The Pressed Plant

About this book

These days trend-conscious tastemakers from Martha Stewart to the Pottery Barn are celebrating the art of the botanical specimen. Yet this art form has enjoyed popularity for centuries. This beautiful and lavishly illustrated book is the first to present botanical specimens herbaria and nature prints as artworks to be collected-and even created anew. This engaging interpretation of the colorful history of plant collection traces its progress from a hazardous natural science on eighteenth-century explorations to a fad among Victorian-era ladies and clergyman to a keen pursuit for todays art collectors garden enthusiasts and crafters. The Pressed Plant offers a thorough representation of four different art forms consisting of or created with actual plants: botanical specimens in which parts of or entire plants are attached to archival paper; herbaria or bound books holding a variety of plant specimens; nature prints images made directly from plants; and sun prints which are produced when a plant is placed on light-sensitive paper and exposed to the sun. A detailed appendix includes instructional material sources for materials and a collectors buying guide.