Wednesday, July 28, 2010

PRESSED FLOWERS


Only a month now to the start of Spring, but our Norfolk Island gardens cannot wait, and are already starting to produce some lovely early blooms to delight us. I have enjoyed gathering the lavender, floral sages and the early violets to use in some projects.


Many years ago I bought a microwave flower press, and have made use of it on many ocasions. It takes just a minute or two to do what takes weeks and weeks between the pages of a heavy book, or in a normal flower press.

One of the main reasons I have been pressing flowers lately is to make cards like these.




I will tell you more about these cards in another posting.

Every January and February, meanwhile I gather the floral spikes from the silver artemesia for the Country Womens' bookmarks that I make. Because I need so many, and use them throughout the year, I  dry these between the pages of a heavy old atlas.

I had not made any bookmarks for a while, and Margaret had offered to come and learn the process so she could help me keep up the supply. So I removed the artemesia  foliage from the atlas and placed them in a plastic container.

Imagine my amusement and amazement when I discovered I had another helper. Basil decided to help the pressing process along! Now Basil is a very large cat, but he remained squeezed into that container for a whole day!!



3 comments:

Karen said...

Wonderful pressed flowers and cards Mary. There is a lady who makes bookmarks for the local library as a way to raise funds and I'm always buying a couple as the books seem to swallow them whole.

murgelchen said...

Your cat is great or small?

LG,
Helga

I came from Maureen.

Elizabeth said...

What a great idea - microwaving flowers. Beautiful cards and even more beautiful cat. What a cleaver boy..

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