“FOR ME MAKING IS MORE THAN JUST PRODUCING; IT'S A WAY TO RE-ENGAGE WITH THE NATURAL WORLD. INNOVATING TRADITIONAL CRAFT PRACTICES, LIKE FLOWER PRESSING, GOES BEYOND METHODS; IT'S ABOUT MODERNISING OUR HERITAGE AND FOSTERING SUSTAINABILITY." ."
Shannon Clegg creates botanical sculptures using a unique hand-moulding technique and fresh-cut flowers, such as Statice and Kangaroo Paw. She reimagines the traditional craft process of flower pressing. From her investigations in traditional ceramic and millinery mould-making techniques, she has created a mould-making technique to form and press real plant material to create vase-like sculptures.
To develop the process, she based her research at The Herbarium at The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, looking through archival methods for storing pressed flowers and equipment used by botanists to collect flowers from around the world. She then investigated various traditional mould-making techniques. The technique involves handmaking moulds that are used to shape the plant material over several weeks after which they are preserved to help retain the flower’s colour and shape.
