Cardinal in the Snow

This picture took around 8 hours to complete and it is made of: nandina, oak leaf hydrangea, garlic peel, maple, Japanese maple, cardinal flower, banana peel, bark and aucuba.

Sunset

This picture took about 11 hours and it is made of dogwood, banana peel, orange peel and corn silk.

Cat Picture

This picture took approximately 7 hours and 20 minutes and it is made of: cotton, cattail, maiden grass, Japanese maple, pampas grass, aucuba, fall leaves, mica and some sort of purple flower I don't know the name of.

How Long Does it Take to Make a Picture?

A frequently asked questions at art shows is, "How long does it take for you to make a picture?" I hardly have any idea. People have encouraged me to time my pictures. But it seemed so hard to time when I sit down and work for a half hour, leave, come back for five minutes, leave, come back and work on it for the rest of the day. How do I remember to always look at the clock when I sit down and get up and then record it?

Here's my solution: I almost always listen to a CD while I work. I listen to books on CDs, which are produced by Focus on the Family Radio Theater and are done with sound effects and different voices. They have everything from biographies, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Squanto and Corrie Ten Boom to fiction such as Anne of Green Gables, A Christmas Carol, Billy Budd, Sailor and much more. So what I do is every time I sit down to work push play and every time I get up push pause. Then I make a list of everything I've listened to during a picture, look at the approximate running times on the back and add them up. So If I've listened to Les Miserables, Silas Marner and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I just add all of there times together. And that gives me a good estimate as to how long a picture took. If I don't want to listen to anything but still want to be timed I can just turn the volume all the way down.

Banana Black Bear

Though I semi lost track of the time, my best guess is that this picture took approximately 14 hours and 15 minutes. This picture is made of: oak, banana peel, bark, cornflower, mushroom, pampas grass, dogwood and mica. I am planning to donate this picture to an organization my Dad has been a part of for nearly 20 years - the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (SEOPA) - for their fundraising auction.

Loofah Snowmen

Last weekend some of our grandparents came for a visit. Grandma Mary and I made these snowmen out of loofah sponges. Many people think that loofah sponges come from the sea but actually they grow on vines.

Toccoa Falls

It took me six and a half hours to glue down, hydrangeas, banana peel, mushrooms, cotton, onion membranes, bark, ferns, orange peel and various herbs for this picture. Of course that time includes pressing, figuring the picture size and finding a reference picture. That time does not include framing.

Untitled Picture

This picture is made of: bark, cotton, corn husk, skeletonized magnolia leaf, corn silk, delphinium, azalea, Lady Banks' rose and alyssum.

Aunt Laura's Cat

Here's what became of the pieces I posted last time.
This picture is made of: daisies, aucuba, pampas grass, maiden grass, cattail, delphinium, cornflower and mica.

A Work in Progress

This picture is a work in progress. I'll post the finished piece after I've finished it but I thought you might like to see what a picture in the making looks like.

Dulcimer Picture

This picture is made of: forget-me-not, tendrils, brown hydrangea leaf, money plant and heuchera.

My First Appliance

The other day one of our good family friends asked if we knew anyone who could use a microwave. It turned out we did know someone who could use a microwave...me. I often press big batches of plant material in a microwave press. But I can't press in one long session because I know from experience that if I press in too long of a session and let the plate get too hot the microwave catches on fire and then you have to buy I new one (oops). I don't want to do that again so I press a few mushrooms and then come back later and then press a few more when I'd often rather be able to do more in a session. I thought about how nice it would be to have two microwaves so that when one got hot I could let it cool while I press with the other and just go back and forth. Well now I have access to the family microwave and one of my very own! God provides!

Little Blue Lady

This picture is made of: delphinium, corn husk, bark, onion roots, Queen Anne's lace, aucuba, corn silk, cantaloupe, alyssum and spiraea.

Learning How to Make Shirts

We're starting to figure out how to use the heat press. Above are some of the shirts and the tote bag we've made. We're still working on centering the transfers and we've put pictures on upside down, crooked, had them come out dark and had them not completely adhere but it's a learning process.

I'll tell you one funny thing we did just after getting the press. We printed the image we wanted to transfer at 200 DPI like we'd been told, placed it on the shirt with the little protective sheet over it and pressed it with the heat. We counted to 20 and nothing happened. The transfer was not sticking at all. After a few attempts we realized that instead of printing the image on to the transfer paper we had printed it onto the protective cardboard packaging. It works better when the image is printed on the transfer paper.

Card Making

One thing two of my younger siblings greatly enjoy is making things. Recently we made accordion cards. It was a nice project to do with them and a great way to use up scrap flowers.

I made this one for my neighbor.

Mushroom Creek

This afternoon I finished my version of a class I took online with the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild. This picture is made of: mushrooms, onion membranes, pine needles, sweet potato, ferns, bougainvillea, iris leaves and some sort mossy stuff from China.

Now What?

OK, look at what we got! Now we just have to figure out what to do with it. This is a heat press for transferring images onto T-shirts, totes, sweatshirts, etc. So now as soon as the transfers arrive I can start putting some of my pressed-flower pictures onto shirts. It was nice to see it shipped in so much bubble wrap because now I can use it to wrap pictures.

The Wiese Home in the Wiese's Home

Last Saturday my family was invited to a renewing of vows ceremony where my brother played his mountain dulcimer. A reception was held afterward at the couple's home. They where the same people who commissioned The Wiese Home, the picture I made of the red house. So it was really neat to see my picture displayed like a real piece of artwork in their home.

Healthy Pictures

Last night I asked my Dad to pick up one sweet potato, a couple of onions and some mushrooms from the grocery store. What am I planing to make? A pressed-flower picture! I'm taking a computer class with the World Wide Pressed-Flower Guild about how to use onion membranes to create a stream and how to turn mushrooms into rocks. The sweet potato peel is for the banks of the stream. I plan to post the picture once it's complete.

World Wide Pressed Flower Guild

This year the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild had a reunion in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and I got to attend! There where about 20 people who represented quite a few states. There was one lady who came from England and one who came from the Bahamas. We all gathered for two full days of classes, where instructors taught how to make ornaments and cards, how to make French mats, frame pictures and press onion membranes. I taught a 45-minute class on an assortment of things I've learned during my four years as a pressed-flower artist. Above is a slide show of some of the pictures I took.