July-August Garden

Map Vessel - Night

I haven't had much time to post recently because I've been working on a vessel for the group exhibition The Vessel Redefined at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge. 

This was the first one I completed; I have another in the works, but it may be too difficult to put together in time. If it works, I'll be posting photos soon! In the meantime, have a little process photo:

Singed Flower Project

I've been working on making much larger flowers, with anthers made by twisting wire with beads. It's sort of an inside-out version of my twisted wire earrings, and I like the effect a lot for brooches or hair clips. Here are three that I've been working on:

Midsummer Garden

The porch garden just keeps expanding! I've got about thirty good-size pots out there, and have been experimenting with more flowers and different kinds of vegetables. Lettuce isn't doing as well as it did last year (it's just not growing for some reason), but the peas and beans have been good.

I got up early enough to catch a zucchini blossom (on the tiniest little zucchini plant that could!):

This is a dianthus plant that somehow sprouted again after the whole plant died over the winter:

The first flowers I planted from seed to bloom (besides the leafy vegetables, which have all bolted already!) are purple alyssum:

Cilantro flowers, which are just so pretty:

And the amazing mini rosebush, which just keeps shooting out flowers:

The Black-Eyed Susan vine is amazing:

I'm impressed that the bean plants produce when they're still so short -- the beans almost touch the ground!

 I just had to put in a photo of the radish blossoms, since I think they're actually rather pretty:

First green tomato, on a Roma tomato plant:

Morning glories are slowly starting to climb:

Except this one, which decided it was just going to bloom from the ground -- how weird!

I was so excited to find seeds for shiso, touted as "Japanese basil" but with a much more complex and amazing flavor. You can see where I tried one of the leaves for authenticity. I'm pleased to report that it's totally the real thing.

And lastly, an adorable mini poppy bud. I hope they open before I leave, but I might miss them!

Riveted Flower Cuff

Yesterday I made myself a cuff bracelet to add some "edge" to an outfit. I used some of my singed fabric flowers, but the bracelet still comes off as pretty tough! I've listed the bracelet on Etsy here.

Hybrid Maps

Ever since I started doing cut-out maps I've wondered whether I could combine that with drawn maps, so over the weekend I did some experiments. Here's a couple progress photos:

The dark part is the cutting board below the image. I originally intended to put the pieces on top of white paper, like my cut-out map cards, but that actually ends up being too subtle next to the black lines of the drawing. Luckily, there are a lot of different things I can explore!

Early Summer Garden

I've been at home a lot lately waiting for a wisdom tooth surgery to heal, which is mostly a pain except that it gives me more time to peer at my little porch garden. I'm trying a lot of new plants this year, and I hope they all work!

There was a big rainstorm last night, so when I went out this morning everything was green and wet -- perfect for taking morning photos!

Marigolds (I don't actually like them much, but they keep bugs off the tomatoes, and the deep red color is rather pretty):

The tiniest proto-stringbean! Can you even see it?

First tomato flower! This year I bought four different heirloom tomato seedlings. I think this one is a pink and yellow striped beefsteak tomato. Can't wait!

My friend China Blue gave me these strawberry plants from her garden when I visited last summer, and they actually wintered over and started blooming this spring! I think this one didn't get properly fertilized though, it's such a funny shape:

I also bought strawberry seedlings from the nursery since I wasn't sure if the others would flower properly this year:

Pretty pea flowers:

And a little pea! These guys are shelling peas, so I might just try to eat the pods before they get big (like snow peas). I also have the most adorable proto-sugar snap peas slowly growing on the other vines.

I bought some Thunbergia "African Sunset" seedlings at the nursery. When they aren't being mysteriously eaten (what snips off stems and leaves on a second-floor balcony garden? Rogue, sentient clippers?), the flowers are really beautiful. They start out a dark pink and fade to light yellow, like this one:

I bought a mini rose plant for $7.50 (at Brattle Florist in Harvard Square -- super good deal, guys!) and planted it in a larger pot, and immediately it shot out new branches and buds. This one's juuuust about to pop open:

For some reason everything's been bolting before it has a chance to grow leaves big enough to eat (spinach, radishes, bok choi). But I figure if I can't eat it, I might as well see what the flowers look like. Maybe they'll help attract bees up here, which can be an issue for pollination. Chinese mustard buds:

Mosaic Maps

I was thinking recently about the geometric, relatively inorganic process I use to build up the design in my papercut map cards, and tried applying it back to drawing. The first drawing I did and painted in was sold almost immediately after I finished it (I didn't even have time to scan it!):

I was also working on a larger 9x12 drawing of the same type at the time:

That one's still on hold; I took a break to finish a previous work in progress in the new mosaic style, which I think came out really well:

I also made another small map in plum, like the one in green (but more dense):

I think the first green one and the five boroughs one are the most successful at the moment. Someone recently suggested that I try making a diptych of a cut-out and a mosaic map in the same form, or influenced by each other, that could be a next step.