An interview with Mike & Rike of MR Studio London.

I originally wrote this for Table Magazine, a beautiful bi-annual publication that celebrates the people shaping our food culture. It really is special. You can read more of our work or buy a copy here.

I meet Mike and Rika on a wet and blustery February morning. The kind where one only dares erect their umbrella if prepared to wrestle with it. I am wet, slightly frazzled and cannot feel my feet when I knock at the door of their East London home.

Rika opens the door. She is wearing a blue cotton dress and has a smile so warm that even my icy feet seem to instantly thaw. Michael stands just behind her. Together they welcome me into their home.

We sit at their kitchen table beneath a chandelier of hanging plants. There are also plants on the window sill, in the next room, on the desk in the corner and on the kitchen table. I have always been fascinated by artists’ homes and studios (the two often overlapping). To be invited inside is a delicate privilege, offering a rare insight into their art and their magic.

The pot plants are not the only plants in this room. The more I look the more I notice. There are frames holding dried flowers. A single dried acorn leaf is pinned above the desk and all over the fridge are delicate tracing paper calendar pages with hand pressed blossoms. The room breathes a harmony between what is human and what is nature.

Mike and Rika have lived together for 10 years and worked together since 2012. They met whilst studying together at Chelsea Art School. Nature was always a theme in Rika’s work she tells me. She was interested in feminism and subjectivity and used flowers as a form of expression. ‘I have a habit of collecting and keeping things’ she says. The pressing of the flowers made sense. She began pressing flowers and making cards for friends and family at first before gradually doing more of it until it became her medium. ‘It just made sense’ she says.

Mike’s work was more sculptural, ‘minimal’ he says. He was interested in the use of ‘raw materials’ but ‘the longer we were together the more it made sense’. They would go for walks together and find things; flowers, leaves, shrubs. They’d press them together, experiment with pressing application, pressing time and pressure. It was exciting working within the constraints of ‘what was around us.’

I ask if the seasons are important to Mike and Rika’s work. The answer is very. They chuckle together as they recite tales of constant client requests for spring flowers in winter. ‘It doesn’t work like that’ says Rika with a smile. ‘We work with what is around us’.

Mike and Rika get up early each day usually around 5.00 o’clock. Mike will jump straight out of bed to make a coffee. He likes to grind the beans himself at home. ‘The flavour is better’ he says. Rika is slower in the morning. ‘I can hear him walking around’ she giggles. ‘It takes me a little longer’. She begins her day with warm water and light stretching. Then it is time for breakfast. For Mike it is porridge with all the toppings; peanut butter, raisins, nuts, banana…. my stomach groans quietly whilst I make a mental note to pick up oats and bananas on the way home. For Rika it is a traditional Japanese breakfast. Usually rice, miso soup, perhaps some leftovers from the night before. Rika does most of the cooking.  They eat what she describes as ‘simple food’, mainly plants and taking inspiration from her Japanese heritage.

She shares her recipe for a classic stir fry sauce. Mix 2 tablespoons miso paste with 2 tablespoons of sugar, a tablespoon of soy sauce and a good dose of grated ginger. ‘we usually use whatever veg we have in the fridge but it goes particularly well with aubergine, pepper, broccoli & cabbage.’ She says. The shop Rice Wine in Soho is where they go for good Japanese ingredients. ‘It’s much better than the Japan centre’ Rika says. They eat in most of the time but confess that they have a love for vegan junk food and will treat themselves now and again. We chat about the rise of vegan burger bars in London… tummies rumble once more.

The shelves are stacked with vintage containers and creamy coloured hand made ceramics. ‘We like hand made things’ they say. ‘It’s something we value.’ I ask about the incense burner burning quietly on the table. Despite being an appalling chemistry student I’m almost positive that it is made from a bunsen burner. ‘It is!’ Mike says with glee. ‘We couldn’t find one we loved so we thought it would be fun to make one ourselves’. I ask them if they’d ever consider doing workshops. ‘We thought about it’ Mike says but the ‘intimacy is so important to our work we worry it would be lost’.  ‘We love being guided by nature’ Rika says, ‘by what is around us’. Two years ago they started collecting dried and dead things as well as live flowers. ‘There isn’t much growing in winter’ Mike says so it meant ‘we had to be creative’. It is clear that they both love their work. I ask about their favourite projects. An installation at Botany, Chatsworth road is one they remember fondly. ‘We know the space’ Rika says, ‘it’s wonderful to create something for a space when you know it well.’ As well as their popular online shop Mike and Rika have done projects with brands such as Papier and Mooki Moo.

I cannot resist but ask for tips for the flower pressing novice. ‘Just try it’ Mike says. ‘Experiment with new things and don’t worry too much about the colour’. Think more about the form and the shape and perhaps use things you wouldn’t always be drawn to. ‘Work with the materials’ Rika adds, ‘we are always learning’.