Monday 10 June 2013

Two surprises.

I bought this pond iris three years ago and have been patiently waiting for a flower.    I had almost given up, but suddenly last week I noticed a bud and my patience has been rewarded.
I didn't realise this plant had a flower and thought it was just an oxygenating plant.   I was told to just drop it into the water and it would sink to the bottom and do it's stuff.   Again, three years on and I noticed this lovely fat bud.
These irises are my old faithfuls and come up every year for me.  Their true colour is a glorious rich royal blue, almost purple.
I have broken my rules and couldn't wait to add some decoration to a page or two rather than wait until all the pages were prepared.   The creases in the double spread above can be tidied but will be permanent as it is folded in on itself on both sides.   I haven't stuck the houses in yet - couldn't wait to photograph it!   The design came from a rubber stamp which I then had photocopied and enlarged.  I coloured the houses with marker pens and cut them out.  I used other rubber stamps to print three distant tree shapes behind the houses.  The words were part of the stamp and I cut them all out and applied them separately in a higgledy piggledy fashion.  
I stuck these drawings on the folds which open out to reveal my street.
I did a few others to decorate other pages.
I tore them out of the sketchbook and aged the edges with an ink pad which doesn't seem to show up very well in these photos.   I quite like the way that where the gesso is unevenly applied, the paint appears stronger and the pages have a distressed look.    Now I've had some fun it's back to more glue, gesso and colourwashing before the next fun can begin.

 I've been planting a few bedding plants today and had work really hard to break up our heavy clay soil.  Needless to say there were quite a few weeds to evict first.   My hands, arms and shoulders are complaining!   I'm thankful that it is our group meeting tomorrow and all I'll have to do is sit and talk to nice people all day.

10 comments:

Kat Mortensen said...

You and your girls are SO creative! I envy the time and patience it takes to do this work. It is lovely, Heather!

Your garden is a beauty too; I'd like to see larger images of different areas of it.

Kat

sharon young said...

Love the little houses, it's a great effect with the colours and the words, it's going to be a super book.
Thank you for dropping in on my blog, it's always lovely to get your comments.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Oh how I love that book Heather and oh how much I would love to see it.

Re flowering - I think this has been an exceptional year for flowers - all our blossom trees have excelled themselves - there should be a tremendous crop of fruit.

I love iris sibirica too - mine is dragonfly and it is not out yet.

Enjoy your day tomorrow.

The Bug said...

What fun! This book is going to be fabulous :)

Ro Bruhn said...

Love the houses and the way you've scattered the words. Your irises are gorgeous, such a lovely burst of colour.

Carol Q said...

the houses have definitely caught my eye too Heather. the book is looking really good. nice to get an unexpected flower surprise!

Julie said...

I love irises and used to have one in the pond but I havn't noticed it so far this year. If it's gone I shall have to get another one. I had a fantastic surprise, our pond has a newt in it! Don't know how it found its way past the concrete fence bases all round but it's definitely there so maybe there's more. Not sure if they eat tadpoles but there are plenty there if they do. Hope you get some rest after your efforts.

Robin Mac said...

What a gorgeous book that is going to be Heather, I love the houses. I love the iris too, wish I could grow them here in the tropics. Thanks for visiting my blog too. Cheers

Maggi said...

The iris was well worth waiting for. I love it when the garden offers up surprises.

The book looks really interesting and I can see why you wanted to share what you have done so far.

Charlton Stitcher said...

This is really fun - I love the clear colour. I will watch out for the finished article