credit Helen Brook
Nature’s Imprint – Create your own flower press & press collected flowers
Tuesday 25th March: 1:30pm – 3:00pm
Tuesday 22nd April: 1:30pm – 3:00pm
To take part in this workshop, you must be able to attend both sessions.
Join environmental artist Helen Brook to craft your own flower press from recycled books and paper, before pressing locally collected flowers to create beautiful, preserved nature artwork. This workshop offers a meditative experience of pressing flowers, preserving their delicate forms, and reconnecting with nature.
Workshop Structure
This workshop will be delivered across two sessions, lasting 1.5 hours each, with four weeks between them to allow the flowers to press:
🌿 Session 1: Create your own flower press and press collected flowers. Bring your own nature finds or use those provided that have been collected around Selby, and leftover abbey’s floral displays.
🎨 Session 2: Use your pressed flowers to design artwork with compostable glue and recycled paper to take home.
🌍 Community Art Project: A portion of each participant’s pressed flowers will contribute to a large-scale community artwork, temporarily displayed at Community House.
🌱 Materials provided, but feel free to bring your own picked flowers or leaves to the first session to use in the flower press. We will use approximately 10 to 20 flowers or leaves, depending on size, per person. Before picking any plants, please read the following information:
!! When collecting flowers, ensure you have permission to pick them, avoid protected areas, and steer clear of potentially harmful or poisonous plants and protected species. Always handle unknown plants with care and wear gloves when collecting specimens.
For comprehensive guidance on identifying and avoiding poisonous plants, you can refer to the Royal Horticultural Society’s list of potentially harmful garden plants.
Our Zero Selby and Helen Brook cannot be held responsible for any injuries or adverse reactions resulting from plant collection for this workshop.
This workshop forms part of Helen’s Environmental Artist Residency at Selby Abbey, part of Now Then! – a new programme for Selby, Sherburn and Tadcaster steered and developed by a partnership of community and cultural organisations.
