We are delighted to welcome Shannon Clegg for a three-month special showcase at Flow Gallery. South African-born Shannon Clegg is a designer-maker based in East London who looks to innovate traditional craft processes to create objects that connect people to nature. Her three-dimensional botanical sculptures are created using a unique hand-moulding technique that she developed, using real fresh-cut flowers like Statice and Kangaroo Paw.

Shannon looked to reimagine the traditional craft process of flower pressing. By investigating various traditional ceramic and millinery mould-making techniques, she created a unique hand moulding technique to form and press real plant material three-dimensionally to create vase-like sculptures. 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. The final sculptural forms made from a delicate lattice of stems stand unfettered by a vase.

Her flower sculptures look to biophilic design, which reflects the human desire to connect with nature in the built environment for well-being reasons by integrating natural elements into one’s interior space.