Preserved plant Wall - workshop

in Build-It4 years ago (edited)



Another busy week, trying to hit a deadline. A client wanted a wall in their office decorated with plant matter and evidently, since Covid happen and my sculpture work has had to take a back seat, I was roped in to do it.

I have never made anything like this before and had no idea how exactly to do it. But I was happy to exercise some of my gray matter with a great learning experience.



The plants I had to use are preserved plants. So, even though they are dead they are mummified to make them last without any watering or maintenance. It seems that this is the fashion at the moment in office design, giving the appearance they like nature but making sure it is all dead and doesn't need someone to take care of it. I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, it can look quite interesting and soften the cold lines of a man-made structure but on the other hand, it is more theatre and does nothing for the air quality of the space nor the envoronment but, what would I know, I'm a sculpture.



The Master plan

I decided to do the main body of the work off-site. I like privacy as I make my mistakes and since this was a first I figured there would be a few. I didn't want an audience and also the building site had lots of dust and noise which would not be conducive to my creativity.

I took some measurement and then retired to the relative comfort of a warehouse. You can see where my 5 years of Art and Design college paid off in my great sketching ability.



Modus operandi

I devised to make the whole thing on panels of MDF/ wood and then do the final finessing on location. So I cut the pieces to size making sure they would fix through doors and stairwell at the office.

As a ground plain, I used preserved moss. This comes in a big box which covers around 3 meters when you take away all the bad bits. I would stick this down with lashings and lashings of glue.



Here and there I stuck some mounds of oasis to break up the surface a bit. This is a great material usually used for flower arranging, easy to form and nice and light. It also made a great place to anchor the plants when placing them through the moss.



Implanting

I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to add the plants yet but then it dawned on me that if the glue was still wet under the moss it would also hold onto the stems of the plants when I pushed them through. I would just have to work quickly and with this job, it was a necessity as I had just five days from start to finish.



I did think about doing the whole thing standing up against a wall like it would finally stand but gravity might have become an issue until the glue set.

With all the moss on I was lucky that the warehouse had a mezzanine where I could get a birds-eye view. Working with the moss is like a big crazy jigsaw with every piece a different shade of green.



Then on to the plants. I used four different types of preserved plants and one artificial Begonia as it added a splash of purple colour in a sea of green. The stems were just strong enough to push through the moss and stick to the wood and oasis below.

It felt a bit like the way they add hair implants to a bald head. Slowly but surely I built up the layers working as quickly and loosely as I could while the glue was still wet.



Biomimicry

I was up and down like Billyo to my vantage point to see how it looked. Trying to make it look natural should have been easy but I was running out of time and needed to get everything on site. I knew there would be some patching needed but I really needed to see everything together to get it balanced so I brought it to this stage in the warehouse.



On-site I needed to trim the panels a bit to make them fit. Every wall in the place was a parallelogram and they had made a few changes since I last visited. I just screwed through into the wall and then patched the corner with more glue and moss. Then added more plants all over to fill it in and make it look like it had just grown there.



I was quite happy with how the whole thing worked out, and so were the people I did it for. I was the last to leave the site on Friday evening and didn't get any feedback from the client just yet. I hope they like it. If they don't, they can just use a hedge cutter.

I hope we all learned something from this, I know I have and I predict it won't be the last one I am called on to do. With my lack of sculpture action at the moment, I am just glad I am getting to do something creative and working with my hands.

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Good job! Although that won't need the maintenance of a living plant wall, it will get dusty...

Sorry for delay. You are right I also imagine that Dust will become a big issue, Maybe I will be back with a feather duster like a little fairy.
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giving the appearance they like nature but making sure it is all dead and doesn't need someone to take care of it

That's kind of lame, if businesses were actually as serious about creating jobs as they shrilly screech that they are, maintaining plants coulc create a hell of a lot of jobs, but we all know that isn't the case.

what would I know, I'm a sculpture

Sculptor maybe? I guess your wife probably thinks you have all the fine chiselled lines of a sculpture ;D

I like privacy as I make my mistakes

On the one hand fair, on the other hand when I was editing my streaming recordings (or just straight up recordings back when I did recordings x_x) I left all the mistakes in mostly because I'd seen more beginner artists despairing because for some reason they thought anyone further up along the path than they were somehow made no mistakes ever so I wanted to dispel that particular myth XD

Can absolutely understand wanting to escape construction work noise however, not the best environment for some types of arty shenanigans!

Good thing you were in a warehouse, that flower arranging base gets EVERYWHERE x_x and that mezzanene floor looks a bit hazardous XD

The plant feature wall turned out great, wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they dragged you back to do more in the rest of the building :)

That's kind of lame, if businesses were actually as serious about creating jobs as they shrilly screech that they are, maintaining plants coulc create a hell of a lot of jobs, but we all know that isn't the case.

This is an issue I am dealing with, For myself, it is great that I have the work at the moment but the company I work fors bread and butter is the maintenance of plants. This kind of work is nice and all but it does not lead to repeat business. Luckily the client also wanted some other living plants. So all was not lost

Sculptor maybe? I guess your wife probably thinks you have all the fine chiselled lines of a sculpture ;D

At one time I was like a Michael Anglo but now more like a Rubens

On the one hand fair, on the other hand when I was editing my streaming recordings (or just straight up recordings back when I did recordings x_x) I left all the mistakes in mostly because I'd seen more beginner artists despairing because for some reason they thought anyone further up along the path than they were somehow made no mistakes ever so I wanted to dispel that particular myth XD

Being a public sculptor has toughened me up but with this first time making this sort of work I was happy with the relative privacy of the warehouse to figure out what I was doing.

Sorry again @ryivhnn for my long delay in replying. There just are not enough hours in my week.
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Seriously doon't stress about delays in replying. Message histories are a click away so it's not like I'll have too much trouble recalling the conversation, you took what time you could to reply and that's plenty good enough :)

Totally relate to not enough hours in the week x_x

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I love awesome projects like this! Its been a while since I was active on the platform. Are you the guy who used to so the sand castles?

Hi, Yes that is me. I am still doing the sand but this last year and a bit has had me doing a few other things to keep food on the table. I still have lots of sand sculptures to share but wanted to try some other content Of what I'm up to now,

I remember you from before, glad you are back posting.
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Beautiful result 😍 Very elegant

Thank you Caroline.
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Long time no visiting your block.
I am always amazed by your creativity, extraordinary thought.

Anyway, I am curious about the two wheels that look there, whether it is a vehicle for children.