After following Rachel’s work for some time, we were thrilled when she agreed to collaborate with us on a series of bespoke artworks depicting the changing seasons. For this commission we picked seasonal flowers from the garden for Rachel to work with. 

Rachel’s process, adapted from a glass-casting technique learned in college, is deceptively simple. However it is Rachel’s deep understanding of her materials and process, her sense of composition, and her understanding of the natural world that come together to create these enchanting panels cast in plaster.

In her attic studio in her North London home, Rachel arranges our chosen flowers and presses the composition into wet clay to transfer all of the delicate details of the individual flowers. The flowers are then carefully removed, a wooden frame is placed on the clay and plaster is poured in and allowed to set. When the clay mould is peeled away, the plaster relief of the flowers is revealed. From this original piece, Rachel makes a silicon mould from which this cast in plaster was made. 

In a similar vein to the early Botanists who used nature printing and flower pressing to record the plants they discovered, Rachel makes plaster casts of plants and flowers that record all their texture, pattern, and delicacy in exquisite details. 

Seasonal flowers include hellebore, snakehead fritillary, butterfly ranunculus and forget me not.

Materials: Cast in plaster with a clay wash. As each tile is handmade, the colours can vary slightly. 

The tile has a hole in the back for hanging with a small nail.

Dimensions: 25cm x 25cm x 1.7cm