Write to the studio
One inbox, one desk, one person reading it.
Orders, prints, commissions, licensing, press, trade. It all arrives in the same place, and it is all answered by hand.
- Answered by hand, by the person who drew the plates
- A reply within two working days
- Your details are used to answer you, and nothing else
- Writing does not subscribe you to anything
Fiurdelin is a botanical illustration studio on Lake Como, Italy, that draws plants, fungi, and insects from specimens and sells the work as fine-art prints and digital plates. See the full range of botanical art prints.
You write. Say what you need, and add an order number or a link if there is one.
I read it myself. Every message lands in the studio inbox, sorted by subject.
You get a reply. Within two working days, from a person, with an actual answer.
Tell me what you need
Five fields. Choose the subject and the message reaches the right part of the studio.
Three things you do not need to ask for
If one of these is why you came, the answer is a click away. The form is for everything else.
How a message is handled
The same hand
The person who answers is the person who drew the plate. That is the whole studio, and it is not a figure of speech.
Two working days
Usually fewer. Longer only when the studio is away hanging a show, which the reply will say.
A straight answer
If something does not fit, you get a no rather than a slow maybe. Both of us have drawings to get back to.
Nothing passed on
Your details are held to answer you and for nothing else. Writing is not a subscription in disguise.
The questions that arrive most weeks
How long will I wait for a reply?
Two working days, often the same one. Botanical illustration runs on slow time and email does not, and I try to keep the two from arguing. If a week goes by in silence, look in the folder your mail client reserves for things it has privately decided are advertising. Studio mail lands there more often than either of us would like. Write again. I would rather answer twice than not at all.
I bought a digital plate and the file will not open.
Send the order number above and tell me what you are opening it on. The plates are large files built for printing, and a phone will occasionally decide to be helpful with a large file in ways nobody asked for. Nine times in ten, that is the whole story. I can send the file again directly.
Where is my print, and can I still change the size?
Each print is made when it is ordered, so the tracking arrives with the confirmation rather than before it. Send me the number and I will chase it. Size and format can usually still be changed before the paper is loaded, and that window is measured in hours.
Can I commission a drawing?
Tell me the specimen, roughly the size, and when you need it. A drawing takes as long as it takes to understand the plant, and that is not a schedule anyone can shorten by working faster. Sometimes the answer is no. You will get it quickly rather than slowly, which is the more useful kind of no.
Can I use one of the drawings?
Probably, and the way to find out is to ask. A book cover, a wine label, a menu, a wall in a business: none of that comes with a print or a file, because the drawing itself stays with the studio. What it needs is a licence, and a licence starts as a conversation about where the work would appear and for how long. Choose “licensing or image use” in the form and tell me the idea.
I am furnishing a hotel, a restaurant or a spa.
There is a whole page for that, with a form that asks about rooms and walls instead of one open question. Start at the trade consultation page. If you have already typed it all out here, do not type it twice: choose “trade, hotels or wholesale” and it lands on the same desk.