Anticipating Tomatoes

Last year I made these watercolor studies of a tomato I brought home from the farm. Tomatoes are on their way!

Carrot Piece in the Making

A pile of watercolored carrots on paper, cut out.

I glued small pieces of jute to the backs of the carrots.

I used wheat flour glue that I made and pasted it onto the jute and then put a piece of paper over the jute.  This is the same process I used for Harvesting the Blue Potato.

I needed a way for the carrots to be pinned onto the wall, so I glued the jute to the back of the watercolor, then sewed the jute to the burlap.  This way the burlap will be pinned and not the paper. I then sew around the burlap to keep it from fraying.

Here is a completed month.  Carrots are harvested from July to November in the Midwest!  And they are super fun to harvest.  When the soil is moist it is easier.  Last summer at Green Institute I harvested some carrots.  I dug a shovel next to the greens of the carrot, then lifted the soil up and pulled out the beautiful orange carrot!  I hope I get to harvest some this summer!

Pomanders and Cardboard Cutouts

These are all the little cutouts I made for The Glenwood Sunday Winter Art and Craft Market this Sunday. They will become earrings, magnets and pins. I still have to sew most of them to fabric. I spent all of yesterday glueing the prints to cardboard and cutting them out. whew. Check out the market this Sunday from 9am-2pm and buy yourself a chicken pin!

A friend of mine (Hannah!) showed me how to make pomanders! They are so beautiful, they smell wonderful, and they are very soothing to make. You can take any citrus and poke a hole into it with a toothpick, then pop a clove into it. Eventually the fruit will dry out and you will have a fancy air freshener. So far I have pomandered (I don't think that's a word) a grapefruit, orange, lime, and lemon. My place smells wonderful. I am searching for other citrus to cram cloves into!