'Flora for Thought' VIN + OMI x Daler-Rowney

The Other House South Kensington commissioned VIN + OMI to make an eco-flower display outside their hotel building. The display was commissioned to replace traditional non-sustainable flower displays that coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show. The installation also marked the start of a collaboration with the Kensington and Chelsea Foundation. The foundation was launched with a cabbage dinner which highlighted the disparity of wealth in the borough and showed how three courses of food could be produced from the humble cabbage.

The installation was made from a variety of processes:

– Milk cartons from King Charles’ Sandringham Estate were processed into a new foam-like material with plant-based additives. These were made into large flowers and the white centres of the flowers.

– Aluminium cans were melted down to make stamens and the centres of some of the flowers. Cabbages were also used for some of the flower centres, to complement the cabbage-themed dinner. Discarded plastic groundsheets were made into cabbage flowers. Plastic was also pressed into leaf moulds to make foliage.

– A range of rPET textiles was made from waste plastic collected from the VIN + OMI UK clean-up schemes via their foundation. The schemes collect plastic washed up on UK shores as well as far away as Mexico and the Philippines. This plastic was made into rPET textile and used to make petals and flowers. This textile was then made into flower petals.

VIN + OMI also recycled Daler-Rowney System3 paint tubes and the paint residue left from this recycling process was used to detail the textile flowers. The paint was applied in a variety of ways:

• Dry brush technique
• Wet into wet application
• Diluted and used in a spray bottle to shade the flowers.

At the end of the installation, the display will be split and donated to a variety of charities and community centres in Kensington and Chelsea.