‘Growing’ by Nicola Darwen

“The reason I chose this word was that it’s one of the things I really love about London, from window boxes to overgrown cracks in the pavement to the beautiful green parks, even in the centre of the city there’s always something growing.”

“With that in mind I collected various bits of foliage from around my flat and on the way to work one day, focussing on choosing different colours and textures.  To encase them I made a very basic mould out of acetate and sticky back plastic (the sticky back plastic was basically there to hold everything together) and then simply made up the resin according to the box instructions and poured it all in.”

“I had a few problems with leaves floating around in the resin but it was pretty easy to push them back into place with a cocktail stick before it set.  Once it had set, after a couple of days just to be sure, I pulled off the sticky back plastic to make sure it was super clear.”

Nicola Darwen on Tumblr and Twitter: @nicoladarwen

‘Growing’ by Nicola Darwen will be displayed at Type Tasting with the London Design Festival 2013 at the V&A.