Wow, I’m truly overwhelmed at the response to my first stab at my living in: column yesterday. When I hatched the idea to do roundups based on books and movies, I just thought it would be a fun way to find stuff online. I didn’t really comprehend that it would open a whole world of inspiration for all of us! I am SO excited to go through each and every suggestion and start some good old fashioned movie watching. That is, after I run to the corner store to pick up some more popcorn, of course. I digress.
Wednesdays here on D*S I’m going to be cooking up fresh DIY projects (called “Made with Love”) in my Brooklyn apartment to share with you. Yep, every week without fail, almost like the US Postal Service. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this do-it-yourselfer from the swift completion of her handmade projects.
Creating a collection of madcap botanical specimens is about as easy as it gets. You get to heavily rely on mother nature to do the leg work and poof, you get to look like a genius scientist (and decorator) in the process. I’ve used old kraft paper to make a Darwinian display, but a graphic or feminine background using wallpaper or fabric could ratchet up the modern factor and create something really show stopping. -Amy
CLICK HERE for the full post (with instructions and additional images) after the jump!
What you’ll need:
– a large pile of heavy books, including a phonebook or something similar
– frames
– several fronds from ferns or other flat leafed plants
– rubber cement
– decorative paper, I used a pretty old kraft paper
1. Locate and clip a few different varieties of fern fronds or other flat leafed plants. These can be from your garden or something found growing in between the sidewalk cracks, doesn’t matter!
2. When you’ve clipped your ferns, hold them up against the background of your frame and trim the bottoms, stripping some of the leaves to fit if necessary. You can also decide on the basic layout of your specimens. Should they curl to the right or left? Up and down?
3. Each frond will need to be pressed dry for a week inside the pages of a heavy phone book or encyclopedia. Warning- now is not the time get out your lovely Taschen art book collection, this process will leave your pages bumpy so it’s best to use a book you don’t mind getting a little messy! Once your specimens are in between a page of their own, place several heavy books on top of them and leave alone for a week.
4. Just a few small dabs of rubber cement are all it takes to keep them from shifting in their frames.
Nurture your inner botanist by collecting bits of plants here and there and starting a wall
of pressed plant specimens. For extra credit, add latin name, common name, date of
collection and location!
