I have been experimenting with a few different types of beads for the book. The group on the top left are made with friendly plastic - heated with a heat gun and wrapped round a satay stick, then rubbed on a stamp pad and embossed with opalettes. The top middle group are from painted tyvek heated with a heat gun. The group on the right are made from white satin with vleisofix fused to it. I cut up strips, wrapped them round a satay stick and ran the stick up and down a hot iron to fuse it together. I felt these were too plain so tried adding a bit of black paint, but was not happy with that so then painted on a bit of glycerine and embossed with some black and silver - much happier with that. The bottom left beads are from paper casts which I had not used on the cover - wrapped round a satay stick and glued together. I also had some silver sating with a layer of black gossamer fuse on it so cut some of that up and ran it up and down the iron (with a teflon cover over it) to fuse the beads together. Tomorrow I hope to put all these together on some cords to go in the spine of the book.
When I was walking in the Gardens I saw these syzygiums coming out in all their new foliage after a severe pruning. the colours are lovely.
These photos are loaded back to front - above is a closeup of the kurrajong flowers on the tree below. They make a glorious sight on a tree which is pretty ratty looking with no foliage.
This fascinating growth is on a banksia - I am not sure if this is how the flower on this variety starts, but I shall keep watching over the next couple of weeks. I love the shape and texture of whatever it is.
We managed to have 1 mm of rain overnight, the first drop of any sort since the 24th June when bill recorded 4 mm. We had a wonderful wet season - 1295 mm to June, then we have gone completely dry! No prospect of any rain in the near future either, now the weather forecasters say we are going into an el nino so can expect very little rain for the next few months. I am glad I am not a farmer.
Lovely photos as usual. I hope you get some rain in the near future - I could try to send you some of ours! I particularly like the beads made with the paper casts, they have a great texture.
ReplyDeleteInteresting home-made beads - whichever ones you choose for the book I am sure they will look good.
ReplyDeleteThe black and silver combination on the beads is very effective.
ReplyDeleteLove the garden photos, maybe you have a mutant banksia!!