Seed collection:
Alongside Sci-artist Jay Hampton I have been visiting sites in Liverpool to view wild flower landscapes. At four of these sites I have collected seeds of multiple plants and flowers to build a seed bank to use for my memorial mixes.
Included in seed mix:
Clover, collected L7
Bladder campion, collected L7
Birdsfoot trefoil, collected L7
Corn marigold, collected L4
Lupin, collected L4
Corn Cockle, collected L11
Tufted vetch, collected L11
Oxeye Daisy, collected L7
Cornflower collected L4
Scabious collected L11
Self heal collected L7
Red Campion collected L4
Common Poppy collected L7
Ladybird poppy - unknown
You will see, listed is wild carrot, aquilegia and cosmea.
Though we did collect wild carrot we decided not to use this as it looks too similar to hogweed and although we were sure it was wild carrot seeds I did not want to run the risk of including something potentially harmful in the mix.
Aquilegia, Cosmea, Lavatera and sun flowers were also added to the mix. Though not wildflowers I added these from Jay Hamptons community seed bank. I added these into the mix because they are really pretty, yet quite delicate flowers. Sunflowers were added more into the seed paper than the seed mix, I added these because they are easily recognisable and other than sun and water and much like the rest of this mix, do not require much maintenance.
I selected all of these seeds due to the resilience of the plant. Many of which will thrive if they can access water and sun and will seed spread easily.
Packaging design
When designing the packaging I wanted something really simple and sweet that also showed the flower selection. So I made a stamp from Lino.
I tried a few very simple designs on the lino and I am really happy with how this turned out. I think the simplicity of the design works for the size of the envelope and the fact these mixes are DIY, non-funded and home made. It gives the mix a bit of character.
I was however worried that people may not want to plant the seeds as they do not know what was collected.
I had been working on a sketchbook that explored the flowers in the seed mix so that I was able to recognise them. I wanted to learn about the flowers I was encouraging other people to plant.
Memorial Mix Poster
Using the existing illustrations I made this poster to show what was in the mix. I didn’t want to add too much text on this poster as I just wanted it to demonstrate what was included in the memorial mix. Out of all of my outcomes from this project, this is one I am most surprised by. I really enjoyed working on the illustrations and the poster really made me see the project start to come together.
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