About the Studio
Zena Holloway is a living systems designer and the founder of Rootfull. With over 25 years as an underwater photographer and creative director, she leverages her understanding of marine ecosystems to design with living materials. She cultivates textiles by guiding grass roots as they grow, using intricate beeswax templates.
This process takes twelve days and results in lightweight, natural fibre artefacts that echo the organic structures of marine life. Supported by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) and UK Innovate.
Statement
Rootfull explores the intersection of craft and biology, cultivating functional interior pieces directly from nature's own processes. By guiding plant roots to grow around carved beeswax templates, Zena Holloway transforms plant roots into contemporary lighting and artefacts that echo the forms and textures of marine life.
The work offers a glimpse into a regenerative future, blending meticulous craftsmanship with sustainable horticulture to create truly organic interiors.
For more information on process visit rootfull.com · @rootfull
Selected Works
Each piece is unique and made to order. To enquire, email [email protected].
01
Root Furrows
Grassroot · Natural Tones · 2025
A hanging panel grown entirely from grass roots guided over a beeswax template, resulting in a deeply ridged, furrowed surface that recalls ploughed earth or the striated muscle of a sea creature. Each piece is cultivated over twelve days and is wholly unrepeatable.
£750
105 × 55cm
02
Indigo Root Drop
Grassroot · Naturally Dyed with Indigo · 2025
A vertical hanging panel of grass roots naturally dyed with indigo after cultivation. The blue shifts and pools through the root structure, gathering deep in the tangles and fading at the edges — a textile that carries both the logic of plant growth and the ancient history of the dye.
£750
83 × 50cm
03
Indigo Root Panel
Grassroot · Naturally Dyed with Indigo · 2025
A wide horizontal panel grown from grass roots and naturally dyed with indigo. Where the Root Drop falls vertical and narrow, the Panel spreads wide — a broader canvas for the dye's gradations and the root system's lateral complexity. Each panel is cultivated and finished entirely by hand.
£750
105 × 45cm
