Friday, 19th September 2025 from 10am-1pm @ The Pavilion in Penn Street, Amersham.
£50 per person if you are bringing your own flower press/big books
£90 per person including flower press
 
As we reach that point in the year when the evenings are noticeably darker but the sun is still giving us enough heat to ripen the final blackberries and keep the flowers blooming, our attention turns to the seasons ahead. One crafty practise which we both love at Where Inspiration Blooms, especially during this liminal time of year, is the preserving of seasonal flowers, and early Autumn is the perfect time - just before the start of the frosts.
 
For this special seasonal three-hour workshop, Jules Cossins (co-founder of Where Inspiration Blooms and avid seaweed and flower presser) will be sharing her experience of preserving wild flowers, wayside grasses, seasonally grown cut flowers and even seaweeds. Having pressed and preserved Chiltern flowers since she was a young girl you are in very capable local hands!
 
We’ll start the class by taking a slow, scenic autumn walk to The Walled Garden on the Penn Estate, across our neighbouring field and through a small area of ancient woodland.  We are very fortunate to have been given exclusive access to these private gardens where you will be invited to gather a small bucket of flowers each — the very best of the season — to press and dry back at The Pavilion. Whilst we are there, head gardener Ross, will give us a short tour, sharing what’s in bloom and what’s soon to fade!
 
During this super seasonal session, Jules will share:
How to press flowers — the ones that press beautifully, and the ones that never quite behave how you want!
How to use a microwave flower press for faster results – having previously proclaimed a large dose of scepticism about microwave flower presses prepare to watch Jules eat her words as she shows you how she has come to use hers with a recently acquired sense of affection!
Which blooms dry really well and the best ways to dry them whole
A quick introduction to pressing seaweed – one of Jules’ biggest passions…she will share all of her secrets for perfectly pressing these shore line foraged delights
 
And finally with whatever time allows we will chat through some creative ideas for using your own pressed flowers in pieces of art, cards, and gift items.
 
Jules will guide you through each technique with a generous openness, sharing tips and tricks from her own extensive experience in preserving the colour, shape, and spirit of the season’s flowers — so you can carry a little piece of this autumn into the months ahead. 
 
We may even have time, over coffee and home-made cake, to take a look at her very old (she got it when she was 7) ‘Flower Fairies of the Autumn Book’, for no other reason that the workshop is all about flowers and autumn and that’s as good as an excuse that she can find!
 
If you have your own flower presses, no matter what size then please do bring them with you, or even a stack of well-loved heavy books to press your blooms in.  We will supply each guest with 10 x A4 sheets of paper to press their flowers between and a pile of newspapers/pieces of cardboard to use in between but you will need a press or books. 
 
If you don’t have your own press or books and would like to buy one of Jules’ home-made A4-sized presses (they are function vs aesthetic but are what she uses to create all of her pressings so are highly tried and tested!) then these will also be available to purchase when you book your place… and if you want to have a go at making your own before the class then drop Jules a line and she can tell you what you need!
 
For more information or if you have any questions at all please do email us on julesandcaroline@whereinspirationblooms.co.uk
 
PLEASE NOTE
This class will only be able to go ahead if we have a minimum number of 5 guests. All of our teachers are highly skilled in their fields, but being an artist isn't always a well paid profession so we hope you understand why it's important that we ensure that our teachers can afford to run each of their classes. Should the class not be able to go ahead we will contact you no less than a week before the class is due to take place and full refunds will be issued.