Hi, I’m Bex.
A nature loving, floral artist and founder of Botanical Tales.
I’ve been creating and playing with dried flowers for over seven years but my love for all things that grow has been a constant thread throughout my life. I was that girl that spent most of her twenties at home growing sweetpeas whilst her mates were living it up in London (I did a little bit of that too!). Now I run a business that allows me to combine all the things I love: gardening, teaching, creating and spending untold amounts of time in the garden.
I moved my family to Devon right in the middle of the pandemic. Some gut force was pulling me to this part of the world and I love it more and more each day. The close proximity to the sea, nestled in the woods with a soothing quiet has got me captivated.
My work
Is inspired by nature with a whimsical poetic twist - bringing the outside in with designs that tell stories and evoke feelings and emotions.
I am inspired by our plants, by the evolving of flowers from fresh to dried and by the magic that I can weave with the stems that I grow.
I create work for the spaces in which it will sit, whether that be an installation or a wreath, careful consideration is always given to its environment and surroundings. And each and every design is unique to you, drawing inspiration from your likes and loves.
I like to (or rather am obsessed) with growing my own flowers and bits to dry - that way I can get the exact stems and flowerheads that I have in my vision. I also spend far too much time walking and seeking out interesting pieces to forage (always with the utmost care) to add to my designs to root them in the natural world.
I am a firm believe in less is more and of the value of negative space, both giving us time to fully appreciate each and every flower head for what it has given us.
Where the flowers grow and dry
This tiny studio has been lovingly restored and is where I dry my many stems as well as run workshops and create. Nestled under our majestic holmbush tree and a family of oaks, the windows look out across fields and our land which makes the space feel like an extension of the outside world. This year, I have exciting plans to build a new studio, where I can run installation workshops and dry even more flowers! Watch this space
Our garden extends to about half an acre and is where I grow many of my flowers, we are surrounded by trees here and on the top of a very steep hill so the conditions are not ideal for some of my everlastings. For those I grow on an allotment, just a few miles down the road - a plot of land that has full sun all day! Between the two I can manage to grow a huge portion of what I need to work with.
I practice no dig methods, I compost and chip everything and put the goodness back into the soil, I let brambles and nettles grow in the patches we don't touch and I invite nature in, rather than trying to fight to keep it at bay.
I grow and dry much of what I work with here in my garden, foraging responsibly for those wild, crooked stems that set designs apart. Hanging out bunches and bunches of blooms from as early as April all the way through to the end of the year. Each day promises something new to be discovered and learnt and I am falling so in love with this space I'm bound to take care of.
As seen in:
