adds that nan consciousness of honesty which underlines nan book besides makes condolences much palatable and encourages a process whereby readers tin relive their ain memories. It's 1 of nan galore unsocial perks of nan image book format.

"As a children's illustrator and being an adult, I emotion image books," says Ulrike. "I've learnt truthful overmuch from them, truthful I approached my task pinch nan aforesaid appreciation. But if I were to get down to nan nitty-gritty, I would opportunity that nan recipes successful nan book are geared towards adults arsenic they will beryllium preparing and reference done them, but nan characters are much geared towards children and their imaginations."

And, of course, Ulrike's exquisite illustrations further thief to show nan communicative of Omi's Dinner Party, which is nan consequence of a lengthy process of experimentation. "I was messing astir pinch printmaking, Lino and a shape of printing utilizing aged oat beverage cartons," she says.

"It was a beautiful process that I thought would beryllium really nosy to use, but it didn't suit nan taxable matter, truthful I mixed collage and drafting utilizing my 104-year-old grandmother's look books. I made copies, of course, and utilized them to make a collage.

"Her handwritten words travel done nan shades of pastel and pencil, giving nan illustrations a beautiful texture. However, I had to activity difficult to equilibrium each nan elements, techniques and materials."