Hello and thank you for visiting my Blog! My miniature passion lies in making houseplants, but since most are viewable on my website, this blog will often feature wonderful treasures by other artisans, with a few diversions I hope you will find interesting.



Sunday, April 11, 2010

THE MOST DIFFICULT PLANT EVER!

These are commissions that I made in 1986. The Ivy covered trellis has 300 leaves, each one hand cut. I found that I couldn't make the vines and wrap them around the trellis, so I had to wind them on first, and then paint them without getting green paint on the white trellis. It was awful! It had to be pried out of my hands to send it off to Canada.

My only photo had a big, dark, rounded shadow at the top, so I tried to fix it in Paint. If the top leaves look odd, it's because I did a lousy job.

I don't remember where the wicker plant stand went. Does it look familiar to anyone?

7 comments:

  1. I clicked to enlarge the vine on the trellis - it's BEAUTIFUL Carolyn!!! I can imagine what a PITA that must have been to make, but look at the outcome!!!

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  2. Carolyn, I will never ever have the patience to cut 300 small leaves, wind them and then paint them whilst avoiding the trellis! And you still like Devil's Ivy after that? LOL. I thought of you this morning when I was deciding whether to make another tree for a desert scene. Very tempted not to have leaves on the tree. There is no way I can ever make each and every branch of leaves like how you would do it?

    The wonderful thing about blogging is that you can keep a journal of who you send what to by writing an entry. :). That wicker planter box of plant could have ended up in a museum!

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  3. I wish I could look, Kristy, but it's somewhere in Canada! One of these days I'll look up the lady who bought it and see if she's still in the miniature world.

    And yes, it was a huge PITA! When I accepted the commission I thought it would be fun. But once I got started, all I could think of was "What have I gotten myself into?"

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  4. Susan, I was in the middle of posting and got a phone call, and you posted in the meantime. Sorry, didn't mean to snub you!

    Yes, it was a tedious project, but I had kids who needed toys and couldn't pass it up! LOL! But I didn't expect it to be so hard. I would never do it today, especially with all the great paper techniques.

    I doubt that the plant stand made it to a museum, but I did find that four of my ferns were auctioned off at a museum in Kentucky in 2008. They were donated by Sarah Salisbury, a lovely woman who bought many of my plants over the years. I would love to know what they sold for!

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  5. Holy sh*t!!! Carolyn, you have the patience of Job, my friend!! Hey, your plants must be in that famous museum in Kentucky!!! I have pieces in that museum as well- the woman is a world class collector, and much of her collection is housed in a wing of the museum

    Hey Carolyn, I've given you the same award that Kristy gave you! Don't be mad!! We are just acknowledging your excellence- you don't have to do that thing twice, haha!!

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  6. Madre mia, que paciencia!!!!!!
    Pero ha valido la pena porque te han quedado genial!!!!!
    Enhorabuena!!!!
    besitos ascension

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  7. Thank you, Besitos. Yes, it did take patience, but I had more when I was younger. I couldn't do it now!

    Kiva, do you mean Sarah Salisbury has her collection housed in the museum in Kentucky? I thought she just donated to the auction to benefit the museum. She bought plants from me at every show, a lovely person, so maybe mine are there as well! I wish I could find out.

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