About Rachel Dein

I make plaster casts of plants and flowers which record all their texture, pattern, and delicacy in fine detail. My compositions can be as simple as a single stem or as complex as a field of wildflowers, leaves, and grasses.

My method is deceptively simple. Flowers and foliage are arranged and pressed onto wet clay. Once the plants are removed a wooden frame is placed on the clay and the plaster is poured in and allowed to set. The clay is then peeled away, and the plaster cast is pushed out of its frame. I then wash off most of the surface clay, leaving traces to enhance the detail.

Whether in small tiles with a single flower portrait, or large panels that suggest an entire garden full of blooms, my botanical castings reflect my desire to capture the ephemeral. They track the progress of the seasons, marking the plants at the moment when they are most alive. Like a fossil of long forgotten plants, each plaque is a ghostly vestige of time, an act of remembering: a summer day in the garden, a perfect magnolia at its peak, or the first daffodils of Spring.

I started casting plants in 2011, originally as ‘Tactile Studio’. I called my technique ‘botanical bas-relief’, and it has now become a popular technique used by artists and students around the world.