How are these bas reliefs done?

It takes at least 6 hours of work and a week of time to make each tile. Even a modest 15sm one. And each of the is one of a kind.

Every time I come to a place I love and wonder around my favourite fields, parks or valleys I collect the botanical souvenirs an activity so pleasant it scarcely qualifies as work, which is precisely why it ends so quickly.

Week in past but now much stronger arms meet the clay. It’s persuaded with firm arguments, then rolled, measured, and rolled again until it pretends to be perfect. The plants are laid in place, and breathing is suspended. Pressing them in without a blemish requires the tact of a diplomat; a wrinkle in the clay causes more panic than one appearing on my face.

Then I hope for a sun to set later as the next hour I spend with a jewellery tweezers picking up all the specks the plants left while being pulled out.

Such meditation speeds up at this stage - liquid gypsum races into the form, then sits in silence for an hour.

And that’s where the work begins. Release feels like triumph, but it is merely intermission. Clay is coaxed away, the cast dried, then brushed, rubbed, and polished until it looks effortless — an achievement that costs another two or three hours and a very patient week. Should someone find it beautiful the effort worth a try.