Flora Artists
- To: I*@rt66.com
- Subject: Flora Artists
- From: J*@aol.com
- Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 14:42:55 -0400
There is more than one artist in the woods here! I've been preserving
plants, trees, leaves for our Denver Museum of Natural History for six years
now - and alas there is no good way to "preserve" a flower. Drying, be it
through sands or freeze drying will color fade rather fast in UV light (a
single flash from a camera equals three days of strong UV light to a flower
or piece of pottery, for example) I cut flowers/plants apart to take molds
of rubber or plaster from the various parts and then reproduce them in
plastics or paper, for our dioramas.
If your intent on drying, the best sand I have come across is called "Oolite
sand" from Mt Saint Hellens. Its incredibly fine and terriffic. The most
important thing to remember is to bake your sand in a low heat oven for
fifteen or twenty minutes to get the moisture out of the sand before you
attempt to dry a flower.
Flowers are notorious for moisture content of the cells, and this makes them
the most challanging.
By the way, my illustrations of iris are life size and I am most willing to
work from photos of your favs!
Jayme Irvin (still sniffing out fragrant iris) Denver,CO
