This year the Jersey Zoo is blooming in full bloom, not only with the natural flora in the animal environments, but also with a breathtaking installation from thousands of 3D printed flowers. The installation, appropriately called Bloom, is located in the Les Augrès Manor of the Zoo and was created by the artist Stuart Semple in a tribute to the British conservationist and writer Gerald Durrell, who founded the zoo in 1959.
Semple and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust have teamed up to celebrate Durrell's 100th birthday. Durrell, who wrote the popular book My family and other animals devoted his life to animals and the environment. In particular, he was a pioneer of the Zoo, who founded the Jersey Zoo with the concise goal, “saving species from extinction”. The installation of Semple is a tribute to Durrell's legacy and presents a colorful artificial flower field that the visitors to Jersey Zoo can admire both in daylight and at night when the flowers actually shine in the dark.
The installation itself consists of 5,000 3D printed flowers that are “planted” in a room of 7 x 7 meters. Semple, an artist whose work focuses on accessibility and ecology, designed the series of flowers based on Durrell's favorite species (chrysanthemums, Freesias, roses, scarlet red pimbing, crocus and pink magnolia). Hundreds of these flowers were then printed 3D with a photopolymerization technology and a biological resin that comes from plant fibers and castor oil. The printed flowers were ultimately hand painted in a series of colors with the proprietary -illuminated pigment by Semple, which absorbs sunlight and glowed in the dark.
“Since I visited Jersey Zoo as an eight -year -old child, it has a place in my heart,” said artist Stuart Semple. “This project means the world to me, because now more than ever that Gerry's philosophy and its nature conservation ethics are of crucial importance for the planet.”
Lee Durrell, who was married to Gerald and is a head of the trust, said: “The flowers in Bloom are some of Gerry's favorites, and I know that he loved to see the colorful meadow in the courtyard of his valued Les Engrès manor.”
While the Bloom 3D-printed flower installation is striking and beautiful, there is also another component of the project that aims to promote Durrell's lifelong maintenance mission. This means that each of the flower sculptures can actually be bought, and all income goes to the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to save endangered species from extinction. For visitors who buy a flower, it will be sent to you after the installation ended on September 30, 2025. A single flower costs £ 25, while a bouquet of flowers £ 150 costs.
Here you will find more stories about how the 3D printing is used for sustainable destinations.