Helen Musselwhite

A celebration of all things handmade, our Firsthand campaign offers a behind-the-scenes look at the passion and the craft of makers from all around the world.

In our latest collaboration, we partner with a master in the art of paper engineering, Helen Musselwhite, to create a paper sculpture to display at our distillery.

Helen is an accomplished artist based in the North West of England. She has worked on a diverse range of commercial projects over the years including Royal Mail, Molton Brown and Hoegaarden.

Our traditional handmade approach to whisky making resonated with Helen who was inspired by our tasting notes to create a detailed three dimensional ‘world of Benromach’ out of paper.

A Personal Touch

Helen’s paper art is exceptionally detailed. Once she decides on her creative vision for a piece, Helen cuts, folds, scores and expertly layers various types and textures of paper to create intriguing and intricate paper sculptures.

Just like our whisky, Helen’s work is meticulously created by hand, requiring passion, patience, and a personal touch to bring it to life.

“In every project that I do there is a piece of me. That's what handmade is about; it's care and it's love. There's definitely a synergy between Benromach's process and mine. We share the handmade, the detail, the care, and the attention.” - Helen Musselwhite

A Taste of Benromach

Often taking inspiration from the world around her, we invited Helen to join us at Benromach distillery to experience how we make our whiskies.

Under the expert guidance of our distillery manager Keith Cruickshank, Helen participated in a tour and tasting to get a feel for Benromach’s character, our picturesque surroundings and our handmade approach to whisky making.

“To experience Benromach's whisky making process firsthand was really inspiring. Seeing how they make their single malts and the care that they take in making them, and all the different stages that it goes through, it really, really resonated with me. I was especially inspired by the tasting notes of the whisky; I had no idea that there was so much complexity.” - Helen Musselwhite

The World of Benromach

Helen’s ideas are fuelled initially by her imagination, picturing what the result could look like, thinking about what it communicates and how it can be crafted.

From there, she starts translating this idea to paper. Her process continues with the creation of tiny thumbnail sketches and consideration of different layers, depths and how the final piece will come together compositionally.

Helen comments on the simplicity of then flowing from a small sketch to thinking about paper type, texture, thickness and colour.

As with our core whisky ingredients coming together under the watchful eye of our distillers, all the elements of Helen's process contribute the overall arrangement with each piece playing a vital role in building an intricate paper world.

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A Winter Wonder

Visitors to our distillery in Forres will be invited to explore the metre-tall sculpture in detail this winter, taking a 360-degree tour of Helen’s intricate paper model. The final scene will feature key elements of Benromach distillery - including the stills, the chimney and the casks - as well as pieces inspired by our single malts' signature flavours and aromas.

To further share this celebration of handmade, aspects of the work will be recreated for window displays at selected sites in Edinburgh and London. Keep an eye on our social media channels for more information.

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