Casting Flowers: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Beautiful Botanical Art

by Rachel Dein, Juliet Roberts (With)

Overview

Artist Rachel Dein introduces readers to botanical bas-relief, an innovative and exciting technique developed by the author, one that anyone—gardener, parent, weekend crafter, or artist—can try at home in every season.  

Casting Flowers introduces botanical bas-relief as a rewarding method that encourages even the most basic beginners to revel in the ability to record a plant's texture, pattern, and delicacy in fine detail, creating compositions as small as a single stem or as complex as a field of wildflowers. All it takes is clay, flower, plants, and plaster. Artists can leave a finished piece bare and elegant, or experiment with painting on its surface, bringing the plants to life in color.  

From small plaster tiles featuring a single flower portrait to large panels that suggest an entire garden full of blooms, botanical castings reflect every artist’s desire to capture the ephemeral in nature. A meditative activity that encourages artists to explore their gardens and natural spaces for materials, botanical bas-relief teaches readers how to track the progress of the seasons, immortalizing the plants at the moment when they are most alive. With accessible instructions, stunning photography of the process from start to finish, and insights into the artist's own garden, readers will discover: 

   ·Step-by-step guidance on the tools and equipment needed to set up a simple workspace
   ·What plants work best in botanical casts, and which to avoid
   ·How to arrange flowers and stems to make well-balanced artistic compositions
   ·Tips on creating unique pieces of artwork as mementos of a season or records of special occasions

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643263465
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Pages:	220
Sales rank:	378,791
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.85(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Rachel Dein studied Fine Art at Middlesex University, then trained as a prop maker for the English National Opera and worked as a freelancer for 15 years at numerous theatres and museums, including Madame Tussauds, the Royal Opera House and Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Throughout this time Dein continued to work on personal art projects. Having stopped freelancing to look after her three young children, she began casting small plaster tiles in her studio at home. Dein exhibited at a local gallery and immediately began getting commissions for her botanical bas-reliefs. Her art has been published in Elle Decoration, House & Garden, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Gardens Illustrated, Period Living, Country Life, The Daily Telegraph, Martha Stewart Living, The Irish Times and Gardenista. Recent books that feature her work include In Bloom, Cast and The Botanical Bible. Previous exhibitions include: The Cambridge Darkroom Gallery, Ben Uri Gallery, Hampstead School of Art and the Aga Khan Centre Gallery. Rachel has exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London for almost a decade. She was artist-in-residence for the National Trust’s Hidcote Manor Gardens 2018-19 and Nunnington Hall 2022-23. Her website is www.racheldein.com.

Editorial Reviews

03/17/2025

This pleasant debut from Dein shows how to create bas-reliefs of plants. The basic process involves using a rolling pin to press flowers into clay, removing the plants, and then pouring plaster into a wooden frame placed on top of the clay, which is later peeled off to reveal the relief image. Breaking down each step, Dein offers pointers on arranging flowers, recommending that readers position stems at slight angles to make them look more naturalistic. When working with plaster, Dein advises plugging any leaks in the frame with clay and contends that leaving some of the clay on the finished cast can help accentuate finer details. The process for every seasonal project is virtually identical, differing only in which plants are recommended for the designated time of year. For instance, an early summer project involves positioning circular nasturtium leaves face up to create something resembling a polka dot pattern, and one autumn piece entails filling the lower half of a clay slab with an oak branch, fern leaf, and blackberry bramble. The comprehensive instructions provide all readers need to get started casting, and explanations on how to create reliefs from concrete or layer different colored plasters highlight the creative possibilities of the medium. Crafters will be inspired. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Whether in small tiles with a single flower portrait or large panels that suggest an entire garden full of blooms, Rachel Dein’s botanical castings reflect her desire to capture the ephemeral. They track the progress of the seasons, marking the plants at the moment when they are most alive. It is as if she has distilled the flowers’ essence into her tiles, each one the memory of nature itself."—Ngoc Minh Ngo, author of Bringing Nature Home and In Bloom

"Casting Flowers tells the story of a fleeting moment of glory before each plant depicted has faded – their texture, pattern and delicacy rendered rich in the plaster casting."—Sorrel Everton, Gardens Illustrated

“Since the earliest civilizations in China, ancient Egypt, and Minoan Crete, people have wanted to catch and keep the ephemeral beauty of the flowers that in nature fade too soon. Rachel Dein has devised, and practiced now for many years, a dazzling form of preservative art in which transient beauty is held for years to come at its moment of perfection. What she makes is that miraculous thing: the everlasting garden.”—Sarah Raven, author of A Year Full of Pots

“This pleasant debut from Dein shows how to create bas-reliefs of plants... The comprehensive instructions provide all readers need to get started casting, and explanations on how to create reliefs from concrete or layer different colored plasters highlight the creative possibilities of the medium. Crafters will be inspired.”—Publishers Weekly

“Demonstrates the subtle artistry of casted flowers. Readers will want to look up many flowers and plants as they craft.”—Booklist

From the Publisher