Tag: pressed flowers

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Garden Palette

Dried, pressed, and preserved flowers, petals, leaves and blossoms serve as the “paint” in this Garden Palette.  A “waterfall” of blue and purple hydrangea, pansies, and blue rock seed flow over “boulders” made of dried rose petals.  A background of “hills” created by a variety of yellow, gold, and brown petals are highlighted by a “sunset” of reds, oranges, yellows and purples from a variety of flowers beneath the edge of the clear blue sky.  Crushed egg shells create a sandy beach.  This will be placed into a shadow box where a “tree” made from elderberry flowers and a “butterfly” Rose of Sharon create a 3D effect.
Garden Palette.3

©belindabotzong2018

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Papermaking .. if at first you don’t succeed

Trial number two
Pretty sure this is only a summer outdoor activity.. very messy and in need of air drying so it’s good I got this wild hair in July rather than December!
This time I skipped the newspaper and brown paper bags that got me to a near cardboard material last time. Not that it can’t be used for something in the future but I still have visions of soft white pretty paper…
So I bought reams of printer paper from someone on Facebook for two bucks. And a shredder from amazon.. and I sat outside last week shredding five pages at a time … the limit of the shredder.., and made a big bag of it!
During this week I also dried some raspberry vines and lots of flowers and crushed them
My first couple batches were a little iffy but by the end I think I came out with some fairly nice pieces.. still not soft like I imagine.. but I think the white and streaks of yellow from the dried leaves can be part of a bigger collage I have in my head.
Papermaking has proved to be exceedingly messy and harder than I imagined but it’s satisfying so next time I’m going for cotton!
©Belindabotzong2018

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Papermaking 101

Ever get an idea that consumes your brain
Watch YouTube videos of perfectly coiffed people doing exactly what you want to do
Read blog after article taking notes on the how’s and how nots
Find a flea market selling just the right stuff — antique window screens!
Goodwill bargains for tissue paper and miscellaneous
Refusing to believe that I could whip this creation up in my own kitchen and remain perfectly coiffed
I set up shop in the back yard on the hottest day of the year
I find a blender in the linen closet- a remnant if my sons bachelor pad and buy it from him for $20 so I don’t mess up my smoothie making ninja!
Got a bag of newspaper and a tub for water, following the directions I whip up my first batch.. scoop it onto the screen .. sop it up with an old towel and try to remove it from the screen, scraping carefully and failing ..
.. gray thin crumbly like an old paper towel ..
sweat pouring down my back down my forehead and down my legs.
This did not happen to YouTube babe in her coordinated outfit and fresh lipstick.
Into the house to spray on sunscreen and revive. I go online and review the steps. Go out to whip up another batch. Still too thin.
I head to the dollar store for more towels and sponges, newsprint stained hands, pony tail askew and bangs plastered to my forehead.
I whip up another batch. Only the blender doesn’t make a peep. No groaning. No moaning. It quit! Sorry ninja you’re on the job!
The sun rises higher in the sky. The sweat beads pour off the tip of my nose. My screen breaks as I pull the first batch. I plop the gob of goo into the dollar store bathmats that pass for hand towels. Not too shabby but difficult to remove. Must need more sludge. Ninja goes to work while I chug lemonade. My son keeps peering through the sliding glass door with concern for his mother’s sanity. I press on and pour dried flower petals into the sludge. Now we’re getting somewhere! The color of the paper concerns me as looking too much like egg cartons– but I’m committed now and this is a learning batch.
My arms are covered in sludge drying like a mud mask. I am drenched and so hot but I’m not giving up til I’m done. My rose colored glasses obviously need a prescription adjustment.
I keep thinking of biblical times and how someone made paper from papyrus! Last night I watched a long YouTube video about a man in Scotland who makes paper from flax.. that he grows from seed himself! Linen paper!
My husband stops by to comment– “cool! Looks like egg carton paper”
Grrr
So I learned — I want to do it again but only use white papers on a very mild day and plenty of actual towels. Dollar store bath mats make funny patterns.
I dumped the sludge bucket on the lawn much to my husbands dismay.. I’m thinking it might actually be the best piece of paper I made all day!!

©Belindabotzong2018

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Pressed Flowers …again

I have a confession
I have an obsession
With flower impression
–
Or is it a passion
With nature’s fashion
–
Or is it devotion
To the creator’s vast notion
That we should admire his handiwork from flower to ocean
–
The petals, the blossoms
His creations are awesome
–
The land, earth, and sky
Reflections of why
He made so much pleasing to my eye
–
I must press and preserve
In print it will serve
As Refind art
And glorify God with all of my heart

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Postcards from Nature Refind

I am so stunned by the beauty of the flower petals and the intricacy of the blossoms
My next creation is to print them directly onto postcards – postage stamp included! They will be for sale at Whatcom Art Market starting next Saturday. Drop someone a line the old-fashioned way and enjoy the artistry of creation!

©Belindabotzong2018