Renowned floral artist and five times gold medal winner at RHS Chelsea Flower Show winner, Joseph Massie, has been commissioned to create The ‘G’rown Jewels by high street retailer Wilko to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 90thbirthday.
The giant ‘G’rown Jewels scene, made out of 2,500 flowers grown from seeds available at Wilko stores, features oversized depictions of the St Edward's Crown, the Sceptre with a cross and the Sovereign's Orb. The masterpiece is housed on a soil display cushion within a glass display box.
The ‘G’rown Jewels was intricately crafted at the artist’s studio in Liverpool this week and took a team of five people more than 100 man hours to complete using 2,500 flower heads and over 20 litres of soil weighing in at an impressive 100kg. Massie used 20 varieties of flowers including Sunflowers, Pansies and Sweet Peas.
Floral artist Joseph Massie said: “I was delighted when Wilko commissioned me to make the ‘G’rown Jewels. It was a really exciting and unique piece to work on and, from an artist’s perspective posed a number of unique challenges.
“Flowers are natural and each one is unique – so no two flowers were the same when it came to manipulating them into the final piece. The most difficult part was getting it to look as close to the real thing as possible. I’ve never done anything quite like this before but, though it was a real challenge, it was really good fun putting it all together. I’m really pleased with the final result and I think the effort has really paid off – it looks stunning.”
A spokesperson at Wilko said: “The Queen’s 90th birthday is a monumental occasion for the British public this year and we wanted to do something spectacular to congratulate Her Majesty. Joseph Massie is one of the Europe’s top botanical artists so we knew that he was the right person to help us celebrate this special day.
“As one of the leading retailers of gardening equipment and seeds we were able to provide everything Joseph need to create this stunning tribute. The overwhelming scale combined with the minute intricacy of the work makes this a royal masterpiece that’s fit for the Queen.
“Normally, you’d get a bouquet of flowers for your birthday, but we wanted to congratulate the Queen the Wilko way. We’re blooming delighted with our tribute and hope Her Majesty is, too.
Wilko remains a third generation, family-owned business after more than 80 years of trading. JK Wilkinson opened the first Wilko store in 1930 and since then the company’s portfolio has expanded significantly with stores across the UK.
