This is my version of an arrangement of bud vases. Even this late in the season I have a nice supply of new growth, and therefore tiny leaves in my garden.
The race is on to harvest enough before the first frost.
Archives for posts with tag: botanical collage
This year my husband’s asparagus crop was — er–modest. By that I mean we got about one stalk a week for about six weeks and goodbye. Now though, we have a virtual three-foot-wide asparagus-top jungle that is too pretty to ignore. The clippings I harvested only took about a week to process with a pressing between sheets of lightly weighted newsprint. For bold highlights in this composition I used a snippet of sensitive fern and the tip of a whole frond at the center. Nasturtiums make the best moons so why look for anything else?
The dozens of new friends who meet with me and buy my botanical art for their homes and workplaces and for their friends share with me a love of nature and the fun that we can have contemplating the outdoors one leaf at a time. I’m surprised by the number of people who share that they regularly collect and press plants just for the joy of it. I hope I inspire them to take it a step further.
Two young and still tightly formed stalks of Mexican feather grass appear to tower over a little forest of fern ‘trees’ and the whole scene might be glimpsed through a window bordered by stained glass.
Back to the drawing board for my next piece. No harvesting today — rain in Stonington.
“I believe that a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars.” I have used this quote before and you will see it again if you follow my posts. It is what this work is about. When I walk through my garden to collect plants for these pieces, I look as closely at the weeds as I do to the other plants I selected so carefully for their unusual foliage. All of it, including the twisted leaves or beetle-nibbled would-be star of the garden has a place.
My friends in and around Stonington can see some of my pieces at Frills Gallery in Watch Hill. (It’s the white building with a front porch as you first enter town) This is a companion piece to one I made recently. The colors have changed and I’ve used different plants — fringed Bleeding Heart for the ‘tall trees’ and ferns and a Foam Flower leaf for the underbrush. A crazy little Bellflower hugs the beach.
I love what these undulating lines do to the look of the foliage I use. In previous versions of this basic design I’ve used feathery ferns and, in one case nothing but very tiny individual fronds. While this piece uses some ordinary ferns to balance the composition, the real stars of the show are the bold Sensitive Fern at the bottom center and individual leaf clusters from my Fringed Bleeding Heart.
For this series of three small pieces, I reversed and alternated pairs of undulating colors to provide interest and contrast for some lovely ferns and well-shaped small leaves. I keep searching for new ways to use color as well as color shading and juxtaposition to enhance my plants. Some experiments work and some don’t. These three survived the cut and landed in my Etsy shop. Weather permitting they’ll be with me in Providence on Saturday.
Even though I created it, this hill of little ferns and strange trees makes me want to see what’s on the other side. I’m busy replenishing my Etsy inventory after last Saturday’s trip to the Artisan’s Market at Lippett Park in Providence. Will miss next week’s market and return on June 29th.
My stock of interesting pressed foliage is growing so fast it’s hard to know what to play with next.
I use Ralph Waldo Emerson quotations (and those of other wise men and women) in many of my botanical pieces. A lovely woman I met today at the Providence Artisan’s Market suggested I use this one from the great Massachusetts sage. While enhancing it with botanicals may prove a challenge — the quote is too long to repeat many times in a legible font — it brought tears to my eyes so it must happen!
“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.”
Here’s an example of literature as foundation for my work:
My Stonington Garden 
