This Amsterdam Maker Crafts Old Masters-Worthy Arrangements from an Unexpected Material

It would be many years later, after having children, that a new chapter of creativity blossomed for the artist. While baking a Barbie cake for her daughter’s birthday, she decided to try embellishing the dress with tiny sugar flowers. “Flowers have always been a part of my being, and in the Netherlands, we have access to the most beautiful ones,” Sadi says. “That’s when I discovered there was this disconnect between sugar flowers and the flowers we had at the table, and I thought, what if I could try and emulate what I have right in front of me?”

The thought led Sadi to give up her bridal business and partake in a passionate, year-long sabbatical spent sculpting flowers from sugar paste. “The fact that I could start something in the morning and have this flower in my hand at the end of the day gave me so much fulfillment,” she explains.

The artist shares photographs of these arrangements on her popular Instagram page, and sells a collection of coveted, limited-edition fine art prints on her website. Beyond their obvious beauty, however, what makes her art so resonant is the deep-rooted meaning behind every composition. With each sculpted flower, she addresses The Netherlands’ complicated colonial history, and honors her African and Indonesian ancestors who labored in the sugarcane fields of Suriname centuries ago.

“I firmly believe we are guided by our ancestors and none of us would be where we are without the steps they’ve taken before us,” she says. “Working with sugar, knowing the toll it had taken, of course, gave some mixed feelings. So every flower that I create and I get to show to this world, it is with the efforts that my ancestors have taken before me.”

Today, Sadi works in a sunlit kitchen in her historic canal house just ten minutes by bike from the city’s renowned Rijksmuseum. There, masterpieces by the likes of Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Rachel Ruyscht, and Maria Sibylla Merian inspire her deeply. In lieu of podcasts or music, she prefers creating in silence, dissecting each flower, and studying its anatomy, texture, color, and imperfection. “It takes an extraordinary amount of time for me to make these blooms,” she says, explaining that one flower can take up to a week to compose. That’s because every petal is rolled, shaped, and painted individually. “There is no cut and paste.”

Those lucky enough to be traveling through The Netherlands’ capital city can partake in a private masterclass at Sadi’s home, while others glean her wisdom from her monograph, A Sweet Floral Life: Romantic Arrangements for Fresh and Sugar Flowers (Ten Speed Press). In its pages, she reveals everything from photography tips to sponge cake recipes, step-by-step tutorials for making sugared cherry blossoms and bulbous tulips, along with her abiding love of Dutch Delftware vases.

In November, the artist is participating in a new exhibition at The Hague’s Kunstmuseum entitled, “Grand Dessert – The History of Dessert.” There, her blooms will be installed in two rare, museum-quality Delftware spout vases. Regardless of what she’s making and for whom, Sadi’s work is a timeless tribute to life’s ephemerality and beauty at every stage. “Sugar flower making has given me so much,” she shares with a smile. “It is a botanical journey.”