Harvest for me was a vision of richness, in colors and textures that fills our eyes in the Autumn season.

How to convey this in a visually magical way….  Using WOOD as a foundational element.

I wanted to set the story on a beautiful walnut Live Edge board with beautiful patterned grain that I procured at a specialty lumberyard.  It would be criminal to cover this beautiful board, so no question about it….  I needed to leave it as exposed as possible.  I chose to build up with the structure to get heavier across the top of the design, thus creating the magic of ballet dancer perched on the pointed toe. The harvest gathering might resonate well, displayed on a tall vertical conical woven baskets.  Heavier and fuller at the top of the basket, dripping with rich colors and textures that screamed Autumn.

Construction

My construction consisted of 5 tall and slender conical baskets created with willow whips (IKEA ‘Torka’) woven in the tatami method with bindwire. The carefully graduated width of tatami weaving allowed for the ideal dimension and proportion desired to provide an envisioned naturally inspired elegance.  These cones were centrally supported by 5/16” threaded rods which were drilled through the walnut board and with nut and washer secured underneath and above the board to stand strong and upright x 5 in a random attractive order.  Within each cone, chicken wire rolls to conform to the flaring was contained to provide the solid shaping.  These cones were slipped over the upright rods.

To keep these precisely upright and stable, they were connected with red-tipped deciduous huck (Vaccinium var.) bindwired together.  This was overlaid by robust lichen branches for contrasting texture.  These upright cones were garnished with fall leaves… from the large golden/rust Canadian maple leaves, to Acer rubrum, to Liquidamber, to Acer palmatum (Japanese red maple).  Layered leaves wired on to wood picks were carefully positioned to show the richness of all the fall tree colors.  In amongst the leaves going upward toward the top of the baskets, blushing crabapples were bamboo-skewered and stabbed into the chickenwire mechanics to hold.  Into the rest of the basket’s upper 1/3, 4” water tubes are embedded into the chicken wire to hold water for the flowering stage of this design.  4 lengths of bullion wired lichen branch shorts are also suspended as cascading strands of interest. Few strands of Ficus roots add rich brown richness to the texture and linearity to emulate woodland feel.

The Botanicals

The rich color tapestry of autumn season brought the gold, rust, bronze, brown, orange and red all together.  This also meant rich textural experience that represented the crispy sound and feel of fall leaves, the plump smooth surfaces of the crabapple, to the different kinds of flower textures, the diaphanous, transparent bronze painted preserved Asparagus setaceus.

• Germini (orange)

• Leucospermum cordifolium (Pincushion protea)

• Ranunculus asiaticus

• Chrysanthemum (disbud-brown)

• Rosehip

• Crabapples

• Asparagus setaceus (Preserved Plumosa painted brown)

• Passiflora vine

• Ficus bengalensis roots

• Deciduous Huck (Vaccinium var.)                        

• Lichen branches

Elements Utilized

• LINE: Lichen branches, Deciduous huck, vertical line of willow whips

• FORM: Crabapples, Fall leaves, Flower, Cone shape crafted with willow whips

• COLOR: Fall colors

• SPACE: Open spaces along the bottoms 2/3 of structure, becoming dense with botanicals. Positive space across the top 1/3 horizontal

• TEXTURE: Wood, flower, fall leaves, diaphanous plumosa fern, crabapple

Principles Employed

• Symmetrical Balance

• Challenging physical balance – volume and density carefully balanced on precarious point 

• Horizontal flowering over Vertical structural Proportion

• Analogous Color Harmony – warm tones and shades

• Color Transition

• Botanical Transition

• Seasonal Transition

• Contrast: Visual and physical weight and density across the top, to bottom half emptiness

• Surface textures

• Color

Sketches

(click to enlarge)

The bleached, weathered greyed driftwoods provide inspiring shapes to be showcased, they beckon to be structured to be formed into a sculptural form to mechanically house botanical specimen.  I had envisioned minimalistic flowering, more focused on showcasing long living plants rather than cut flowers in this design.

I want to commit to achromatic color harmony…. Mostly white and grey + greens as the ever-present companion to all plant life.

Construction

The desired effect was an elevated sculpture created with the 2 pieces of weathered grey driftwood, with the bigger piece floating, balanced over the metal stand.  The second smaller piece is lifted up a little more with the use of several bamboo skewers.  Across the top of these driftwood pieces, holes were drilled to accept bamboo skewer with water tubes attached, wrapped with raffia.  These will hold fresh flowers and greens horizontally across this structure.  These tubes are connected horizontally with yarn and bindwire wrapped marshmallow bamboo slewers to gain stability to all tubes.  This then is over-laid with delicate lichen branches bindwired to create natural curvilinear visual flow.

The Botanicals

My intent was to keep this design spare on flowers – to practice minimalism, but in the process of demo designing, I ended up over-flowering.  So in the process of photographing the finished result, we photographed in sequential stages of deconstruction to search for the ideal finish. This list of botanicals indicate all the material I used in the demo finish.

• Chrysanthemum (white disbud)

• Phalaenopsis plant (root ball reduced into a ball and wrapped with white yarn)

• Ranunculus asiaticus

• Calocephalus brownii

• Tillandsia bulbosa

• Tillandsia xerographica

• Leucodendron argentea

• Carolina sapphire

• Clematis var. ‘Montana Ruben’ Vine

• Echeveria var. inflorescense

• Anthurium clarinervium (foliage)

• Lunaria (dried bleached)

• Midoillino (shorts strung on yarn with silver bullion to create garland

Elements Utilized

• LINE: Lichen branch, yarn-covered marshmallow bamboo skewers, bamboo skewers

• FORM: Flower, Biomorphic shape of driftwood

• COLOR: Achromatic harmony – white & greys

• SPACE: Occupied spaces (positive) to negative space

• TEXTURE: Wood, flower, foliage       

Principles Employed

• Asymmetrical Balance

• Botanicals to Structure Proportion

• Horizontal Proportion

• Achromatic Color Harmony

• Botanical Transition

• Contrast: Density to Transparency

• Surface Texture

• Color similarities

• Economy of Means

Sketches

(click to enlarge)