Preserving Flowers in Resin: Learn Bouquet Preservation Skills

Preserving Flowers in Resin Workshop with Botanica & FieldDuration: 3 hoursJoin us at The River Shop for a hands-on flower preservation workshop with guest teacher Botanica & Field, whose practice combines a love of nature, botanical knowledge, and thoughtful resin flower preservation.Designed for beginners and curious creatives, this workshop introduces you to the art of preserving flowers in resin—from preparing dried blooms to mixing and pouring resin, positioning flowers, and creating a beautiful floral keepsake.From Farm to Studio The flowers used in the workshop are grown and harvested on a family farm in Suffolk, then carefully dried and prepared before making their way to London. This journey from land to studio is an important part of the workshop, giving you an insight into the slower, more considered approach needed to successfully preserve flowers and create long-lasting resin pieces.What You'll Learn The workshop begins with an introduction to silica flower drying and preservation. You’ll learn why silica is used when preparing flowers for resin, how it helps maintain their colour and structure, and which types of flowers are best suited to resin encapsulation.You’ll then learn how to clean and prepare dried flowers for resin. This delicate preparation stage is essential for achieving a clear, beautiful finished piece. You’ll learn how to remove residual silica, assess whether flowers are ready for resin, and handle delicate botanical materials carefully.Next, you’ll be introduced to the fundamentals of working with resin.You’ll learn how to:

• Mix and handle resin safely
• Understand the different stages of curing
• Reduce and manage bubbles
• Position flowers within the resin
• Build layers for a balanced finished piece
• Pour resin with greater confidence

With guidance throughout, you’ll place your prepared flowers into a mould and create your own resin paperweight or larger floral keepsake, depending on the mould available during the session.Learn the Full Preservation Process Flower preservation in resin is a staged process, so a single piece cannot be completed from start to finish within three hours.To allow you to experience the complete process during the workshop, you’ll also work on a pre-cured demonstration piece. This allows you to practise the later stages of the process, from building additional layers through to the final pour.By working with both your own piece and a pre-cured piece, you’ll gain a better understanding of the full start-to-finish workflow involved in resin flower preservation.Take the Skills Home While this workshop does not involve preserving a full bouquet, the techniques you learn are directly applicable to larger bouquet preservation projects at home.You’ll leave with a better understanding of how to prepare flowers, work with resin, and approach the preservation process in stages—giving you the skills and confidence to continue experimenting with your own meaningful flowers beyond the workshop.Because resin flower preservation is a slow and considered process, pieces need adequate time to cure between stages. You’ll receive a finished resin piece once complete, along with the practical knowledge to continue your flower preservation journey.About Botanica & Field Botanica & Field brings together a deep connection to land, flowers, and sustainable creative practice, with a thoughtful approach to preserving botanical materials.Together with The River Shop’s focus on craftsmanship and learning through making, this special guest workshop offers a hands-on introduction to transforming delicate flowers into lasting resin keepsakes. Come along, learn the process, work with beautiful flowers, and discover how to preserve meaningful blooms in resin.

• Hands-on experience placing flowers into silica gel and learning the flower-drying process
• Guidance working with professionally pre-dried flowers for resin casting
• Step-by-step tuition in casting a floral resin cube
• The opportunity to design and create a botanical resin cube
• Insight into resin curing, demoulding, and finishing techniques
• Their finished resin cube cured, demoulded, and posted after the workshop
• All materials, tools, and PPE
• Optional upgrade: wooden LED light base

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