Superbloom at the Tower of London

British glass artist Max Jacquard has been commissioned by the Royal Palaces to design and cast 12 giant commonwealth symbols and one crown to illuminate the Queens Garden at the Tower of London for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee celebration ‘Superbloom’.

Each sculpture will be encircled by millions of flowers with a planting scheme to attract bees, pollinators, and seed-eating birds in the heart of the City of London. For the first time, a space built in the 13th century to keep people out of the Tower will welcome visitors in, through to 18 September 2022. It will be open every day for visitors to explore and see the spectacle of the Superbloom.

Each glass design has been inspired by the original embroidered motifs on the Queen’s coronation dress created in 1952 by Norman Hartnell with a huge crystal crown as the centrepiece. Based in Kent at a studio he shares with his partner artist Dawn Bendick, he was chosen from a range of British craftsman to create the stunning centrepieces working closely with Nigel Dunnett, the head gardener for the Superbloom event.

Eurobond is very proud to be involved in such a historic and inspiring project. Kevin Henry, one of Eurobond Adhesives’ technical representatives was on hand to offer advice, support and training to ensure the correct glass bonding adhesives and equipment was used.

Bendick said: “The work included casting a series of open cast moulds and bending them to form the structure of the crown. Eurobond products played a huge roll in both the fixing of jewels to the crystal crown and the fixing of the coloured glass pieces to their metal cradles. We could not have managed the project without these products.”

Each work of art is set on cradles mounded on steel rods sitting 5m above the garden. Max Jacquard’s studio has painstakingly created thousands of diamonds, cords, and pearls from glass for the sculptures over three months with a full-time team of five people. A total of 3,517 jewels were modelled in wax with over 7,623 pieces press moulded for the 700mm high sculptures in coloured glass.

The project has been in the planning for several years and was conceived by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP), the charity which cares for the Tower of London. HRP is working with landscape architects Grant Associates and University of Sheffield Professor of Planting Design and Urban Horticulture, Nigel Dunnett, both of whom have extensive expertise in urban horticulture and landscape design, to bring the project to life. Their design will bring a burst of spectacular natural beauty to the Tower, whilst creating a significant new and much needed resource for pollinators and seed-eating birds.

Early tests in Summer 2021 demonstrated the power of even a small number of flowers to increase the biodiversity in the moat. When the Superbloom display ends in September 2022, the new natural landscape created to support it will remain in the moat as a permanent Jubilee legacy.