Artsy Crafty Library: Foraged art

Wandering through the Arts and Crafts section one day the book Foraged Art by Peter Cole and Leslie Jonath jumped out at me with it's colorful beautiful cover. When I started flipping pages I was even more intrigued. The art is fun, playful and looked relatively simple, which is key for me. I love being creative, but I don't have the patience for complicated projects.

Foraging

Mandala made from seeds, berries, leaves and flower petals. The largest orbs are cedar seeds.

I foraged and created my art in early October when I thought I'd have more material options. However, you can create some of the projects in Foraged Art anytime because they use rocks and sticks. I was really surprised how many materials I found. I'm guessing even in winter you can find some cool stuff once you start looking for it. Look closely at the plants in your yard or on your walks. I had never noticed the large grooved seeds on a cedar tree until I was foraging for this project. They are really cool looking spheres that look like tiny brains or Brussels sprouts.

If you are using fresh leaves, flowers or berries, I suggest you gather within a few hours of creating art. These materials may lose their vibrancy or even change color if you wait a day or two to use them.

Tools

I only used scissors and my hands to gather and create. I wish I had taken small pruning shears on my gathering adventure. Some of the stems on bushes were a bit tough for my scissors. Gardening gloves would have been a good idea too as some bushes had thorns.

I suggest using tweezers when you start creating. Some of the berries I gathered were a bit small and would have been much easier to place with tweezers.

So many ideas

The book has lots of fabulous examples of creations. I started by copying ideas from the book. After playing with the materials I looked at them not as plant pieces, but as elements of design. This different way of looking at objects led me to create my own designs. If I'd had more time, I probably could have made a whole zoo of animals. It was really fun and a great brain break to just go with the creative flow.

Saving foraged art

Some of the designs you make with stones or sticks could be glued together or mounted to a canvas and displayed. The designs with fresh materials (leaves, flowers and berries) are probably best kept through photographs.